By Olukorede Yishau
We thought their time was gone. We rejoiced when one by one our continent was rid of them. Our experience with them was so bad, so terrible, that seeing our presidential palaces without khaki boys or men calling the shots brought us so much joy, so much relief. Now, I fear, as these boys, these men, are emerging and claiming a place in the sun on our continent.
Of recent, there have been coups by military officers on the African continent, the latest attempt was on Tuesday in Guinea Bissau— a country with a long history of military coups. And analysts have warned that African leaders must play by the rules to deliver good governance and the citizens must rise to their civic responsibilities by demanding accountability.
In August 2020, late Malian President Ibrahim Keita was kicked out in a coup. Keita, who became president of the West African country in 2013, died at the age of 76 in Bamako recently. He was two years into his second five-year term when he was toppled following widespread protests against his government.
A year and a month after Keita was shown the exit door, Guinean President Alpha Conde was given the same treatment.
The situation in Sudan saw two attempts, one failed and the other shot Gen. Abdel Fattah Burhan into power. Everything is now upside down in that nation and killings are going on as though they are normal occurrences.
A day before the presidential inauguration, the bad boys also attempted to take power in Niger, our next-door neighbour. Thank goodness they were resisted and sent back to the bush where they belong. There has also been a coup attempt in Burkina Faso.
As usual, these coups have seen the detention of political leaders. The African Union (AU), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), and the West, have condemned the coups and have called for a return to civil rules but these boys are not moved. The hammer struck on the earlier offending countries did nothing to stop more from taking the dangerous rule. The deviants in Mali even announced the severance of ties with ECOWAS and France, its colonial masters with whom it had maintained a relationship since Independence.
I am happy that ECOWAS is not treating the bad boys with kid gloves. Borders with Mali have been shut. Sadly, the people are suffering. The vast landlocked nation of 19 million people borders seven other nations, which have shut their doors against it, except Algeria and Guinea, for obvious reason. Guinea and Algeria have left their sea and air borders open to Mali.
Aside border closure, which signified suspension of trade, its assets in the Central Bank of West African States have been frozen and member states’ ambassadors have been recalled.
Still the men in khaki are not relenting. Their leader, Colonel Assimi Goita, has proposed to stay in power for up to five years before restoring constitutional rule. Some days ago, the military instigated a protest over the ECOWAS sanctions.
For some people, military coups are caused by the failure of democracy, lack of social nets and the inability of democracy to engender development. Corruption of the political class is another cancer eating at the heart of democracy. Election rigging and tenure elongation have also come in handy for military boys to stage coups.
But are coups the answer to the failure of democracy? Certainly not. From the experience of the past military interventions, the promises made by coup plotters have always been short-lived. They never last. The coup plotters always turn out worse than the politicians they send out of office. In several instances, they also become politicians and never want to leave office.
For me, I say to hell with military intervention in governance. They are trained to defend the territorial integrity of their nations and not to lead. No wonder they are always a failure. Military rule is an aberration and it will always remain so.
In order not to give these guys the excuse for going mad again, politicians should ensure good governance in Africa. They also need to play by the rules and be accountable to the people. Bad governance, corruption, cronyism, election rigging and tenure elongation are the triggers of political instability that must be avoided.
West Africa, of which Nigeria is the biggest, should not be where it is. It should have gone farther. My trips around the sub-region have largely made me ask the question: When are we going to start? I have also come to the conclusion that the buck stops at the table of its leaders for its sorry state.
And the rain started beating us from the dawn. The leaders of the region at independence were treated as demi-gods because they were the founding fathers.
The blame for its stunted growth is no one’s but theirs. And, perhaps, a complacent citizenry. Democracy should be seen as a necessity and not otherwise. The quasi-democracy that many of the countries in the sub-region operate is not doing us any good.
All over the sub-region, leaders who had nothing before coming into office suddenly become overnight billionaires, owning businesses everywhere and stashing money in numerous accounts overseas.
Worse still, the lucre of office even gets into their heads and, as their tenure winds to an end, they plot how to stay in office for life. Where that is impossible, they move to install their lackeys whom they believe will protect their interest. Some even want to install their sons.
My final take: African countries must entrench mechanisms that promote constitutionalism, accountability, democracy, and good governance. A governance structure that values the peaceful coexistence and economic development and battles inequality must be put in place.
Collectively, we must ensure that our leaders do not take us for granted. We must ask for our dues and ensure we get them. While not asking us to be violent, when we insist and refuse to be intimidated, the leaders will have no choice but to let our will prevail and we will succeed in frustrating the men in khaki from having the needed excuses to usurp power. They must be stopped from going mad again.
• Yishau is a newspaper columnist and author of ‘In The Name of Our Father’ and ‘Vaults of Secrets’.