Niger: Graft Probe Unlikely to Upset Investors

Areva

Areva HQ Building (Photo credit: ceronne)

VOA quotes PNDS-Tarayya spokesperson Iro Sani, saying that “it has been tried once (before) and it didn’t get result(s) satisfying to the people of Niger.” He likely refers to the the 1999 CRN Junta’s ”Fourm sur la gestion économique et financiere”, led by current junta heavyweights Col. Hima (Pele) Hamadou and Gendarme Col. Lawel Chékou Koré. Their late 1999 findings were little more than perfunctory, forcing some former regime officials to repay cash. In fact, from 1974 and 1996 coups, to Tadja’s “Mains propre” campaigns against his political enemies of 2003/2007/2009, corruption prosecutions have been symbolic and purely focused on mid level Nigeriens, never the huge neocolonial funders of the dirty system. 2007’s Hama Amadou prosecution was an outlier in this, and its ripples may have doomed Tandja. Areva and China are right to be nonplussed, as opposition leaders — who really only want payback on higher ranking foes — are skeptical. We’ll see a show, but little more.

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