The Conseil National de Défense et de la Démocratie-Force pour la Défense de la Démocratie (CNDD-FDD), the ruling party in Burundi, has a new Secretary General, Révérien Ndikuriyo, at its Congress held Sunday, January 24 in Gitega, the new political capital.
The members of the CNDD-FDD party, meeting in an extraordinary Congress, have chosen their Secretary General, Révérien Ndikuriyo, former president of the Burundian Senate under Pierre Nkurunziza. He replaces Evariste Ndayishimiye who became Head of State following the last presidential and parliamentary elections of 20 May 2020.
Révérien Ndikuriyo is 50 years old. He is from the province of Makamba, in the south-west of the country. He is considered one of the party’s toughest but has not been unanimously supported by the party’s most influential members.
Alain Guillaume Bunyoni, the current Prime Minister, would not have supported the candidature of Ndikuriyo who was actually chosen before the Congress. During three days of prayer preceding the Extraordinary Congress held in the country’s second largest city, his absence and that of his wife did not escape the eye of any observer.
Révérien Ndikuriyo, like the current President of the Republic, Evariste Ndayishimiye, interrupted their studies in 1995 at the University of Burundi to go into the maquis of the FDD.
After the signing of the Ceasefire in November 2003, the CNDD-FDD movement was transformed into a political party and Révérien Ndikuriyo experienced a political rise. He was first appointed governor of his native province, then became a deputy before being elected president of the Senate from 2015 to 2020. He gave up his seat in the Senate after receiving a promise to become Secretary General of the CNDD-FDD. A prestigious post, it is said, because the real power remains in the hands of Ndayishimiye, president of the republic and chairman of the party’s Council of Elders. A strategic position, however, which could propel him to the presidential chair, like his predecessor.
Gérard Rugambwa
