It’s not true that Western countries help the rest of the world “restore democratic ideals.”
It’s not true that the aids given to the poorer nations are “free.” It’s never true, any of it.
International politics is full of lies and dark maneuvers. Credible evidence suggests that world politics, like a wild jungle, is a rough playground that only the wildest, treacherous animals (powerful nations) can survive. And in this jungle called world politics, every animal plays the hunting game.
Amnesty International and the United Nations (UN) often project the image of world politics as civil and humane. That this brave new world is a level-playing field that gives equal opportunities for all, a world that unites global citizens, preaches unity over division, and denounces wars and violence.
Although the UN and its member nations are too intelligent to recognize the inevitability of conflict in a world that accommodates about 200 countries, the international organization prioritizes consensus over conflict, bilateral trade agreement over resource theft, and censures the exploitation of smaller economies by the bigger ones. Colonization, as everyone would agree, was a mistake of alarming proportion, an inhumane political act that — although perpetrated by powerful economies — remains a barbaric act, never to be repeated in the 21st-century modern world.
But did it?
The Neo-Colonization
In theory, the direct form of colonization is gone, but, in practice, in-direct colonization, which political science scholars call “neo-colonization,” still lingers today.
Western nations and their political toolkit — the UN, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Bank — have manipulated the international economy to their advantage, created an uneven and unequal trade relation that developed the “core” nations, the United States, the United Kingdom, and France, among others, and impoverish the so-called under-developed, periphery nations of Asia and Africa.
Through the system of imperialism, international organizations have seen with their eyes wide open how the US invaded Iraq in 2003, under the pretext of searching for “Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)” and destroyed the oil-rich nation. Even though Iraq is an “independent” and “sovereign” nation, Amnesty International and the International Criminal Court (ICC) haven’t cried out loud for Bush’s brutal “foreign interventionism” in a legitimate country and called him to account for his crimes against humanity.
Far from the incessant calls by Western political leaders for a “free” and “democratic world,” these leaders hardly practice what they preach.
The cancer of social injustice metastasizes in every part of the world. International politics is a jungle full of dangerous, carnivorous animals that work day and night to sharpen their hunting skills and out-maneuver their prey.
There is no freedom in this world. Democracy is a farce. And Niger-France colonizer-colonized relationship is a classic example.
The End of Uranium Exploitation
After the independence of Niger from France on 11th July 1960, France didn’t let go of the smaller, poverty-stricken nation. It still holds the African nation by its jugular, licking the country’s uranium for 63 years.
Defenders of France would say that Paris had to siphon Niger’s uranium because it’s France’s only source of power, without which, the French will be using generators to power their homes, the same way as many African nations –including Nigeria — are using generators to power their homes. It’s this brutal kind of imperialist agenda that is causing coups in our world today.
The leader of Niger’s military junta, Abdourahmane Tchiani, said they were tired of France interfering in their affairs, causing havoc in the country.
“The coup is necessary to avoid the gradual and inevitable demise of Niger,” Tchiani said. While Mohamed Bazoum wants to convince the world that everything is fine in Niger, Tchiani further complains that there is a “pile of dead” and “frustration” in his country. Now, the country is in Tchiani’s hands, which means that he has taken back his country from the colonial masters, and, hopefully, ended the six decades of uranium exploitation.
This resource control is the most lethal brand of WMD, more fatal than Saddam’s, that President Biden should focus on finding — and bombing — before the weapon explodes into the horn of Africa and spreads to other parts of the world.
Niger as Prey
The Nigerien nation is now up for grabs.
With its ousted Bazoum in house arrest and the putschist short of resources, suddenly, the sharp spear of global politics pointed to the West African nation. Hidden under the garb of democracy, only now that Niger’s mother country — France — is showing concern about its former colony; years later, when famine and heightened insecurity had ridden the country, no press conference was aired by French leaders to rescue the poorest country on earth.
But days after the 26th July coup in Niamey, France’s Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna held a press conference in New York, telling the world, “The future of Niger and the stability of the entire region are at stake.”
Publicly, President Emmanuel Macron dispatched a series of press releases to the media, urging the coupists to respect their democratically-elected leader and restore democracy to the Nigerian people. Privately, however, he instructed President Tinubu of Nigeria, the new Africa’s Uncle Tom as Malcolm X would say, to cut the nation’s electricity and threaten them with a military strike.
Tinubu — who also doubled as the President of ECOWAS — accomplished the first order — reneging on the bilateral agreement Nigeria had with Niger, agreeing to supply the country with electricity on the condition that Niger will not dam the river Niger so that Nigeria could build and benefit from its hydroelectric dams on the River — but failed on the second, as the senate failed to approve his plan to deploy troops in Nigerien borders.
The United States, a good ally of France, also shows concern. With its 1, 100 troops in Niger in the name of helping the country “fight insurgents,” the mighty US is craving to eat Niger for dinner; unfortunately, it’s about to miss its meal: America’s envoys came back from Niger with zero headways.
Russia has also focused its geopolitical radar on Niger. The leader of the Wagner Group Yevgeny Prigozhin told the military guard leadership to align with him to save itself from its colonizer and chart a new course for its future.
“Give us a call,” he said. “We are always on the side of the good, on the side of justice, and on the side of those who fight for their sovereignty and for the rights of their people.”
If there is one takeaway from the Niger coup and the global politics that surround it, it’s this: Morality is murdered by political and economic interests. Though anarchy may linger through the night, justice cometh in the morning.
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Suhaib Mohammed is a sociology student and social studies lecturer at Shehu Shagari College of Education, Sokoto. He is also a research consultant and ghostwriter. Follow him on Twitter (@Suhaib_writes) and chat with him on Whatsapp (0806-411-4717).
