By Sylvia Chebet
Issoufou Issa is caught between a rock and a hard place. As if the ravages of the coup in his native country of Niger weren't stressful enough, the 69-year-old has been laid low by a bout of malaria.
He runs a restaurant in the capital, Niamey, but business has come to a near-standstill since the July 26 events that saw President Mohamed Bazoum deposed by members of the Presidential Guard.
Supplies are running low, electricity is severely rationed, and customers have thinned out at Issa's restaurant, as in other outlets like his.
Nothing prepares you for a tumult like this, but Issa might have seen it coming.
"It's not a problem," he tells TRT Afrika with the resignation of a wizened man. "This is the price to pay for better leadership. A coup d’état must happen if you don't have justice, and the country's resources are reserved for just a few political families instead of being shared with the entire population."
The West African country, however, appears divided. The day after Bazoum was blockaded by those supposed to guard him, his supporters protested outside the national assembly in Niamey, calling for his immediate release before they were dispersed by police.
"We are here to defend democracy, we are here to defend the republic, we are here to show our commitment to the rule of law, and to say no to any attempt to seize power by force or arms," Reuters quoted a face in the crowd as saying.
"The ballot boxes have prevailed, and President Bazoum has been elected for five years. The people remain dignified behind their President."
New lessons learnt
Experts in governance and conflict resolution reckon this latest coup in Niger, the fourth country in the Sahel region to be taken over by the military, is unusual and complicated.
The regional bloc, ECOWAS, has condemned the coup d’état, even threatening force in an attempt to push back against what appears to be a domino effect gathering steam across the Sahel.
Joseph Ochieno, an expert in international relations, says the move may have been premature, with the Niger junta's defiant response to the threat being a chastening lesson for the regional leadership in handling such a fluid crisis.
"I think it was shambolic starting with the final weapon, which is basically threatening violence. They needed to seek dialogue with these guys first…Now, we have coup leaders backed by a line of other nations — Mali to the west, Chad to the east, and somewhere below them, Burkina Faso. Is this a new trend in the Sahel, perhaps in response to some of the complexities there?" he wonders.
Beyond the border
The complexities in the Sahel region range from terrorism and poverty to a veiled new scramble for Africa that has seen foreign powers jostling for influence.
"Countries that have a huge amount of natural wealth, including oil, gold and uranium, export these resources, but you do not see those benefiting the average African citizen," says Ochieno.
"When the military junta raises these topics, they resonate with the ordinary citizen. So, it's not surprising that these takeovers seem to be received generally well."
About 80% of Niger's land lies in the Sahara Desert, but beneath the unforgiving terrain are some of the world's biggest deposits of uranium.
This is a high-value mineral and a key ingredient in the nuclear power industry. France, which gets nearly all its electricity from nuclear plants, has been mining in northern Niger for more than half a century now.
"We are one of the poorest countries in the world, yet we export resources worth billions of US dollars. This is unacceptable," rues restaurant owner Issa.
According to 2018 data from the World Bank's poverty and inequality platform, half of Niger's 26 million people live in poverty.
Lack amidst plenty
It is this tough human existence amid the unfulfilled promise of plenty that Issa believes has driven Niger to the pits of political instability.
Before the latest coup, he had witnessed four others, including one in 1999 that saw the then President, Ibrahim Bare Mainassara, assassinated.
In all these instances, Issa recalls, the underlying concern was poor management of national resources, a grievance he thinks civilian governments may be taking for granted.
"If our politicians learn, we can avoid the recurrence of coups in Niger. The military always manage better than civilians in Niger," declares Issa.
Such confidence in the men in uniform should concern the so-called democratic regimes, not just in the Sahel, but across the continent, according to political analyst Ochieno.
"The reality today is that the African political elite need to wake up. They are too comfortable in their corners," he tells TRT Afrika.
Corruption and mismanagement
Political scientists point out that corruption and mismanagement have stalled development in most African countries, decades after gaining independence from their colonisers.
"The so-called democratisation process that happened in the last 30 years does not seem to have had a net benefit for the average African. Instead, what has happened is that most of the leaders who have come in have been clearly brazen in terms of corruption, of entrenching their powers," says Ochieno.
To make matters worse, there is an apparent absence of the obvious things like healthcare, education and infrastructure, more so in the Sahel.
People like Issa feel that the country's riches are not trickling down, but landing in the hands of dishonest foreign investors and powers.
Ochieno, however, argues that it is better to engage with civilian governments and ensure grievances are resolved without involving the military, whose job is to defend national borders.
Civilian vs military rule
"The bottom line is, are they (military) any different from some of the guys in civilian suits who have been given mandates through the ballot? It's not always the case," cautions Ochieno.
Across the continent, there have been several attempted and successful coups, except in a handful of nations that include Zambia, Malawi, Botswana, Tanzania, Senegal and Cape Verde. The latest Niger coup is the eighth successful one to take place since 2020. Chad, Sudan, Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea are currently under either transitional or junta governments.
As the last central Sahelian country that was under civilian rule, the latest developments in Niger have established a coup belt across the Sahel that stretches from Guinea on the Atlantic coast of West Africa all the way to Sudan on the Red Sea coast in the East.
This means that millions of Africans, including Issa, are currently living under military rule – a sobering thought for the continental leadership to chew on.
