Military-led Niger Dumps French, Adopts Hausa as National Language

• The Niger military administration has formally declared Hausa the country’s new national language, which is a departure from its colonial past in which French was given more prominence
• Legit.ng reports that the move was announced in a new charter issued on Monday, March 31, and published in a special edition of the government’s official newspaper
• According to the document, “the national language is Hausa and the working languages are English and French"

Legit.ng journalist Ridwan Adeola Yusuf has over 9 years of experience covering global affairs.

Niamey, Niger Republic - Niger’s military-led government has declared Hausa as the country’s new national language, replacing French.

As reported by TRT World, this is another decisive step away from its former colonial power, France.

The junta stated in a new charter published on March 31 in a special edition of the government’s official journal:

“The national language is Hausa” while “the working languages are English and French."

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According to the new charter, nine other local languages, including Zarma-Songhay, Fula, Kanuri, Gourmanche, and Arabic, will now be officially recognised as “the spoken languages of Niger.”

The charter emerged from a national conference held in February, which bolstered the junta’s authority and granted its leader, General Abdourahamane Tiani, the mandate to remain in power for the next five years.

About Hausa language

Hausa is a Chadic language spoken primarily by the Hausa people in the northern parts of Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Benin, and Togo, and the southern parts of Niger, and Chad, with significant minorities in Ivory Coast. A small number of speakers also exist in Sudan.

Hausa is a member of the Afroasiatic language family and is the most widely spoken language within the Chadic branch of that family. Despite originating from a non-tonal language family, Hausa utilises differences in pitch to distinguish words and grammar. Ethnologue estimated that it was spoken as a first language by some 58 million people and as a second language by another 36 million, bringing the total number of Hausa speakers to an estimated 94 million.

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Niger coup reversing hard-earned 'gains'

The military coup in Niger has impacted every sector of the Nigerien society, demonstrating the centrality of governance to security, economic, and social outcomes. A snapshot of an array of these outcomes reveals a marked shift in Niger’s trajectory since the coup. Despite being one of the poorest countries in the world, Niger had realised discernable progress in the decade prior to the coup under democratically elected Presidents Mahamadou Issoufou and Mohamed Bazoum. Many of those gains have since been upended. With tightening restrictions on the media and information space under the junta, the full extent of this deterioration is difficult to ascertain. This reversal in trajectory will have wider ramifications for the region given that this historically peaceful, landlocked country of 25 million people shares borders with seven neighbors.

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Niger faces deep fuel crisis as petrol

Earlier, Legit.ng reported that petroleum product smuggling has increased along the Nigeria-Niger borders as the neighbouring country faces the worst energy crisis in a decade.

The development comes as Niger faces fuel shortages after exiting the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and joining the Alliance of Sahel States.

However, the commercial director of the Nigerien Company for Oil Products (Sonidep), Mazzaou Aboubacar, disclosed that the SORAZ oil refinery in Zinder could no longer meet the country’s domestic fuel consumption needs.

Source: Legit.ng