Niger coup: What is at stake for the West

The military coup in Niger threatens similar episodes in others West African nations suffering from France’s neo-colonialism policies

| Updated: 31 July, 2023 5:29 pm IST

Major Colonel Amadou Abdramane Tiani announcing military coup in a televised address on July 26.

On July 26, army officers in the West African nation of Niger appeared on national television to announce that they had overthrown the government of President Mohamed Bazoum. Their leader, Major-Colonel Amadou Abdramane Tiani, declared that the constitution was dissolved, all institutions would remain suspended, and the nation’s borders shall remain closed until further notice.

According to CNN, Tiani proclaimed that the coup was due to the urgent need to protect the territorial integrity of the country as well as to address the deteriorating security situation.

Coups – especially in Africa are assumed to be a constant in their political landscape. Naturally, the latest Niger coup does not come across as a surprise to any casual observer. However, there always remain some interesting angles that beg a closer look – the Niger coup too, is no exception. In order to do that, one needs to look outside the country, towards the West, with a special focus on Niger’s uranium reserves and France’s low-profile financial web.

In October 2022, French National Commission for Public Debate announced the re-launch of a consultation on the Georges Besse II uranium enrichment plant to consider increasing the plant’s capacity from 7.5 to 11 million SWU per year. Interestingly, France meets about 70 per cent of its electricity needs from nuclear energy. It is the world’s largest net exporter of electricity due to the low costs of generation, and it makes about 3 billion Euros per year from this process. While there was an earlier announcement of reducing this dependency to 50 per cent, the 2022 decision of increasing enrichment capacity followed the sabotage of Nord Stream pipeline – which was to bring cheap Russian energy to Europe as the war in Ukraine unfolded. One guesses that the pipeline explosion and the energy crisis looming over Europe could be one of the reasons behind France’s decision.

But the important question is where does this huge amount of uranium needed to run a French plant come from? It’s Niger, one of the largest producers of the highly sought-after fuel. According to the World Bank data of 2019, Niger mined about 3718560 kg of uranium. Out of which, only about 10 kg went to Canada and Romania. France secured the remaining 3718550 kg.

Let us consider another angle.

Unlike the English colonies of Africa whose independence succeeded violence – sometimes a lot of it, the French African colonies gained their independence comparatively amicably. This led to these newly-formed countries maintaining a decent relation with France, one that was capitalized by Charles De Gaulle. He realized the importance of these African nations to maintain France’s primacy in the global affairs, so he got his bureaucrats to create the CFA Franc Monetary System which brought under it 14 West African countries that had gained their independence from France. Niger was one of them.

Under this system, while there was the undeniable initial advantage of a form of financial stability, these nations had to keep around 70 per cent of their foreign currency reserves in the French Treasury, and they were left with free access to the leftover, 30 per cent. If these nations wanted access to a part of the 70 per cent, they were obliged under law, to borrow it from France against an interest. In effect, this meant that these reserves were in the name of France – a harsh reality that the CFA members realised when they wanted credit post the 2008 meltdown. France extended credit – the CFA members’ own money, and charged an interest for it from them. This is a practice that is repeated in kind every time France sends aid to any of these nations. The money comes with a mandate that allows the receiver to only purchase designated French products to ensure that the cash flows back into the French Treasury.

The economic growth of these countries remains low even by African standards because the CFA is pegged against the Euro. The CFA countries cannot set their own interest rates. Naturally, that discourages export by these resource rich countries. Because raw materials are often low-value-high-quantity offerings. This, in turn, stalls their economy and keeps them poor. At the other end, France continues its neo-colonialism with these 14 African nations, growing richer by stashing their wealth in French banks and arm-twisting their resources from them. Uranium as nuclear fuel – one that France can produce clean energy to consume, sell and make money – is just one good example.

Post Syria and Libya, a third factor – boots on the ground – added up to complete the neo-colonial grip. This was comparatively easy. All the West had to do was to allow ISIS to diffuse in the Sahel region. This saw a rise in the threat of terrorism in the CFA nations, and France had a good reason to display, for putting boots on the ground.

Coming back to the Niger coup, former President Bazoum, though not perhaps a puppet, is loyal to France – a trait that is common in third world countries where the elites remain prime suspects in capital flight. Compared to that, Major-Colonel Tiani is not only relatively an unknown element, but he has had someone like Wagner boss Prigozhin praising his accomplishment – a signal that is bound to make France and other Western states cautious. If Russia or Wagner is indeed behind this, as is being talked about online, there is no knowing how far and wide this behaviour might spread within the CFA nations, or what could be the consequence of that.

That would be a severe blow to neo-colonialism ambitions of not just France but the US and its other European allies, even discounting the effects of the Ukrainian crisis.

(Arindam Mukherjee is a geopolitical analyst and the author of JourneyDog Tales, The Puppeteer, and A Matter of Greed.)

Disclaimer: Views expressed above are the author’s own