By Olakunle Agboola – Military coups are nothing new to the African continent most especially, the West Africa countries which in recent times has continue to demonstrate unwavering energy of salvaging their country against the backdrop of neo-colonialism, corruption and poor leadership.
Africa countries have endured a long colonial rule from the time past as they began to experiment transition into democracy in the 1960s. This form of government is perceived as the best as it is defined as a system of government in which laws, policies, leadership, and major undertakings of a state or other polity are directly or indirectly decided by the “people”.
If people are to be at the centre of democracy, it is sad that for six decades, many African countries are yet to establish functioning democratic systems that deliver prosperity for the citizens. The citizens at every democratic dispensation are thrown behind the cotton ensuring their will is entangled and subjugated. The power is not with the people as it is expected under a democratic government but to a few political elites with ally with the West who is impoverishing the innocent citizens.
Democracy Index classified only Mauritius as a full democratic government while the rest were categorised as flawed government, non- democratic institution and hybrid of authoritarian government, which is far from democracy. The classical example is the recent presidential election in Nigeria, which the will of the people was subjugated, subverted and never allowed to come to fruition. The political elites frustrated the institutions with heavy bribes ensuring they force themselves on peoples will. The last presidential election in Uganda took the same routes ensuring the citizens were robbed in a broad daylight and never allowed their votes to count. This is the same story in Cameroon, Gabon and Niger republic, which has just experienced a military coups as their perceived democratic government was hijacked.
Democracy is not what it ought to be in many African states and this has hindered the social progress and the per- capita income of average citizens who have been trapped by endemic and systematic corruption. This long reigning disease has aggravated poverty, high levels of insecurity, and political instability — producing a vicious circle of heightened fragility and weakened state capacity. Laws should be laws but not with self-seeking political elites who manipulates the law to climb any political ladder. They always change the laws if it doesn’t suite their self seeking agenda.
The recent winds of coups with people revolting against democratic government across West Africa is not a surprise, but a reflection of a self -seeking government that does not have people as the focus. This is the major reasons people are revolting against the government by increase in Military coups. It is obvious the citizens are left with no choice with the growing level of distrust between self-seeking governments, and the fast decline in the quality of already faltering democratic and economic systems across the continent. The circumstances that led to the previous waves of military coups have remained unaddressed and are becoming difficult to see the end.
The promise of democratic dividends has eluded most Africans as they find it difficult to reconcile their economic hardships with the extravagant lifestyles of the political class. Many of these political gladiators have their kids schooled abroad and that is why the educational system is dead. And when they are sacked or having common headache, they book the next available flight to Europe or America. And the irony of it is that they are being examined by African doctors who ought to be in their home country, contributing their quota to the development of the health sector. They have practically destroyed all available institutions by not given a concerning effort of making it better, leaving many innocent citizens looking for a way out of the system. Many have gone through the Mediterranean Sea to Europe and a lot have lost their lives in the struggle of making their lives better. Also are African kings and queens living as a second class citizens abroad hoping and praying the home country will be good someday so that they can return home.
Insecurity has been an abiding challenge for most of the states that have encountered military takeovers or mutinies. These states have been unable to fully broadcast authority across their territories for at least a decade as they compete with insurgents for control over territories. In Chad, the state is being confronted with the challenge posed by violent extremist organisations including Boko Haram and its breakaway faction, the Islamic State in the West African Province (ISWAP). Both Mali and Burkina Faso have also found themselves struggling to contain the threat posed by the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda affiliated extremist groups.
The lack of strategic engagement with fragile states by the AU and regional organisations is a huge problem as it increases coups across West Africa. The usual approach has been to ‘condemn’, impose sanctions, and call for a return to ‘constitutional rule’ as the AU and ECOWAS did recently following the coups in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Gabon. This is seen as irrational approach as it negates the primacy of proactive diplomacy, which is crucial to averting situations such as these, which also has the potential of leading ultimately to state collapse.
Foreign power has also contributed to recent coups across West Africa and France and US has been crafty and guilty of fostering business as usual with autocratic regimes across the continent, thereby depicting a double standard that serves towards contributing to democratic backwardness in certain instances. USA always preach a good democratic ethos but their involvement with autocratic government in Africa do not speak well if they know what they are saying. Also France has been a scorn in recent times across West Africa countries and is all about their rigid nature of dealing with most francophone countries.
Coups or revolting against a democratic government do point at one direction and that is the fact that people are not happy, frustrated and want a better life compared to the life of the political gladiators who have hijacked power for their own personal fortunes. It will take a high level of sixth sense for political leaders across Africa to know that a life of service to humanity have a huge reward of living larger than life. A life lived for the advancement of a better world is never in vain.
Kindly follow us on twitter:@AfricanVoice2
