Niger's Foreign Policy With France under General Seyni Kountché (1974-1987)

1.2 RESEARCH PROBLEM

Our concern on this work is centered on the relationship between Niger as a colony and France as colonial master during Seyni Kountché's regime. We are going to look at the following:

Political relations

Economic relations

Diplomatic relations

Military relations

1.3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

In a project of this nature, the fundamental questions are those of consistency and validity. These questions are important because without making the research meet the required standard, the effort could not be said to have made possible the growth of knowledge. It is against this background that content analysis will be used in this work. Secondary data resources are used from libraries; relevant literature in the form of textbooks, journals, magazines, newspapers and articles will be used. Internet (websites) and speeches will be also used. They will ask specific questions about political, economic, diplomatic and military interactions between the two (2) countries.

However, due to the biased nature of these journals, effort will be made to bring out the salient truth in such issues.

1.4 SIGNIFICANCE AND JUSTIFICATION FOR THE STUDY

The significance of this study stems not only from the difference of factors between the two (2) states, but also from the non-divergence and diversity. Through our study cannot be meaningful without mentioning the importance of the difference of factors, yet our emphasis would be to study the achievements and the failures towards the aspects in their bilateral relations in diverse directions and policies. The period of the study commences from General Seyni Kountché's regime, which was from 1974 to 1987 in its relations with France.

Moreover, it is a study of very friendly partners. It will also explain why future foreign policies need to be formulated.

1.5 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK

For the purpose of fostering proper understanding and critical analysis in relations to the foreign policy of Niger to France under General Seyni Kountché (1974-1987), it is deemed necessary to use the underdevelopment and Dependency Theory. This could be attributed to the fact that the theory explains better the nature of the Nigerien relations with France as it metropolis as well as other developing countries in the contemporary international system.

This further explains the fact that an economy to the extent is dependent that it's position and relation to other economies in the global system, makes it incapable of auto centric development. All the post-colonial economies and all its relations in general were heavily dependent by the criteria of this definition⁸.

The concept of «dependency» coined by Brazilian sociologist, Fernando Henrique Cardoso, (later President of Brazil) helps to link those who are beneficiaries of development with those who make the decision. Dependency simply states that crucial economic decisions are made not by countries that are being ?developed» but by foreigners whose interests are carefully safeguarded. Foreigners (westerners) use their economic powers to buy political power in the countries that they penetrate. This could mean political pressure by the imperialist metropolis or even military intervention. This collusion between alien economic and political power distorts both the economy and the policy of the dependent countries⁹. In terms of underdevelopment, the theoretical postulation b Walter Rodney has it that underdevelopment is not the absence of development but it makes sense only as a way of comparing levels of development. Underdevelopment is very much tied to the fact that human social development has been uneven and from a strictly economic viewpoint some human groups have advanced further producing more and becoming more wealthy¹⁰.