Dakar (Senegal) Modibo Sidibé, the principal private secretary at the state-house in Mali, was Friday nominated Prime Minister by the President Toumani Touré to take over Ousmane Issoufi Maiga. The nomination of the Malian new Prime Minister comes two weeks after the legislative elections that were largely dominated by the ruling party. Known to be a close friend of the Malian President, the 55 year-old lawyer, famous for not having a particular political stance, is a former criminology lecturer at the Malian National School of Administration. Modibo Sidibé has been the private secretary of President Amadou Toumani Toure during the transition (1991 – 1992) and member of President Alpha Omar Konaré’s cabinet as a Minister of Health and Social Affairs. He later on served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation until the end of Konaré’s second term of office. But he returned to the government when ATT took over the reins of the country and was nominated principal private secretary at the state house, where he served before his nomination as Prime Minister Published by Kori, API*APN source.apa