By Owei Lakemfa
Exactly 70 years separate the July 26, 1953 suicidal attack on Moncada Barracks by Cuban youths who wanted to remove the military from power, and this Wednesday’s coup in Niger Republic which removed elected President Mohamed Bazoum and restored military rule. The coup plotters, styling themselves as the National Council for the Safeguarding of the Country, said in a speech by Air Force Colonel Major Amadou Abdramane that their treasonable move “is as a result of the continuing degradation of the security situation, the bad economic and social governance”.
Indeed, Niger, like many other African countries, is a paradox. It is one of the poorest countries in the world with 41 per cent of its 20 million people living on less than a dollar. It depends a lot on aid. Nigeria under former President Muhammadu Buhari in 2022 provided it with N1.4 billion worth of vehicles to run government and also took loans to build railway from Nigeria into Maradi in Niger Republic.
