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Oftentimes, we hear Christians make joyful noise to the Lord! This is when some female choristers howl like maidens enthralled by the muscular display of young wrestlers in those days when moonlight plays were the norm. But not all noises are joyful. Some are made to call attention to something sinister happening somewhere. That was the type the ousted President of Gabon, Ali Bongo Ondimba, solicited from his friends all over the world last Wednesday, August 30, 2023. In a viral video, Bongo was heard saying, “My son is somewhere else; my wife is in another place… Nothing is happening. I don’t know what is going on. So, I’m calling you to make noise, to make noise, to make noise really!”
The 64-year-old ex-President was placed under house arrest after his overthrow by his country’s military that fateful Wednesday. What triggered the putsch was the flawed presidential poll held on August 26, 2023. All sorts of irregularities tainted that election. Ali Bongo was gunning for a third term in office. No sooner had the country’s electoral umpire declared him the winner than the soldiers struck. They voided the election results, closed all borders and dissolved many government bodies. They also arrested Bongo’s son, Noureddin Bongo Valentin. Already, Gen. Brice Oligui Nguema has effectively taken over as the transitional leader.
Some world leaders and organisations hearkened to Bongo’s call to make noise really! The African Union (AU), the United Nations, the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) all condemned the coup in Gabon.
The leader of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), President Bola Tinubu of Nigeria, also condemned the coup. He described the epidemic of coups in Africa as a contagion of autocracy. Recall that the putsch in Gabon came barely one month after a similar action in Niger Republic, Nigeria’s West African neighbour. Soon after the Niger episode, which specifically occurred on July 26, 2023, the ECOWAS imposed some sanctions against Niger. It also threatened to intervene militarily to restore the ousted president, Mohamed Bazoum, to power. So far, that has not materialized.
Perhaps, it is because the anti-intervention noises emanating from Niger and Nigeria appear to have drowned that of Tinubu’s ECOWAS. Many Nigeriens had embraced the coup, led by Abdourahamane Tchiani. They went wild with celebrations in their various cities. Burkina Faso, Guinea and Mali also expressed solidarity with their fellow military junta in Niger.
Even the coup in Guinea that ousted Alpha Conde in 2021 elicited jubilation in the streets of Conakry. Like Guineans and the Nigeriens, the people of Gabon also went wild with celebrations in the streets of Libreville, the capital, and some other places after the recent coup. They denounced Ali Bongo who took over from his father, Omar Bongo, after he died of cardiac arrest in 2009. Before his death, Omar Bongo had ruled since 1967, seven years after Gabon gained independence from France.
What is clear is from the recent happenings in Africa is that while the people in power condemn the coups, ordinary citizens tend largely to embrace them. What this indicates is that people are disenchanted with the leadership of their countries. They loathe corruption in high places. They abhor insecurity and low standard of living of the people. They pray secretly that a higher power should take away the bad rulers inflicting economic and political injuries on them.
Sadly, Bongo’s family had instituted a dynasty in Gabon for 56 years. Ali Bongo, in 2003, engineered the removal of term limit in his country’s constitution to enable him to rule for life. Before he became President, he had been foreign minister, defence minister and a legislator. The family’s fortunes grew in leaps and bounds while the ordinary citizens of Gabon grew in penury and want. A French financial police uncovered, in 2007, that the Bongo family owned 39 properties in France, 70 bank accounts and a number of luxury cars worth millions of Euros. Soon after they took over, the soldiers reportedly discovered some bags and suitcases of different currencies in the house of the Chief of Staff to the ex-President’s son.
These recent happenings appear to have posed danger signals to some other African Presidents. Presidents Paul Biya of Cameroon and Paul Kagame of Rwanda carried out major military changes a few days after the Gabon coup. Inasmuch as I condemn military takeover of government, what many African civilian leaders do in the quest to snatch power and run with it leaves much to be desired.
Look at what happened in Zimbabwe in the name of election on August 23, 2023. After a very flawed process, including alleged voter suppression and result manipulation, incumbent President Emmerson Mnangagwa was declared winner. Mnangagwa himself took over from the country’s longtime leader, Robert Mugabe, after a military coup in 2017.
In Nigeria, the scenario is the same. Elections are never free and fair. The last general election held on February 25, 2023, became a good example of how not to conduct elections. The exercise was fraught with voter intimidation, suppression, violent attacks, killings and manipulation of election results. Knowing the weight of what it has done, the electoral umpire chose to announce the presidential results in an ungodly hour of March 1, when people had not got up from bed.
