Niger: opposing Tiani’s junta means losing your citizenship

In Niger, nationality has become a revocable privilege granted and withdrawn at the whim of the ruler. Since the military takeover by the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP) in July 2023, the crackdown on dissent and critical voices has reached a dangerous new level. General Abdourahamane Tiani no longer settles for silencing opponents through prison or exile: he now erases their legal existence. By turning citizenship revocation into a systematic tool of governance, the junta in Niamey enforces a dangerous doctrine in which political disagreement equals high treason.

A legal weapon designed for authoritarianism

The repressive arsenal was strengthened in late August 2024, when General Tiani signed an ordinance establishing a “National Register of Persons Involved in Acts of Terrorism or Threats to State Security.” Behind this catch-all phrase and the convenient pretext of counterterrorism lies a legal guillotine aimed at the political class, civil society, and the army.

The most toxic provision of this framework allows for the temporary or permanent revocation of Nigerien nationality against anyone suspected of “activities likely to disturb peace and security,” “regionalist or xenophobic remarks,” or “collusion with a foreign power.” These deliberately vague criteria turn any protest cry or simple editorial criticism into grounds for national repudiation.

A blacklist that grows with each decree

The Niamey regime’s target list expands in step with presidential decrees. Waves of evictions methodically target the entourage of deposed President Mohamed Bazoum, former ministers, and key opposition figures.

Alongside these major political figures, civil society actors, media activists such as Mariama Djibrine (alias Mayra), and former high-ranking military 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 banned, turned into virtual stateless persons, stripped of passports, bank accounts, and all civic rights.

The patriotic illusion of a runaway escalation

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 tri-border area.

In reality, this purge through citizenship betrays deep-seated nervousness. A power confident in its popular legitimacy and territorial control does not need to hand out patriotism certificates or manufacture stateless persons to rule. By hermetically sealing off the channels of republican dialogue and confiscating the nationality of its opponents, the junta only hardens resentment and pushes dissent toward clandestine or armed action.

A blatant violation of international commitments

Under international law, the decisions of the Tiani government 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 undermines the very notion of citizenship. If being Nigerien now depends on the goodwill of the junta’s leader, 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 headlong flight, incapable of tolerating the slightest contradiction. Depriving people of their identity will neither lower the price of basic commodities in Niamey nor restore security in Liptako-Gourma.

History teaches that regimes that 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, however peremptory it may be.

By Claire Mvondo — Security and State Policy Expert