Right before a military junta upset the course of history by overthrowing Niger's President Mohamed Bazoum, a special Council of Ministers was to have been held on July 27 in the capital city of Niamey. Coincidence or not, on that day, the government of this country located in Africa's Sahel region was set to pass a strategic decree authorizing the creation of PetroNiger. The new company's main objective was to be management of the country's oil resources.

Did this play a part in precipitating the government's downfall? Had it been seen by the putschists as a surefire way of securing control of a lucrative sector that could have done damage to them or their backers? Among those close to Bazoum, at any rate, there is little doubt about this scenario. "Oil was not the only motive for the putsch, but it was one of the key triggers," said a close adviser to the president, clearly pointing the finger at the camp of former president Mahamadou Issoufou (2011-2021).

Although he has denied it, Issoufou is now suspected of having played a role in General Abdourahamane Tiani's power grab. It was he who appointed the junta's current strongman as head of the presidential guard. After the election of Bazoum, with whom he had worked politically for 30 years, it was his son Sani Mahamadou Issoufou, known as Abba, who was promoted to minister of petroleum, mines and renewable energies, before relinquishing the renewable energies portfolio at the beginning of 2022. There was a sense of continuity.

During his two terms leading Niger, Issoufou maintained a stranglehold on Sonidep, the state-owned Nigerien oil company. "It's an open secret that Sonidep has always been a slush fund for all political parties, not just the PNDS [Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism, founded in 1990 by Issoufou]," said a representative from a civil society organization that has investigated these cases. This has been borne out by massive fraud and embezzlement, which has been repeatedly denounced by the High Authority for Combating Corruption. The company's debt now stands at over $200 million.

This lack of governance was all the more worrisome given that, at the time of the coup, Niger had been preparing to scale up its economy thanks to the exports of its black gold. Until that point, the country's oil production had remained at a modest 20,000 barrels or so a day, half of which had been sufficient to meet domestic consumption needs since 2011. The rest was exported to neighboring countries, including Nigeria. New discoveries in 2013, however, had offered a glimpse of a different future.

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