power in a military coup on January 27, 1996, Salifou was appointed Minister of State in charge of Higher Education and Research in the new transitional government named on February 1. Three months later, on May 5, Salifou was instead named Minister of State in charge of Foreign Relations. He left this position in December 1996, when he was moved to the post of Minister of State in charge of relations with the Assemblies; he remained in the latter position until December 1997. Return to democracy In late August 1999, Salifou announced that he would run as the UPDP candidate in the October 1999 presidential election. In the election, he placed sixth with 2.08% of the vote. After the 1999 election, Salifou acted in a diplomatic role for international organizations. He was special envoy of La Francophonie to the Comoros; on March 15, 2001, the Comoran opposition alleged that Salifou, together with the French ambassador, had been secretly working against the presence of the Organization of African Unity in the Comoros. Later, on April 30, 2002, Salifou was named special envoy of OAU Secretary-General Amara Essy to Madagascar. Salifou was appointed by President Tandja as his special representative to La Francophonie, and he was included in the Nigerien delegation to La Francophonie's ninth summit, held in Beirut in October 2002. He also headed an African Union mission to the Central African Republic in November 2002, meeting with Central African President Ange-Félix Patassé on November 19 to discuss "the conditions for the restoration of peace in the CAR". On February 13, 2003, he was designated as the special representative of Essy, who was by this time the interim chairman of the commission of the African Union, to Côte d'Ivoire. After Mahamadou Issoufou took office as president, he appointed Salifou as special adviser to the president, with the rank of minister, on 20 April 2011. Salifou was to hold that post concurrently with his role as the president's personal representative to La Francophonie. References 1942 births Living people Ministers of council of Niger Foreign ministers of Niger Members of the National Assembly (Niger) Union of Democratic and Progressive Patriots politicians People from Zinder Region