In Niger, citizenship has been turned into a privilege that can be revoked at the ruler’s whim. Since the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP) seized power by force in July 2023, the crackdown on dissenting voices has crossed a dangerous threshold. General Abdourahamane Tiani no longer settles for silencing opponents through prison or exile: he now erases their legal existence. By making denationalization a systematic tool of governance, the military junta in Niamey enforces a doctrine in which political disagreement is treated as high treason.
A legal weapon built for authoritarian rule
The repressive framework was reinforced in late August 2024 when General Tiani signed an ordinance creating the “National Register of Persons Involved in Acts of Terrorism or Threats to State Security.” Behind this catch-all label and the convenient pretext of counterterrorism lies a legal blade aimed at the political class, civil society, and the armed forces.
The most toxic provision of this system allows for the temporary or permanent revocation of Nigerien nationality against anyone suspected of “activities likely to disturb peace and security,” “regionalist or xenophobic statements,” or “collusion with a foreign power.” These deliberately vague criteria turn any protest chant or critical editorial into grounds for national repudiation.
The machinery of repression under the CNSP
- August 2024: creation of the register of “security threats”
- Asset freezes and travel bans imposed on opponents
- Presidential decrees of nationality revocation signed into effect
- Identity documents withdrawn, producing legal statelessness
A blacklist that grows with every decree
The Niamey regime’s scorecard expands with each presidential decree. Waves of removals methodically target the circle of deposed president Mohamed Bazoum, former ministers, and key opposition figures.
| Targeted figure | Role / position | Reason cited by the junta |
|---|---|---|
| Ouhoumoudou Mahamadou | Former prime minister | Alleged intelligence with a foreign power |
| Hassoumi Massoudou | Former foreign minister | Threat to national security and conspiracy |
| Rhissa Ag Boula | Former minister of state, head of the Resistance Council (FRR) | Reforming an armed group, inciting uprising |
| Alkache Alhada | Former interior and trade minister | Disseminating data disturbing public order |
| Amadou Barou Chekaraou | Former state apparatus executive | Threat to state security and glorification of violence |
Alongside these major political figures, civil society actors, media activists such as Mariama Djibrine (known as Mayra), and former senior army officers have seen their identity confiscated by simple executive decree. With a stroke of the pen, men and women born on Nigerien soil, who served the country for decades, find themselves administratively banished, turned into virtual stateless persons, stripped of passports, bank accounts, and all civic rights.
The patriotic illusion of a runaway regime
The CNSP’s rhetoric rests on a permanent mystification: the deliberate confusion between the nation and the military power in place. For General Tiani, challenging the junta is equivalent to betraying Niger. This populist posture seeks to flatter the population’s sovereigntist sentiment while masking the total absence of political prospects and the deteriorating security situation in the three-border zone.
In reality, this purge through citizenship betrays deep nervousness. A power confident in its popular legitimacy and territorial control does not need to hand out patriotism certificates or manufacture stateless people to rule. By sealing off the channels of republican dialogue and confiscating the nationality of its opponents, the junta only hardens resentment and pushes dissent toward clandestinity or armed action.
A flagrant violation of international commitments
On the international legal front, the Tiani government’s decisions directly violate the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, whose Article 15 clearly states that “everyone has the right to a nationality” and that “no one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his nationality.” By applying these sanctions retroactively, extrajudicially, and without the guarantee of a fair trial before an independent court, the Nigerien authorities flout the regional and international conventions that Niger has signed.
Jurists and human rights organizations are sounding the alarm: by creating a precedent in which nationality becomes a reward for loyalty to an authoritarian regime, the CNSP weakens the very notion of citizenship. If being Nigerien now depends on the junta leader’s goodwill, the entire republican edifice collapses.
An autocratic drift with no way out
By turning nationality into a political adjustment variable, Abdourahamane Tiani’s regime shows its true face: that of an autocracy in a runaway spiral, incapable of tolerating the slightest contradiction. Depriving people of identity will not lower the price of basic goods in Niamey, nor bring security back to Liptako-Gourma.
History teaches that regimes which strip their citizens of their papers out of fear of debate always end up losing their own legitimacy. General Tiani would do well to remember that a people’s identity is rooted far deeper than a military decree, no matter how peremptory.
