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elite government, in addition to members of lower socio-economic classes. This project
examines how politics in the state of Nigeria directly affects politics in Niger and
ultimately the economy as well.
Introduction
The current implementation of Shari’a law in Northern Nigeria has its roots in the
country’s democratic transition of 1999. Up until that moment, Hausa speaking generals
from the north had enjoyed a long period of political domination. The Hausa monopoly
on power, however, was dissolved by means of the democratic election of 1999 that
witnessed the election of Olasegun Obasanjo. The accession to power of Obasanjo, a
Christian from the south, significantly altered the political power structure of Nigeria and
as a result the Hausa were left with less political leverage. In the eyes of Hausa speaking
elites, the reconfiguration of the Nigerian political power structure was unjust. As a
result, elites in Northern Nigeria successfully led a push for the installation of Shari’a in
Northern Nigeria. In Niger that has not been the case and the government on both the
federal and local levels has remained secular.
Although trade and contraband activities with Nigeria have historically been a
part of the Nigerien economy, the implementation of Shari’a changed the cross border
dynamics of the relations between the two countries (Lund, 2001, 847). Black market
trade between Nigeria and Niger in goods such as alcohol and peanuts are legacies of
different colonial policies that existed in both countries. Even today, in Niger the black
market trade in gas illegally imported from Nigeria is significant. The implementation of
Shari’a, however, added a new wrinkle to the cross border economy that exists between
Convention