"Despite the threats, I will not stop fighting for Niger - Ali Idrissa", 7 September 2015

It all started in 1990...As a young man all I wanted was freedom and democracy...the food crisis of 2005 made me realise that Niger had another big problem: corruption...Looking for ways to raise funds quickly to address the crisis, the Nigerien government decided to impose a tax on basic foodstuffs such as wheat, milk and sugar. The proposed tax angered me (it would hit the poorest hardest) but also made me curious: as the world’s fourth largest producer of uranium, how could there be no money in the coffers? How can uranium represent 70% of our exports, but only contribute 5.8% to our GDP? To understand this lack of balance between uranium extraction and its revenues, I looked into the company that was extracting the uranium, Areva...Areva refused to comply with the 2006 mining code that increased mining royalties from 5% to 12%...After 18 months of intense discussions...an agreement was finally reached: Areva agreed to the increased mining tax but was still exempt from paying VAT. However, no information about this deal has been published and the contracts haven’t been made public, which makes us concerned that Areva may have pressured the Nigerien government to allow it to continue its mining operations...One morning last year, at around 4am, armed police broke through my gate and arrested me in front of my bewildered pregnant wife...This happened during Hollande’s visit, when we had organised a demonstration demanding the publication of the Areva contract. As the government wanted to hide dissent, they detained me for the duration of the visit...But even if I am scared at times, fearing for my life, I won’t give up this battle for Niger, for my people, for my family.