In some other African countries, the situation is worse. Paul Biya of Cameroon is 90 years. He started ruling since 1982. Today, he is still the President. Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo became President of Equatorial Guinea since 1979. He manipulated his country’s term limit to remain in power. Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Denis Sassou Nguesso of the Republic of Congo and some others, have ruled for over 30 years after manipulating their countries constitution on term limits.
Bad governance is not domiciled in Africa though. Other continents have some doses of it as well. The major difference is that while Africa resorts to coups to remove unwanted governments, some others engage in some other means. In Syria, for instance, there have been protests over the past two weeks demanding the removal of President Bashar al-Assad over growing economic hardships. The protests, which started in the Southern province of Sweida, have spread to some other cities including the capital, Damascus, and Aleppo. What triggered the protests was the slashing of fuel subsidies which caused a hike in the cost of gasoline. For over a decade, Syria has been mired in conflict and economic crisis. Its currency has plunged to as low as 15,500 Syrian pounds to the dollar. At the start of the country’s war 12 years ago, it had traded 47 pounds to the dollar. About 90 per cent of Syrians live below the poverty line.
True, military government is an aberration. Soldiers are to defend the territorial integrity of their countries. They latch onto the shenanigans of civilian leaders to grab power. But, most times, they perform woefully. When Muhammadu Buhari and co. overthrew the civilian government of Alhaji Shehu Shagari in 1983, they said our hospitals had become mere consulting clinics. Today, nothing much has changed.
Soldiers are human beings. They are part and parcel of the society. They feel the pains of high cost of living like every other person. They hear about the monumental corruption going on in the polity. They suffer casualties when they confront better equipped terrorists in the battlefield. They strike when they notice disillusionment in the society. And that is why citizens troop to the streets to celebrate and welcome them. The major guarantee against their intervention is good governance. African leaders cannot continue to debase the humanity in their people and expect that things will be smooth for them. Yes, we condemn the coup plotters but we should at the same time condemn bad governance because it is civilian coups that lead to military coups. I pray that the variegated noise trailing this coup in Gabon will not further paralyze Bongo who is already down with partial stroke.
Re: Now that Wike and Keyamo are ministers
Dear Casy, Wike should understand that the FCT is quite distinct from the states of the federation. That’s why the Constitution says that there shall be 36 States of the federation called Nigeria. It didn’t include the FCT. Whereas the FCT is a ministry with a Permanent Secretary as the head of the administration under the overall supervision of the President, the states are not. That’s why it’s imperative that a President should score at least 25% of votes in the FCT where he or she superintends over. Otherwise, we may have a situation in future where a President will score two or five per cent votes in the FCT and yet the FCT is still under his supervision. Wike should know that the annual budget of the FCT is subject to the approval of both chambers of the National Assembly unlike Rivers State. He should also know that he has no immunity again and must obey court orders and injunctions in his quest to demolish illegal structures in the FCT. As for Keyamo, now is the time to walk his talk and make the aviation sector better. He’s now a full minister. They should give Nigerians good leadership if the tribunal and the Supreme Court eventually uphold and affirm the election of the APC-led government.
-Ifeanyi, Owerri, 0806 156 2735
Dear Casy, when the American singer, Tony Wilson, came up with his song which painted politicians in lurid colours, describing them as men of too many words, I think he had the likes of Messrs Nyesom Wike and Festus Keyamo in mind. Reason? The duo’s second names are garrulity and political foxiness. Now that they have been richly rewarded by their Principal with political appointments for their political ‘smartness’, they should wisely drop that trait of ‘smartness’ at the door of hustings and engage in serious business of transforming their various establishments as contributions to reviving the nation that is presently at the intensive care unit (ICU) for economic surgical operation! The nation, right now, needs positive and patriotic actions for upliftment and not platitudes that are mainly self-serving but deceptively coated as if serving public interest.
–Steve Okoye, Awka, 08036630731.
Casmir, Nigeria is like a ‘political theatre’ where power drunken individuals have sold out their conscience in order to possess power. These ‘butter and bread’ politicians can kill, maim, denigrate, lie and dehumanize people in order to be political active. They are shameless and praise-singers. They sabotage their friends, relations and colleagues in order to be attractive to any government in power. Unfortunately, Nigeria is a country where lawlessness has been arrogated to a level of unqualifiedly prominence. Those who occupy leadership roles are mostly ungodly in all ramifications of leadership parameters. That incredible atmosphere allows such characters to flower into undue recognition. It’s my hope that with what is blowing around most ECOWAS sub-region currently, the arrogance, impunity and lawlessness-based government will one day retire for a truly democratically enthroned leadership.
-Pharmacist Okwuchukwu Njike, +2348038854922
