A Fool and His Ideology Are Soon Parted: Selling a Junta to Western Audiences

8 min readOct 4, 2023

On July 26th, 2023, Niger’s president Mohamed Bazoum was ousted by a military coup led by General Abdourahamane Tchiani, who declared himself the head of the “National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland”. In the days that followed, many narratives sprouted up across Anglophone social media attempting to legitimize the military junta now ruling the country and frame an ECOWAS intervention as illegitimate. To analyze these different perspectives, I used Twitter as a source of data collection. I categorized the tweets according to their level of specificity, from most to least. A few examples of these portrayals will be included with each category (to avoid amplification, I have only posted the links to these tweets in the sources section as opposed to providing hyperlinks in the examples).

TRANS-SAHARAN PIPELINE

When Russia drastically reduced its supply of gas to Europe following its invasion of Ukraine, plans for a gas pipeline stretching across the Sahara Desert from Nigeria to Algeria’s northern coast were revived by the energy ministers of Nigeria, Niger, and Algeria in late June of 2022[2][3].

This was cast by junta cheerleaders as one of the sole reasons Western leaders such as Macron and Biden were opposed to the coup, framing it as a crucial part of a continued Western effort to re-colonize Africa and weaken Russia.

“According to the plan of the European colonialists, Niger was to become part of the new Trans Saharan Gas Pipeline in exchange for Russian raw materials.” [5]
“Did you know that the coup of Niger could potentially halt a pipeline that is supposed to supply natural gas to most of West Europe & West Africa in an effort to cut off their dependence from Russia? A pipeline Chevron has billions invested in.” [6]

URANIUM

The EU’s third largest supplier of uranium is Niger (after Kazakhstan and Canada), with the French owning the only major uranium mine in the country. [7]
The narratives surrounding those facts were very similar to those involving the Trans-Saharan Pipeline, arguing that France and the EU were only concerned about the coup to secure their energy supply, for example;

“If France loses the ability to exploit Niger for uranium they’re screwed” [8]
“Where does the EU get uranium from? Russia and Niger account for almost half (42%) of supplies.” [9]
“Niger has banned Uranium and gold exports to France, cutting off their primary and only supply to provide electricity to French citizens and expand the French GDP. Niger is being exploited by France and has refused to allow France to continue……” [10] (This is not true, see https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-66406517)

THE PEOPLE’S JUNTA & M62 RALLY

On the 30th of July, a pro-coup rally was held by the M62 Movement, an anti-French group opposing French anti-terrorism operations in Niger, with thousands participating. Photos of these ralliers waving Russian flags and shouting pro-coup slogans went viral, resulting in a rather skewed portrayal of how the average Nigerien viewed these events. [11]

“NIGERIENS WANT FOREIGN FORCES OUT! ‘Do not give in to blackmail!’ — that’s the message from many Nigeriens to their new military leaders, amid threats of an armed intervention.” [12]
“Niger celebrates Independence Day today (63 years ago the country ceased to be a French colony). Another rally in support of the putschists is taking place in the capital of the country: Russian flags are visible, and anti-French slogans are heard.” [13]
Watch this explainer on why the people in #Niger, following Mali, Guinea, and Burkina Faso, are calling for #franceDégage and fighting for their sovereignty. The resources of Africa belong to the African people! [14]

PRO-RUSSIAN/WAGNER

Not to be outdone, the late Prigozhin chimed in with anti-colonialist rhetoric aimed at the people of Niger;

“I will answer what is the basis for the change of power in Niger. The basis is the economy. The population of Niger has been driven into poverty for a long time. For example, a French company that extracted uranium sold it on the market for $218, while paying Niger only $11 for it. You can work with investors on a 50–50 or 30–70 (%) basis, but it’s impossible to give back to the indigenous people of the country, who were born in this country, who live in this country, and who expect that the natural resources of this country belong to them, and according to the Constitution, they belong to them, only 5% of the wealth you receive. To cover up these economic crimes, the country was saturated with a huge number of terrorists. This enormous number of terrorists, theoretically, should have been controlled by a vast number of different troops, financed by the UN, the European Union, Americans, the British, and others. As a result, the population of Niger, which should have been free and happy due to the economic opportunities in their country, was robbed, and to keep them silent, they were kept in fear for decades. To show that these thieves and plunderers are needed in the state’s territory, I mean Western countries like France, the USA, and so on, crowds of soldiers were sent there who did nothing but received enormous budgets that were also embezzled at various levels. That’s why the transformation in Niger was simply necessary. The power that was in league with Bazoum (ousted president) and his followers, simply covered up, allowing the coalition of people who plundered the nation to be present in Niger’s territory. That’s it. Therefore, this is a liberation struggle, a liberation movement for the independence of this country, and God grant them success.” [15]

