Since President Mohamed Bazoum was ousted in July, the West African state of Niger has fallen into dire straits.
Perhaps the only good thing to come out of the coup – the latest in a string of military takeovers in the Sahel – is that it has focused international attention on the country, which had previously been relatively stable and democratic.
Renewed interest in Niger’s plight offers an opportunity to reflect on the key development challenges confronting a vast and troubled region.
Chief among them is the stickiness of the colonial development model of resource extraction, which has led to intergenerational poverty and environmental degradation – both of which fuel insecurity and migration – in other African countries as well.
THE PARADOX
Niger embodies Africa’s development paradox.
Despite its immense natural-resource wealth, including plentiful renewable and non-renewable energy sources and significant deposits of uranium and gold, it is one of the world’s poorest countries, with more than 10 million people (around 42% of the population) living in extreme poverty.
Almost half of Niger’s children are not in school, owing largely to mass displacement and school closures caused by an increase in violence. Unsurprisingly, the country is at the bottom of the UNs Development Programme’s Human Development Index, ahead of only Chad and South Sudan.
The growing Islamist insurgency in the Sahel region has worsened the situation.
From June 2022 until June 2023, more than 22 000 Africans were killed in jihadist-related violence, a 50% increase from the preceding year.
In recent years, terrorists have destroyed villages and massacred civilians in Niger.
And these groups have continued to grow more powerful, despite the proliferation of foreign military bases and drone stations in the country.
This rampant insecurity, coupled with stagnant economic growth, mismanagement of natural resources, intergenerational poverty and climate disasters, has suffocated Niger’s population.
POWER CUTS
Only days after the coup, Niger faced rolling blackouts when Nigeria, in breach of its obligations as a member of the nine-country Niger Basin Authority, cut electricity supplies to its neighbour.
The power cuts risk exacerbating insecurity and social instability in Niger, which is already confronting draconian economic and financial sanctions imposed by the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas).
These include freezing Nigerien assets held in regional central banks and suspending commercial transactions between Niger and Ecowas members.
There is a certain irony that Nigeria, which suffers blackouts so frequently that its power supply is mocked as “epileptic”, has cut Niger’s access to electricity.
Less than 20% of Nigeriens have electricity (this drops to 9,1% in rural areas).
Moreover, Niger consumes a paltry 51 kWh of electric energy per capita annually.
And yet, the country is one of the world’s biggest producers of uranium, which is essential to the production of nuclear energy in Europe.
WHO BENEFITS?
Niger’s uranium deposits have served its former colonial ruler, France, especially well, according to Oxfam.
Around 70% of France’s electricity is derived from nuclear energy, which has enabled French citizens to consume more than 6 950 kWh of electric energy per capita annually – one of the highest rates worldwide.
Roughly 20% of France’s total uranium imports came from Niger between 2012 and 2022, while the country accounts for one-fifth of the European Union’s total uranium imports.
French multinationals have profited massively from Niger’s uranium.
According to Oxfam, in 2010 two subsidiaries of state-controlled nuclear group Areva (now part of Orano) extracted 114 346 metric tonnes of uranium in Niger with an export value of more than €3,5 billion, of which only 13% (around €459 million) was paid to Niger.
And while Niger has failed to secure greater financial benefits from multinationals for the exploitation of its uranium deposits, mounting military expenditure to counter the Islamist threat and constraints on domestic revenue mobilisation have left it dependent on foreign aid, which accounts for 40% of its budget.
Moreover, the extraction itself has significantly harmed the environment and the health of its citizens.
In 2010, a Greenpeace investigation revealed dangerous radiation levels among Nigeriens working in the mining sector, some of whom suffered from unexplained skin, liver, kidney and lung diseases.
FRAGILITIES
The natural resources supposed to help improve the welfare of the population have failed to meet expectations.
Worse still, in the absence of value addition for effective integration into global value chains, the persistence of the colonial development model has meant Africa’s resources remain a blessing only for the former rulers doing the extracting and a curse for the country from which they are extracted, yielding enduring poverty and pollution for local people.
The first post-coup opinion survey in Niger indicated 78% support for the military’s actions.
As this suggests, unless countries broaden the distributional gains from natural resource exploitation while minimising negative externalities, democracy on the continent – indeed, basic political stability – will remain fragile.
- Hippolyte Fofack is chief economist and director of research at the African Export-Import Bank.
- – Copyright: Project Syndicate, 2023
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