Chadian President Marshal Idriss Déby Itno died of bullet-triggered injuries while leading his soldiers against insurgents in the Northern part of the country on Monday, April 12, 2021.

The bullets took the life of 68-year hands-on leader at the time that he had won a sixth-term presidency by a landslide albeit after the announcement of provisional results.

His death did not send much shockwaves in the continent and so is the resultant message that many never knew him. He never commanded the jeers of long-serving autocrats in the continent and on the flipside; never attracted excitement like the Nelson Mandela’s of this world.

But sources reveal that Mr Itno was a dividing figure for the longer term of his leadership that ran for three decades.

In 2017, the United States Institute of Peace published a study titled: ‘Political manipulation at home, military intervention abroad and challenging times ahead’, which unearthed the secrets of President Itno’s tactics for political survival.

The study paints a picture of a political figure that used both diplomacy and guerrilla tactics to sustain the grip in power, as well as engage in peace missions to cement relationship with France and the US.

Arising to power

At just 38 years, on December 5, 1990, Idriss Deby Itno toppled Hissène Habré, and formed Mouvement patriotique du salut (MPS) party which he used to advance his political ambitions.

He promised freedom after carefully studying the political environment, promising to deliver what his authoritarian predecessor had failed to fulfil. He is quoted in the study promising his people in 1990: “I bring you neither gold, nor money, but freedom.”

The study indicates that he would then rule for close to three decades but employing different gambits to ensure that he keeps power.

‘‘Twenty-seven years and five presidential elections later, Déby is still in power. From a distance, his presidential longevity might seem to be a sign of his capacity to maintain a kind of stability.

‘‘In reality, however, Déby has held on to power by controlling the armed forces, fighting rebels backed by neighbours, supporting rebels from neighbouring states, revising the constitution, rigging elections, and co-opting, intimidating, or repressing his unarmed opponents,’’ the report states.

The good

It was under his regime that Chad held its first general election in 1996, from the parliamentary level to the presidential. Even though the results were later contested after he carried the day; the poll set a precedence of hope that things would change in the future.

His takeover of power enjoyed the backing of France and later translated into friendly foreign policies that brought ceasefire with the neighbours. For instance, the study reveals that during his reign, only Sudan had frosty relations with N’Djamena as the other neighbours embraced the Francophone country.

‘‘Until Déby came to power, Chad had a long history of conflict with Libya, Sudan, and Nigeria, each neighbor supporting Chadian rebels at one time or another, and Chad often responding in kind. This antagonistic approach changed with the advent of Déby, whose takeover was supported more by Tripoli and Khartoum than by Paris.’’

Having spent time in the military and gotten acquainted with the geopolitics of the North Africa, the Chadian leader devised a model to cut a niche for a distinctive brand of leadership.

The study states: ‘‘N’Djamena has sought to seize the opportunity to boost its regional influence through military interventions abroad. Indeed, a key instrument of its foreign policy has become—to cite the phrase used by one key official—armed diplomacy.’’

His stand over the Darfur issue in the period of 2005 to 2010 strained his relations with Khartoum. But as it seems, it bought even more allies. For instance, President Salva Kiir in his April 20 condolence message on lauded the Chadian leader for helping to midwife peace deal and fighting for rights of South Sudanese people.

His aggressiveness and appetite for regional peace keeping like fighting Boko Haram in the region won the trust of Paris and Washington, which viewed Deby’s leadership as the regional police. This often put the Western powers even at loggerheads with civil rights groups that called for accountability over human rights abuses.

 ‘’In 2014 and 2015, Chad obtained, with the support of France and China, a non-permanent seat in the UN Security Council. Chad was also chosen to represent the Central Africa Region in the enlarged mediation on the South Sudanese crisis led by the Horn of Africa regional organisation known as the Intergovernmental Authority on Development,’’ the study reveals.

The bad

But with positive reputation outside borders came burdens of biting more than the mouth can chew. The regime was accused of human rights subjugation such as the arrest and disappearance of opposition leader, Ibni Oumar Mahamat Saleh; suppression of freedoms of expression and implantation of government mouthpieces in the name of civil rights groups.

The regime was also accused of misappropriating the oil revenue leaving the country poor and unstable. Even though Deby’s regime enjoyed the support of the West, the research revealed a stability gap that would predispose the country to invasion by the insurgents after his exit.

‘ ‘…resources are still unequally distributed; economic and political elites con tinue to prey on the country with impunity; elections are still rigged; and power remains con centrated within the president’s clan and family as elites from other regional and ethnic back grounds are co-opted,’’ the report notes in conclusion.