The Rising Tide of Change: A Call to Action for African Leaders Amidst a Wave of Coups
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the African Union (AU) should watch their backs because the wind of change blowing in the form of coups across the francophone countries of ECOWAS might spread to the English-speaking countries faster than the leaders would ever think. For example, eight francophone countries have executed coups or countercoups in the last three years. The countries are Gabon, 2023; Niger Republic, 2023; Burkina Faso, January and September 2022; Guinea, September 2021; Chad, April 2021; Mali, April 2020 and May 2021(The Africa Report.) The wave of resurgence of the coups in Africa should not only be concerning but discomforting.
The complacency of watching fathers transfer power to their sons by manipulating the constitutions of various countries as if they are running business empires and behaving like unconcerned citizens when Sodom and Gomorrah were meant to be consumed by the wrath of God or even wining and dining when the flood was rising to consume the earth in the days of Noah.
Besides, African leaders should stop romancing those stoking conflicts to destabilize Africa through the planting of surrogates or eliminating great African leaders who do not subscribe to imperialism by the West. They must desist from supporting corruption crimes that have kept the continent in a perpetual state of underdevelopment. They must also stop the vexatious and heinous culture of manipulating the constitutions of African countries to perpetuate leaders in power in Africa.
I am apprehensive because many African citizens need access to electoral freedom. Seemingly, African leaders are less concerned with manipulating the electioneering process, a time bomb that could explode at any moment. More military interventions might occur, and coup planners might use this as an excuse for staging coups. This is concerning and discomforting.
African leaders should not always think that they can use coercive agencies to harangue the people into perpetual slavery and don’t expect them to react at a point. The recent Kenyan uprising staged by the youths, who rose against their government’s insensitivity of increasing taxes amid rising poverty, should send a strong signal that even in the animal kingdom, when a goat is pushed to the wall, it could turn and use its horns against a perceived enemy.
The ECOWAS and AU leaders cannot tell the people not to cry when hurt. We often see that territorial boundaries do not matter when coups occur, and they all rush to sanction the coup planners and ask for democracy to be restored. In that case, they should also find a way to advise themselves in a borderless manner to uphold the rule of law of their countries. They should lock themselves in a room and admonish themselves to allow their citizens unfettered electoral access on the continent.
Given the above, I am writing to call African leaders to please set our people free. If not, in our native parlance, “One day, monkey fit go market e no go return.”
Happy Sunday. Grace and peace!!!