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The resurgence of coups in certain countries in Africa has attracted the attention of stakeholders who warned that such recurrence portends grave consequences for Africa’s governance structure.
This observation formed part of the deliberations reached during the last edition of the Toyin Falola interviews series which was live-streamed to a large audience across the globe on various social media handles. The audience had leading peace experts, historians, policymakers, diplomats, opinion moulders, among many others.
The panel of discussants, led by leading historian, Professor Toyin Falola, had Colonel Festus Aboagye, a retired analyst and a consultant on UN/AU Joint Planning for AU Peace Support Operations, a UNDP consultant on Disarmament in South Sudan, an adjunct member of the Centre on Democratic Transitions- Ghana, and a former member of Save the Children International Military Advisory Group; Dr. Mary Owusu, a historian of ancient and modern Africa. Her research interests lie in the areas of African intellectual, political, and development histories; Dr. Vladimir Antwi-Danso who specializes in International Security, Geo-politics, and Regional Economic Cooperation and Integration; Dr. Biodun J. Ogundayo, an Associate Professor of French and Comparative Literature at the Bradford Campus of the University of Pittsburgh, PA, and the director of the Africana Studies program; and His Royal Majesty, King Fuankem Achankeng, a conflict scientist and professor at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh.
Speaking, Colonel Aboagye stated that: “There are two waves of coups within the continent. The current wave in my reckoning is the third wave. Between the first and second, and third, there were episodes decline in the spate of coups. But as we turned the centuries, there was post-cold war. We decided to establish some laws in order to go a new path in post democratization. There was the African Uniion’s 2000 Lome Declaration; ECOWAS’s Supplementary Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance. This emphasized that the only pathway to political power shall be through elections which must be free, fair and transparent. Despite all of these interventions, we still continue to have both military and civilian unconstitutionalities. It tends to appear that there was resurgence. These have implications for African governance architecture as well as the security peace architecture. Indeed, this discourse is as a result of this spate. Among the schools of thought which believe that the discourse must start from the civilian leaders who employ undemocratic strategies including re-engineering constitutions to remove term and age limits basically to entrench themselves in power. There are the classical cases of Rwanda 2015, Burundi 2015, Congo 2015, Uganda 2017, Zimbabwe in 2017. From my estimates, in West Africa, we have had 11 such civilian unconstitutional attempts. Since 2003, there have been such in seven countries: Burkina Faso, two years, 2005 and 2014; Togo, 2005, 2015; Benin 2016, 2019; Guinea, 2020; Senegal, 2023; The Gambia, 2021. Indeed Gambia also has an episode this year. Such leaders have also employed very disturbingly systems of constitutional tyranny accompanied by violence, imprisonment, killings and exiling of political party oppositions especially. This is simply to meet their parochial interests.
“On the other side of the equation, since 2000, Africa has also witnessed some 25 successful coups in 14 countries: Burkina Faso, four episodes; Central African Republic, three episodes; Chad, one episode; Gabon 2023; Guinea, three episodes; Guinea Bissau, one; Mali, Niger, two episodes; Egypt, one episode; Madagascar, one; Mauritania, two episodes; Sudan, two episodes; Togo and the intriguing one by Zimbabwe. Let me remind us that my timeline is post cold war 2000, not the recent reckonings of 2020. Yet ten West African states have experienced about 17 coup attempts besides significant crises in Benin, Cote d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Togo, Gambia, Guinea and Senegal.”
On January 23, 2022, Burkina Faso experienced a coup d’état. On January 24, the military made a television announcement that President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré had been removed from office. On July 26, 2023, the presidential guard of the Republic of the Niger detained President Mohamed Bazoum. Shortly after declaring the coup a success, presidential guard commander general Abdourahamane Tchiani assumed control of a new military junta.
Also speaking, Dr. Ogundayo opined that “I appeal with our presidents and leaders in ECOWAS for compassion for the people of Niger. I respect whatever decisions you take even though I disagree but for the sake of compassion please let in food and medicine. We can sit on any international forum and have endless debates about democracy and the rest but it is also important to put ourselves in the shoes of the people living in Niger Republic who have no hand in whatever is happening now and who really have never had a hand. Whatever we are doing to Niger in terms of sanctions has reverberations in the rest of Africa. There are real life consequences to whatever decisions are taken in diplomatic corridors.