Others like RT claimed that the ban of France 24 by the putschists was justified using whataboutisms;

“The European Union rejects blocking of French broadcasts in Niger, arguing that the step goes against people’s basic rights. Just a reminder, in March 2022, the EU banned RT. Double standards? Nah, these are two different things… you just don’t get it… (and neither do we)” [16]

The meme that accompanied the above RT tweet [16]

The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs raced to flip the situation on its head, with Maria Zakharova stating that

“There is a whole mechanism of systematic violations of the rights of the media and journalists in the EU.” [17]

GENERAL ANTI-FRENCH

While the above narratives are somewhat coordinated and coherent, from now on they can be summarized as being generally against one side or country. Most are based on anti-colonialist rhetoric, but some are solely aimed for audiences whose only stake in the conflict is watching one side lose.

“NIGER is at the FRONTLINE of the African revolution. We will see the destruction of neocolonialism in our lifetime!” [18]
“Nigeria cutting off electricity to Niger just to show support to racist France is the epitome of self hatred and white supremacy worship. Absolutely disgusting” [19]
WAR WITH NIGER REPUBLIC: PLEASING FRANCE/ MARCO. The country with the greatest influence on Tinubu today is France. He relys on their doctors for survival, his oil strategy, on his hide &seek politics. All of these are managed seamlessly by the Choghoury- Choghoury brothers. [20]

GENERAL ANTI-AMERICAN

“The Senegalese Government has announced today that it will send Military Forces to Support any kind of Armed Intervention led by ECOWAS against Niger. Sadly, the US now leveraging on the drug case against Bola Ahmed Tinubu to push him around to war with Niger” [21]
“Nigeria has cut off electricity to Niger following the recent change in government. Nigeria has led the drive of ECOWAS (Economic Community of West African States) to sanction the Republic of Niger and even threatened military intervention with the backing of the United States.” [22]

“The Pentagon stated that it will keep its contingent in Niger (about 1000 soldiers) regardless of the demands of the “military junta” to end military cooperation with this country. This means another illegal occupation like the one in Syria. Now it’s the USA’s turn to be kicked out of all sports like Russia, but wait…” [23]

GENERAL ANTI-WESTERN

“The United States and France have some troops in Niger, officially to fight against terrorism, but mainly to protect their interests and lead a proxy war against China and Russia.” [24]
“The West is outraged at the coup in Niger and the US refuses to leave, effectively amounting to an illegal invasion and occupation. This is the same West that orchestrated a coup in Ukraine and accuses Russia of an illegal invasion. This is their so-called rules based order.” [25]
“BREAKING: The EU is ready support a military operation against Niger if requested by the the Western puppet governments in ECOWAS” [26]
“Just a blatant and obvious example of imperialism. By doing so, France is illegally occupying Niger with the goal of retaining colonial control over the People’s resources. Of course, backed by the US Empire.” [27]
“Africa doesn’t deserve another war. If the AU and Ecowas were serious, they would have stopped the civil wars that have ravaged DR Congo, Central Africa Republic, Somalia, Libya and Sudan. If the so-called friends of Africa were honest, they wouldn’t have assassinated Patrice Lumumba, Amilca Cabral, Thomas Sankara, Samora Machel, and Muamar Ghadaffi. If the UN Security Council was legitimate, Africans, Haitians and Palestinians would not be dying in their millions as they watch. We must be bold enough to call out the hypocrisy, deception and cowardice of the AU, Ecowas, Igad, the West and the UN. Enough is Enough!” [28]