Niger’s consciousness awakening over national resources – By Celeste Hicks African Arguments | African Arguments
▻http://africanarguments.org/2014/02/27/nigers-consciousness-awakening-over-national-resources-by-celeste-
“We’re seeing a real awakening of people’s consciousness on this issue; something is happening” says Boubacar Soumane, communications manager for EITI (Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative) Niger. As yet another deadline looms for an agreement between Areva and the Nigerien state on the contract for the French nuclear giant’s uranium operations at Arlit (on February 28th), the issue is clearly capturing the public imagination.
Almost every week there have been demonstrations on the streets of the country’s main cities – particularly Niamey and Agadez. The protestors, although their numbers are generally small, call for a better deal for Niger citing the now well-known figure that Areva’s annual turnover is four times the size of Niger’s entire national budget – some 9 billion Euros against 2 billion Euros (Oxfam report).
