From rupture rhetoric to the return of lobbies
Eighteen months after the July 26, 2023 takeover in Niamey, promises of “refoundation” and radical break collide with the reality of oil management. At the heart of power, the brand new Minister of Petroleum, Hamadou Tini, is accused of wearing multiple hats in blatant disregard for the most basic ethical rules. Judge and party, the former Mazars executive now uses public authority to revive his private firm’s contracts, demanding full access to SORAZ secrets. This investigation reveals a conflict of interest at the highest level of the state, where financial audit has become a tool for purge and enrichment.
In the aftermath of their power grab, the military leaders of the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP) made economic sovereignty their main battle horse. Their primary target: the management of oil resources, especially the Zinder Refining Company (SORAZ). On state television, the putschist propaganda lambasted the fallen democratic system and its “international accomplices.” Among them, the international consulting firm Mazars, a partner of the Nigerien state for a decade, was loudly dismissed. Accused by the new regime—and by Chinese partners at the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC)—of producing biased audits, Mazars seemed permanently banished from Niger’s economic landscape. The official line was uncompromising: Niamey should hire a neutral, independent, and unsullied international firm to scrutinize SORAZ.
Yet behind the scenes, the reality of influence networks quickly dampened popular enthusiasm. Through intense lobbying maneuvers, one of Mazars’ key executives managed to infiltrate the state apparatus. In January 2026, under the direct protection of General Mody, accountant Hamadou Tini was catapulted to the head of the Petroleum Ministry. That appointment marked the grand return of the firm he had served just weeks earlier.
Minister tini: client, provider, and signatory
Once settled into his ministerial chair, Hamadou Tini put into practice the popular saying that “charity begins at home.” Using his official authority, he immediately revived the financial and management audit of SORAZ. But the move came with a non-negotiable condition: this highly strategic mission must be entrusted to his own firm, Mazars, ostensibly to “finalize its work and get paid.” This contractual reactivation pushes the concept of conflict of interest to a rarely matched level. The Petroleum Minister simultaneously finds himself as the client ordering an audit on behalf of the Nigerien state, the provider executing the mission via his firm Mazars, the ultimate recipient of the audit reports, and the sole signatory of public checks paying for the service. This accumulation of roles strips the Nigerien state of any guarantee of independence. How can a firm objectively audit a public company when its own mentor and former executive is the supervising minister?
The decree of discord: the race for confidential documents
The power move did not stop at signing contracts. With an uncertain transition ahead, time is pressing for the Tini clan. The minister has issued a decree—an order without appeal—to SORAZ management. Through a ministerial directive, Hamadou Tini demands that Mazars be provided “without delay or restriction, all financial, accounting, technical, and operational documents within eight days.” These are precisely the strategic and confidential data that the refinery’s management and Chinese partners had stubbornly refused him in the past to protect business secrets. In Niamey, local observers cite another saying: “He who has peered through the keyhole already knows what is on the table.” Knowing SORAZ’s accounting flaws from his previous position, the minister knows exactly where to look to get what he wants.
The mystery of the sacrificed ministers
This brutal takeover of SORAZ casts new light on the chronic instability that has plagued the Petroleum Ministry since the coup. In three years, three ministers have succeeded one another in this strategic post—a musical chairs game apparently tied to the secrets of the Zinder refinery. Before Hamadou Tini, Minister Mahaman Moustapha Barké had loudly announced in June 2024 a major financial audit of SORAZ. A few months later, on January 13, 2025, he was arrested and sequestered by the General Directorate of Documentation and External Security (DGDSE). His secret detention lasted nearly a year without judicial process, until his release on January 6, 2026. His successor, Dr. Sahabi Oumarou, appointed in emergency, also tried to relaunch the audit in February 2025 before being swiftly removed from his post. Multiple sector sources now accuse Hamadou Tini of playing an active role in the downfall of his predecessors. While still a Mazars expert, he allegedly drafted memos and charges, skillfully slanted, to discredit Barké and Oumarou’s management before the junta. The technical objective was twofold: eliminate obstacles to Mazars’ return and profile the minister position for a tailor-made candidate—himself.
A “refoundation” on dialysis
The SORAZ affair highlights the deep contradictions of the Niamey regime. While the Nigerien population bears the full brunt of economic isolation and still awaits the promised oil wealth dividends, the resources from the black gold mine seem to serve corporate interests first. The SORAZ audit, initially demanded by civil society as an act of transparency and public hygiene, has become an instrument of clan warfare. In the hands of the minister-auditor, it serves both as a shield to mask conflicts of interest and as a cash register for his former firm. For the CNSP’s promised “refoundation,” the diagnosis is harsh: the management of Nigerien oil has not changed methods—it has simply changed beneficiaries.
