How could the coup in Niger affect Cameroon? Three things to note

By Hans Ngala

The coup in Niger resonates with a lot of Cameroonians on many levels. First and perhaps most obvious is the fact that both Niger and Cameroon are former colonies of France – a country that maintains a firm grip on the colonies it once colonized.
Both Niger and Cameroon – and many of the countries in ECOWAS and CEMA, remain tied to France either through the common French language that colonialism imposed on them, or by economic incentives such as the communutaire financiere en Afrique (CFA) which is used in both West and Central Africa.
1) While Cameroon is not a member of ECOWAS, she lies strategically at the Gulf of Guinea, an area that is considered the axis between West and Central Africa, hence Cameroon sometimes gets categorized as a West African country, sometimes as a Central African country and sometimes as both i.e. West-Central Africa. Cameroon may not share an immediate border with Niger but geopolitically, it is not too hard to see how a conflict in Niger could affect her.
The closest Cameroon comes to having a border with Niger is through her northernmost tip which is cut off around the Lake Chad Basin by Nigeria’s easternmost border, closer to the border with Niger. Of course, if Niger takes military action as threatened, this would see an influx of refugees and asylum seekers from Niger spilling over into Nigeria, Burkina Faso, and certainly further south as far as Cameroon.
2) The coup in Niger is also likely to fan anti-French sentiments which linger in Cameroon as the country continues to chafe under France. While President Paul Biya is always a welcome guest at the Élysée Palace, the French presidency; it is hard to say whether ordinary Cameroonians share the same affinity with France. President Emmanuel Macron made Cameroon his first stop during a visit to West Africa last year and during a press conference, questions directed at him suggested deep-seated grievances held by Cameroonians against the French. A CRTV reporter grilled Macron on the role France played in the killing of hundreds of Cameroonians in the 1940s and 50s.
3) Cameroon’s military enjoys an amicable relationship with the Head of State and
Commander-in-chief of the armed forces, President Paul Biya. It is not likely that there can be a coup or mutinous soldiers against the Head of State as seen in Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso over the past few years but the developments in Niger will certainly generate these conversations. Most importantly, the unraveling events in Niger will make Cameroonians question governance and Franco-Cameroonian relations. President Biya during his meeting with Macron also made it clear that Cameroon was joining the bandwagon of African countries increasingly turning to Russia.