A New Beginning in Niger or a Worsening Situation?

On the morning of 26 July 2023, the Nigerien Presidential Guards headed by General Abdourahamane Tchiani launched a coup d’etat against the democratically elected president of the country. By dusk, military men had taken over the presidential palace in Niamey. Though the National Guard was initially ready to combat the putschists, they later gave in to allow peace and preserve the life of the detained President Mohamed Bazoum. When the initial confusion was cleared and it became obvious that Bazoum had indeed been ousted by Niger’s military, spontaneous celebrations broke out across the country—and even beyond. Towards the end of late 2020, Azeez Ishola, a Nigerien of Nigerian descent had been studying at the University of Ilorin, a tertiary institution in north-central Nigeria. In the same year, the 29-year-old undergraduate met some other Nigeriens who had also departed Niger, citing bad governance and limited education as reasons they went to Nigeria. ‘I was very happy about the overthrow of the democratic government because we cannot say this country (Niger) is a sovereign nation if there is excessive French influence,’ he said.

Niger is a land-locked West African country that relies heavily on aid from the West. In the past ten years alone, Niger has received about $500 million worth of aid from international organizations. But despite decades of foreign assistance, the nation continues to suffer socioeconomic and infrastructural decline across various sectors, leading many citizens to question the impact of the role France and other Western countries claim to play.

In 2020, the World Bank endorsed the sum of $140 million from the International Development Association to improve the quality of teaching and learning in Niger. Additionally, in 2022, the World Bank also approved $191.5 million to aid Niger and bring improvement to public expenditure and human resources management in the health and education sectors. Yet, there has been little improvement. This is part of the reason Azeez left for Nigeria. Since his choice of course (Architecture) was not offered by any Nigerien university, he had to seek it elsewhere.

NEW ORDER IN NIGER

On 25 August, the military junta in Niger ordered that the French ambassador to Niger be stripped of diplomatic immunity and expelled from the country, signalling Niger’s desire to chart a new course for its future without French influence. France’s relationship with its ex-colonies has continued to decline in recent years, owing especially to the fact that the French government continues to impose itself on the domestic affairs of its former colonies. According to Professor Samuel Aghalino, National President of Historical Society of Nigeria:

The recent wave of consistent coups happening in French-speaking countries in West Africa is a result of the underdevelopment that these countries have experienced. These nations make a lot of money, yet most of their revenue is still being controlled by their colonizers.

Fourteen former French colonies (including Burkina Faso, Mali, Gabon, and Niger) still pay ‘colonial tax’ to the French government, totalling around $500 billion annually. This is why an aggressive wave of anti-French political influence has emerged, especially in the Western Sahel that has seen more humanitarian and developmental support from the Western countries.

Prior to the coup in July, Niger’s rating on the human development indices stood at 188 out of 189 countries and about 41.8 per cent of the population lived below the poverty line. The sanctions enacted against Niger since the coup have only worsened the country’s situation. Electricity supply has been cut off and all Western aids have ceased. However, General Tchiani, while insisting that the sanctions are illegal, says that the country is prepared to go through this difficult phase if it guarantees their eventual economic liberation. Dr. Augustine Aboh, a security expert and doctoral student in global governance and human security told me that ‘The military juntas and a chunk of Niger’s population believe that humanitarian aid has over time been used as bait for their continuous underdevelopment.’ Thus, while the preponderant liberal view is that Niger needs humanitarian aid to survive, Dr. Aboh believes that the policy of rejecting Western aid could work in Niger’s favour:

I think that the country will be emerging from the turmoil with the buoyancy of economic bargain to its favour, bearing in mind that Western development aid now has an alternative in the new era of geostrategic scramble and partition of Africa.

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A New Beginning in Niger or a Worsening Situation?

NEW ORDER IN NIGER

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Oluwafemi Olaniyan

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