As nations move toward peace, security and prosperity, unfortunate many in Africa seem to return to unconstitutional governments, if recent military coups are anything to go by.
The spectre of military coups and unconstitutional power grabs is once again rearing its ugly head in Africa.
The past few years have witnessed both successful and unsuccessful coup d’états in West and Central African countries such as Mali, Chad, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Guinea-Bissau, and Sudan.
Against, huge presence of international and regional institutions such as the United Nations, Economic Community of West African States, and the African Union imposing sanctions, suspending memberships, and condemning this worrying trend, nothing seems to avert this trend, which continues to destabilize regions economically, politically and socially. And the fact that there have been four military coups in the West Africa in the last 18 months is a testament to this growing challenge and painting a gloomy picture of Africa, a continent fighting other challenges.
While Africa has not been without successful and unsuccessful coups attempts in the last few years, the recent coups led by young and inexperienced leaders must worry those in governance.
While East Africa and the Horn of Africa regions have relatively enjoyed stability, it's the visible and recurrent characteristic of the coup in West Africa that has caught leaders and policymakers with surprise, Decades of not successfully managing transitions have also cast into doubt a future of peace and stability.
However, to tackle the monster that risks disintegrating the continent further, it is essential to understand the history of coups, tracing back to the post-colonial period. There was a string of successive military coups in many parts of Africa, from east to west, and north to south. This trend manifested itself in a series of coup d’états, especially between the 1960s and the late 1980s.
The masterminds of those coups cited poverty, mismanagement of resources, sense of exclusion and tribalism in public service, and endemic corruption in governments
At the start of the 21st century, Africa was doing well in the governance index as a new breed of transformational leaders took charge of providing thought leadership.
The wave of democracy and introduction of multiparty seems to have eased the rising of coups.
In this dispensation, many were of the perception that the military was giving up its dominance over the political affairs of Africa and allowing return to constitutionalism for rule of law and security.
Sadly against these strides, military coups inspired by internal and external factors seem to cast into doubt the Africa rising mantra. And this seems to be a daunting challenge in ensuring peace and stability in Africa and moving towards regional cooperation and integration.
The instability in many parts of the world and more so among the Arab countries, coupled with weak structures, fledgling and transitional democracies have led to military intervention in matters that in nature would require political and civilian solutions.
Six military coups have occurred in Africa in less than two years, including one in Burkina Faso in January this year, two in Mali in 2020 and 2021, and another in Guinea last year.
The recent reports of the military activities in Guinea, Sudan, Mali, Chad, Burkina Faso, and Guinea-Bissau are sad reminder that against the strides made in Africa, militarization of politics in some regions remains the order of the day.
One of the reasons for the revival of this phenomenon is that in some African countries, as a result of deciphering and implementing democracy in different which often is against the wishes of civilians but for interest of politicians.
There has been correlation between overstay in power by president and their selfish interest and the reemergence of military coup. Often, this has led to government institutions being weakened and the military taking over.
There has also been the issue of foreign interference as another factor behind the emergence of coups in Africa. In fact France has been accused of being behind many of them in its former colonies of West Africa and this has been tied around power control between the west and east in Africa transformation.
While West Africa has suffered the fastest decline in political rights and civil liberties, its partners have prioritised counterterrorism or strategic competition with China and Russia over democracy. This regression has set the conditions for soldiers to seize power or at least use it as pretext for military action.
However, there has been justification of coups in other regions where there has been decadence of the socio-political and economic environment and failing democracy and unquenched thirst for one-man president at the expense of millions of citizens. Against these coups, there has not been enough evidence that the military can maintain stability and address socio economics concerns that many countries have been battling, even after the rising wave of democratization.
In Mali there was a coup in 2020 and former President Ibrahim Keita was accused of mismanagement of insurgencies, corruption and a floundering economy that doesn't seem to offer hope to its population of 21.5 million people.
Even before dust settled, a military man took over in Chad after President Idriss Deby’s death. In September 2021, Guinea became one of the richest countries, but its people are among the poorest in West Africa. As the rest of Africa moved towards peace, democracy and security, there was another coup in October 2021 by the Sudanese military against Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok.
But of all the recent coups, it's Burkina Faso that has left Africa with a sad face.
The history of coups in Burkina Faso dates back to 1987, when its popular and one of few celebrated sons of Africa was murdered.
As a former military leader and viewed by supporters as a charismatic and iconic figure, Thomas Sankara renamed Upper Volta to the present day Burkina Faso, which means Land of Incorruptible People.
The 2022 coup led by young military leader Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba and was blamed on former President Roch Kabore’s failure to contain the growing Islamist insurgency and address citizen’s concerns.
While there has been many justified and unjustified reasons behind the coup, the script seems the same everywhere: There has been insecurity, failing economic systems, poor governance and leadership structure and a growing frustrated youthful population in Africa that has often been referred as tickling bomb.
But there have also been cases where the military has been used to continuously stay in power through protection of leaders, who refused to leave power and continue the status quo.
However popular, it would be prudent to say that the resurgence of coups across the continent is direct violation of democratic elected governments, violation of youth and women rights and continuous threat to Africa’s peace, stability, economy and security,
What must West Africa do to avert further crisis?
The regional organizations must establish a functional and well resource military by the member states that could be deployed to end coups.
There is a need to review sanctions as the experience of Mali and Guinea prove that it does not work effectively. Rather than create a necessary political outcome, sanctions have backfired.
There is need for homegrown solutions to ensure and transparent governance and this would preempt coups and instead lead to stronger regional institutions to provide oversight.
African countries need to act more decisively to anticipate and respond to this alarming trend and establish rule of law, respect for human rights and good and inclusive governance that takes into consideration the aspiration of its citizens.
The Writer is Mandela Washington Fellow and political governance commentator. lemargeroi@gmail,com
