There has never been any good story coming from a coup, especially on African soil. By definition, a coup d’état is a sudden change of government that is illegal and often violent, so there is nothing that is spectacular in any military change of government most of the time other than mere ego tripping or adventurism on the part of its planners.
The dawn coup in Gabon on Wednesday and the previous one in Niger Republic are not different from what had become the gravest aberration that had afflicted the African continent decades ago.
In Africa generally and some parts of the Asian world, military adventurism has retarded progress and destroyed nationalism. A cursory look at the African continent would reveal that military incursion has been the most negative factor that has led to the backwardness and underdevelopment of the giant.
Just before independence in countries like Ghana, Nigeria and some of their peers in West Africa, there was political awareness and orderliness. The leading lights in the colonies then aspired to take over the reins of governance from their colonial masters because they were burning with nationalism. They wanted to liberate their people from slavery and oppression by the colonial overlords. Then, their exposure to education had fired them up to the realisation of the evil of men lording it over their fellow men just because of their skin colour and economic, military superiority.
That is why when one dusts up history notes about all the nationalists then like Kwame Nkrumah, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, Tafawa Balewa and a host of others, and compares with the stuff of what their set are made up today, one would begin to wonder whether they existed in a different universe because of their nationalistic exploits. They were the leading lights in their societies even as young men with hot blood running in their veins.
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So at the dawn of independence when these young men were bequeathed political power, they hit the ground running. Instead of embarking on endless jamboree that are very popular today, the new set of leaders embarked on building their society for their people to live meaningful life in all ramifications.
Any wonder why names of Nkrumah, Awolowo, Azikiwe, Balewa, etc still resonate today even decades after their departures. The exploits of Obafemi Awolowo as Premier of the Western Region of Nigeria have continued to remain a reference point till tomorrow in Nigeria.
And when finally the white men departed and left the reins of power with this class of nationalists, they stood up and were equal to the task. The populace too were getting used to democratic ways of life. Of course, they were making their mistakes, but they were also learning and thus strengthening their resolve to provide quality leadership.
Quite early in the development of the African nations, democracy was fast taking root until when some set of men in uniform emerged to snatch power from the political gladiators, mouthing sanitising the society of corruption and mis-governance.
But just as the proverbial honey is very tough to taste and let go, once soldiers, out of adventurism, tasted power, they found it so difficult to leave. In fact, they did not spare anything, including putting their necks on the guillotine, just to grab power. And they held on to it perpetually.
For Nigeria, military incursion damaged what, at Independence, had become a fledgling democratic culture; when young men and women grew to be aware that it was the way of life to belong to a political party and remain a loyal member.
Even at the twilight of the colonial era, students came together to form youth wings of various political associations from where they began to learn the act of governance. Before military incursions, soldiering or the essence of joining the military had nothing to do with governance. It was just for the defence of their countries against external aggression and other career satisfaction/expression.
In Nigeria, for example, young men at the helms of affairs in their different regions were making their marks. While the likes of Sadauna of Sokoto, Sir Ahmadu Bello, was leading his people as Premier in the Northern Region, the likes of Michael Okpara were not sleeping in the Eastern part and the legendary Obafemi Awolowo was marshalling well in the Western Region. Then in the central government, the likes of Nnamdi Azikiwe, Tafawa Balewa and others were the icons people looked up to in the central government. And the country was the better for it.
But when the soldiers intruded prematurely into the governance of the nation, to quote the late novelist, Chinua Achebe, they put a knife on the thing that held us together and the centre could no longer hold. And things have fallen apart.
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Their intrusion violently disrupted the First Republic, decimated the leading lights of the government, then plunged Nigeria into a bloody civil war and the nation has since then been struggling to overcome its aftermath. And that was almost the same experience in all African countries.
After lording things over their country men for a long time in uniform, some of the Generals transmuted into civilian presidents to continue their rapacious reigns, with some relinquishing their seat for their heirs.
One is not oblivious of the roles played by different forces in all the mindless military putsch across the African continent, but the bottom line is that all the military men that ventured into coup plotting as a means of taking over the reins of power damaged the main fabric of the socio-political life of the populace. And most of the time, the painful part is that they did this for ego tripping and adventurism. They often mouth cleaning up the Augean stable of corruption, nepotism and what have you, but has there any place where coupists had fought corruption or all those things that they accused civilians of perpetrating?
Africans, for a long time, breathed a sigh of relief towards the beginning of the millennium as military ruled was becoming old fashioned until lately when the act of forcefully seizing power caught the fancy of some bands of young men along the French speaking belt of the sub Saharan region like Burkina Faso, Mali Guinea and the latest, Niger.
Since July 26 that the Niger coupists sacked President Mohamed Bazoum, nothing so concrete has differentiated the incident from previous putsch that had been witnessed in the subregion. It is all about ego tripping and adventurism.
Of course the elements in Gabon have mentioned electoral fraud and mis-governance as reasons why they struck. But seizing the reins of power by the military has not always solved any problem in Africa.
Some may argue that probably the Economic Community of West Africa States may have been unnecessarily harsh on the illegal regime by asking them to reinstate the sacked government and return to their barracks. But that is far from being the case.
The trend starting from Burkina Faso along the same line up to Niger and now Gabon should be quashed once and for all because the gangs of military adventurists wreak havoc, thus throwing the West African region, nay the African continent, into a monkey republic.
ECOWAS’s stand that they should leave is not out of place, but perhaps instead of telling them to reinstate Bazoum, they should be pressured to name a short transition time to quit the stage. They will rather commit suicide than bringing back the ousted president. These fellows don’t care if the country burns down. They have not disguised their aversion for any civilised association by shunning everybody that has tried to make them reason why sacking a democratically elected government is an aberration, especially at this time.
ECOWAS should maintain its rejection of their three-year transition period. The regional block should tighten its noose around their necks with more sanctions. Africans are tired of coups. It is regressive and old fashioned.
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