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Africa has yet again occupied the front pages because of resurgent coup d’etats across the continent. The latest is the overthrow of the Government of President Ali Bongo Ondimba of Gabon by Gen. Brice Nguema, the head of the junta and a relation of the Bongo family.
The coup occurred soon after Bongo was about extending his 14-year hold on power, having been declared the winner of a rigged presidential election that would have further elongated his family’s 56-year reign in the country.
Bongo has been incapacitated by partial paralysis since he suffered a stroke in 2019 but instead of concentrating on his health, he still manipulated the system to cling onto power, thereby stirring anger in the land.
The coupists accused the government of “irresponsible, unforeseeable governance that has resulted in the steady degradation of social cohesion which risks leading the country to chaos.”
In order to defend peace, the junta said, they decided to put an end to the regime in power.
Within the past three years alone, Africa has experienced about seven coups, with West Africa accounting for five of them – Burkina Faso, Chad, Guinea, Mali, and Niger; the other two are Sudan and Gabon. The reasons proffered for the putsches are not much different. They revolved around civilian despotism, corruption and disgraceful failure of governance as well as pandering to the dictates of vulture foreign powers, such as France, stripping bare the souls of the land and devouring the same with devilish relish.
In the case of Niger, the head of Niger’s Presidential Guard, Gen. Abdourahamane Tchiani, cited rising insecurity and poor economic situation, while pushing aside President Bazoum and declaring himself the new leader of the famished land. He also warned against external interference, much to the chagrin of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, and African Union, AU; even the United Nations, which has imposed sanctions on the junta.
The AU/ECOWAS is more of an assemblage of evil-compliant geriatric men, howling ineffectively in the wind, most times issuing unconscionable calls for the reinstatement of their co-collaborators in evil.
Their voices are now drowned by the weight of the much evil they condone and the masses revolt through demonstrations on the streets.
Where was AU when in 2005 after the death of Gnasingbe Eyadema, his son, Faure, was foisted on the people after a sham election where results were declared even in territories where elections never held? What have they done since then, as Faure manipulated the rules and remained in office, probably also grooming his son or daughter to succeed him, as he did his father?
Where was ECOWAS when the President of Equatorial Guinea appointed his degenerate son as vice president and apparent successor? Do not AU/ECOWAS not see the travesty going on in Senegal where Macky Sall is scheming for a third term after framing his opponent And u7l ⁵y5 intimidating and manipulating the wimpy judiciary to keep his opponent off the scene despite doubtful promise not to run.
In the case of Cote d’Ivoire, inexplicable occurrences paved the way for Allasane Quattara’s return for a third term, as strange deaths befell whoever he appointed as a likely successor. About three of them died before he decided to run for a third term and got it, maybe to save the country from more deaths but will he live forever?
What is happening in Cameroon is tragic-comic. President Paul Biya does not live in Cameroon. The infirm 90-year-old man is too old, and frail to govern. He lives in Switzerland. Being unable to walk, he is always brought to Cameroon on National Days and aided to the podium, and on Election Day to vote. He is then ferried back to his abode in Switzerland even while electoral results are being compiled and then brought back to be sworn in as president. That is the cyclic shameful drama that AU ignores.
In Rwanda, Paul Kageme has been there for 23 years. Although he has recorded some measure of achievements, it should not entitle him to the presidency for life. Uganda has been tottering under Yoweri Museveni for decades. Even his son seems to be getting impatient to succeed his father.
Yet the so-called African leaders would be swift in congratulating the ‘winners’ but expect to be relevant, especially in the eyes of the restless youth whose hope for tomorrow has been snatched and dashed by the ancients that glue to power and make a mess of the collective destinies of Africa.
One wonders why the AU is comfortable with the unconstitutional dynasties and monarchies being imposed on Africa by demonically, sorry, ‘democratically’ elected leaders but angry with equally madmen in uniform, who shove aside their civilian counterparts to impose their own leadership.
Before Prophet TB Joshua died, he prophesied that revolution was coming. We do not need to invoke his spirit to know that the revolution has begun. Did not Omoyole Sowore trumpet ‘Revolution Now’? He was as prophetic as Joshua.
Make no mistake about it; it is not that Africans prefer military regimes to civilian democracy because they are almost alike. However, increasing disenchantment and disappointment of the citizenry with the purported democratic institutions leave them with no choice but to hope that things could be better under the jackboots. Unfortunately, the populace sooner gets further frustrated because the military itself is as guilty as the civilians, or worse.
The military is not really a better option. For instance, soldiers have been in power in Mali since 2020, yet the Islamic State terrorist group has in less than a year almost doubled the territory they control in the country. Burkina Faso recorded two coups in 2020 but instead of its economy growing, it shrank to 2.5% in 2022 from the previous year’s 6.9%.
According to the latest United Nations Human Development Index, at least, half of the 54 countries in Africa are among the 30 least developed in the world. Sadly, most of them, especially in West and Central Africa, are brimming with natural resources whose rich profits have not impacted the citizens.
It is these resources that have attracted neocolonialists to the region. France has never let go. The West and recently Russia are scheming on how to pillage the wealth of the land even as the people go hungry and naked. Abominably, they always find collaborators in greedy wayfarers in politics shielded under the tattered umbrella of AU-ECOWAS.
People are frustrated and made desperate to the point of embracing military regimes because of the failure of vote robbers to positively impact their lives.
Here’s what Gen. Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida, IBB, Nigeria’s former benign despot, said: “To stage a coup, there is one basic element that everybody looks out for: frustration in the society…We find coup easier when there is frustration in the society.”
So, obviously the coups are invited, inevitably. Rather than making funny noises and threatening thunder and brimstone or applying funny sanctions, AU-ECOWAS should compel African leaders to remove whatever causes frustration in the society.
A wind of change is swirling across Africa. There’s no stopping the the ill wind for those that collaborate with outlier forces to crush the peoples of Africa but soothing to the panting skin of the people made coarse by unwarranted burdens.
Indeed, the African continent is bleeding because there is no godly leadership. Those masquerading as leaders are mostly bigoted, self-imposed gamblers. The wind had since blown away their moral compass and that is why they no longer wield desired influence on the people.
They could subjugate the will of the people but have never been able to break their spirit. So, the coerced body of the citizens does not align with their angry spirit, which yet holds the ‘leaders’ in derision and contempt.
Any leader who wants to survive in office in today’s Africa; who wants to keep the military at bay knows what to do, and it is not too arduous: Be considerate and godly; let the people’s votes count and then give a quality account of your mandate.
Let Africa stand for Africans and let the West and their poisoned aids go to hell. With good leadership that can deploy its abundant wealth for the people’s good, Africa can stand on its feet and actually give aid to the West, not vice versa. It is possible!