“There is the utter lack of respect for the humanity of black people. France is replicating in Africa what it did in Haiti. France is talking about the universal rights of mankind; it promotes itself as a very diplomatic nature and culture and yet it has total disregard for some of the stipulations of the Vietnam Conventions. The theme of West Africa and resource control is reflected, for example, whenever there is an election in Nigeria, our politicians have to go to Chatham House to seek approval on how we intend to run our African countries. About last year, the president of the United States called a meeting of African leaders in Washington. There is the issue of Africa’s resource country at the bottom of all these. I don’t think the West, especially France, really care about the economic and social conditions in which Africans live daily. Haiti was the crown jewel of France’s colonial empire. It garnered for France at least 20 per cent of its GDP when sugar was king and we know what France did in Haiti. We constantly need to awaken or reiterate the historical connection that what is happening today is not a coincidence. It is just a lot easier to expose the hypocrisy of the French credo of liberty and egalitarianism.”
In her submission however Dr. Owusu noted that a lack of democratic dividend is at the heart of the new wave of political coup d’état. According to her, “Is there something new here? Starting with the 1950s through to the 60s, we had the anti-colonial struggles. In the 60s, after the euphoria of nationalism, we had political entrenchments by the fathers of independence. By their entrenchments, we led ourselves to coups. At the 1990s, we started with the euphoria again of democracy. But today, we are having coups. Just like we did in the 50s and 60s, we are identifying international machinations. We are talking about France all the more because the French-speaking African countries are involved in the latest democratic overthrows. We are seeing at a front political dividend in terms of democracy, and on the other hand, Africans are not feeling the economic dividend of this democracy. Therefore, there is widespread unhappiness among the ordinary which can be said for all of these areas we have talked about. What is new here is that we have different actors and a different timeframe. Revisiting the past is one of the ways we can move forward. Coalitions disintegrate when the common enemy is gone. If it is really France, are we sure that when France goes, the people will feel the economic dividends? No. In Ghana, we have had several coups; we got rid of many leaders. But do we feel the economic dividends?”
King Achankeng was emphatic when he argued that something was fundamentally wrong with Africa, saying that: “Unfortunately, the recent coups and military takeovers appear to have come to many by surprise. That is why I am surprise. Why would the coup come to anyone as a surprise? Who is aware of the leadership question on the continent? Why would the coups come as a surprise when we are aware of the living conditions of people on the continent six decades and counting after independence? Why would the coups come as a surprise when political power is monopolized by the ethnic origins of leaders? There absolutely ought to be no surprise when we consider the kind of leadership in Africa and what African people go through.
“What may be surprising were the reactions of the West and the initial reactions from ECOWAS, calling for war, supposedly to restore the democratic process in Niger. Not surprised from the West just being true to themselves. It is very surprising though was the reaction from ECOWAS. The West continues to prioritize their own needs over the aspirations of Africa. But ECOWAS called for the restoration of democratic process without looking at their own practices in the mirror. What has been most surprising is what this people have done or thought of doing when they ought to be thinking of their own practices especially in the different countries in the West African region.”
Antwi-Danso, in his submission, warned that coups in Africa cannot be wished away if the appropriate measures are not taken. “If you look at the first and second waves of the coups that we have had in Africa, there were conspiratorial coups. These were coups where one or two persons conspired to take over the government for other politicians or themselves. They were actually made by lower rank officers. But what is happening today is of a different character. It is systemic. There is confusion between democracy, development and colonialism. These three things are working together against the stability of African nations. If you watch out, you will find out that generals are the ones carrying out the coups. The justification is clear. The state is stagnating. It is declining. Such coups are a response to the decline of the nations. If we don’t want unconstitutional change of government, then it must start with ourselves. What is the ECOWAS, AU or EU worried about? When the constitution was manipulated, what did we say? If we don’t take care, there are several other countries which are candidates for coups especially where there is stagnation, decay and decline. We must watch out. The current coups cannot be stopped just by merely wishing them away or threatening to use force.”
Various interventions were made during the virtual meeting and participants were drawn from various parts of Africa and beyond.
