Commentary

Africa, Why the Coups?

By Dr. Nana Sifa Tswum

Members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have held an emergency summit in Accra in response to a recent spate of coups in the region. The talks were initiated after Burkina Faso on January 24, 2022 became the third member of the 15-nation to be overtaken by the military.

In recent times, the West African sub-region has suffered some political turbulence. Political instability with socio-economic uncertainty has set in within some countries in the sub-region. In a span of twelve years, nineteen coup d’etat have occurred in eleven West African countries, making the subregion very politically unstable. During this period, Guinea has experienced three coups d’etat in April 2010, December 2011 and September 2021, meaning two coups within a little over a year.

Mali has the highest number of four spanning from March 2012 to May 2021. The other two occurred in May 2012 and August 2020. One would be tempted to interpret it to mean that within two months, March 2012 and May 2012, two military takeovers happened in the country.

Burkina Faso experienced three in September 2015, October 2016 and January this year (2022). February 2011 and December 2013, the Democratic Republic of Congo had its share of the military interference by toppling the democratically elected government. In December 2014 and December 2017, The democratically elected governments of The Gambia were overthrown by the military. Nigeria, (2011) Côte d’Ivoire, (2012) Benin, (2013), Chad (2013) and Gabon (2019) had recorded one coup d’etat each in the last twelve years.

More worrying is the fact that, in the past eighteen months, in similar scenes, military leaders have toppled the governments of Mali, Chad, Guinea, Sudan and now, Burkina Faso. Such things as coups are undoubtedly contagious. This is what happened in Northern Africa in 2010. “The series of protests and demonstrations across the Middle East and North Africa that commenced in 2010 became known as the “Arab Spring.

The very last to again, experience political instability in Burkina Faso. Ghana’s neighbour in the north saw its third military takeover at the beginning of the year 2022. The country is currently plagued by insecurity, poor governance and frustrated youth. But there’s no one-size-fits-all explanation. History has it that the first coup d’etat on the continent of Africa happened in Nigeria in 1966. It began on January 15, 1966, when rebellious Nigerian soldiers led by Chukwuma Kaduna Nzeogwu and Emanuel Ifeajuna killed 22 people, including the Prime Minister of Nigeria, many senior politicians, many senior Army officers (including their wives), and sentinels on protective duty. Since then, the continent has gained notoriety in this and has severely resulted in the woeful setback of the country’s socio-economic development of the continent and the military continues to do this with the highest level of impunity.

For instance, the new military leader, Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Damiba, had told the nation in his first public address on Thursday night (a day before the virtual emergency meeting of ECOWAS leaders) that he would return the country to constitutional order “when the conditions are right.” Much as it is evident that leaders of these countries are not performing to the satisfaction of their citizens, there is no justification for what they do. This is because none of the coup plotters have been able to turn things around to salvage the populace from the woes. In most cases, the military leaders who metamorphose themselves into political leaders perform worse than those they overthrew. It, therefore, becomes a waste of time, resources, human dignity and m have People are fed up with their governments for many reasons — major security threats, relentless humanitarian disasters and millions of young people having no prospects.

“A 2020 study found that coups tended to lead to increases in state repression, not reductions”. According to a 2020 study, “external reactions to coups play important roles in whether coup leaders move toward authoritarianism or democratic governance.”

In all the cases, the international community reacts vehemently amidst threats and disowning but by and large, that this the extent to which they can go. No further than that. In the recent cases of coup d’etat, for instance, African and international organizations have reacted with disapproving statements and sanctions.

In Mali, the threat that a regional standby force will invade — but few take the latter very seriously. The ECOWAS, Africa Union and even the United Nations have not done much by exercising real power to halt the occurrences of coup d’etats in this part of the world. Most of the countries affected are francophone countries and their masters France must relax its influence here to enable peace and absolute peace to prevail.

This time, the ECOWAS meeting must take a critical look at how the grievances of military officers and the youth in these countries could be effectively addressed. The leaders must also consider military popularity and attitudinal cohesiveness, more importantly, the economic decline, the domestic political crisis, and external threat among others to help curb this menace.