Mursi’s removal as lesson for governance
Though some believe that the reasons were not only based on internal problems, the Arab spring protests were generally premised on feelings that life was becoming very difficult in the Arab world with derelict economic and social situations like unemployment, poverty and high food costs among others. In Egypt, the most populous among the Arab […]
Though some believe that the reasons were not only based on internal problems, the Arab spring protests were generally premised on feelings that life was becoming very difficult in the Arab world with derelict economic and social situations like unemployment, poverty and high food costs among others. In Egypt, the most populous among the Arab countries, there was reported massive income gap during the Mubarak era, an original cause of the uprising. A scholar, William Shaub, wrote; “One half of Egyptians live on $2 per day or less. The average per-capita income in the country is just $6,200.”
Mubarak, after ruling for almost 30 years, was in February 2011, forced out of office by popular protests. The people said they were fed up with high levels of poverty, corruption and unemployment. Then came Mohammed Mursi of the Muslim Brotherhood, to power through an election widely acclaimed to be free and fair. But just a year after, the discontentment among Egyptians continued, and the protests re-emerged with devastating consequences.
Even before the final announcement by General Abdul Fattah al-Sisi Wednesday night pushing out Mohammed Mursi, many knew that the president had obviously come to the end of his tenure, albeit in a somewhat forceful, undemocratic manner.
Before the final push, Mursi faced two daunting ultimatums—one from those protesting against his government and asking him to quit, and lately, from the Egyptian military who asked him to find an acceptable roadmap within 48 hours or risk one being imposed on him. In spite of these affronts, Mursi was only insisting on his legitimacy. Coincidentally, both deadlines expired on Wednesday, and the result of one appears in the circumstance, to have in the meantime, overshadowed the other.
Not much was known to have been done by Mursi, who narrowly won the presidential election in June 2012 to become Egypt’s first democratically elected president, to avert the impending scenario. Apart from being accused of doing nothing significantly to address Egypt’s prevailing economic and social problems, Mursi reportedly kept a significant distance from key institutions and sectors of society, and the country was seen as becoming more polarised between his supporters and their opponents.
Mursi, it appeared, either refused to read the handwriting on the wall or heed the advice of those who could interpret it to him. US President Barack Obama cautioned him to be responsive and listen to his people by perhaps, offering some acceptable political concessions. Rather, as the deadline approached, Mursi only insisted that he was Egypt’s legitimate leader, warning that any effort to remove him by force could plunge the country into chaos.
He felt that as a democratically elected president, he could legitimately cling on to power, even when millions were taking to the streets in anger against his style of governance, with many getting killed. In the end, his removal was effectively managed, and Egypt still remained. The inability of Mursi to stabilise his country after the general disenchantment with the previous administration is seen by analysts as entrusting someone with a responsibility too heavy for him to handle.
Reacting to the development on Wednesday night immediately after the military’s announcement, Nigeria’s former permanent representative at the United Nations, Ambassador Sulaiman Dahiru told Daily Trust: “There is always this problem whereby people from nowhere become presidents even when they are not prepared for it. You find that such people don’t know what to do with it, like Mursi”.
He just couldn’t read the hand writing on the wall, or perhaps simply under-rated the military as a very powerful institution in his country. At a time when tempers were already at the peak shortly before the deadline, Mursi could only muster courage to suggest a coalition arrangement. Of course, by then, the head was already off, as the opposition ignored him and rather chose to talk with the military. And indeed, the military rose to the occasion in a bid to avert further chaos.
Mursi’s fall according to Professor Isawa Elaigwu, the President, Institute of Governance and Social Research, Jos, should serve a lesson that the military is part of the society and has interest in the society. “It sees itself as the soul of the society”, he said.
From the foregoing, it is obvious that a country’s military has a solemn duty to perform in consolidating its stability, and cannot sit back permanently when the country they swore to defend and shed their blood for, is being unnecessarily toyed with, or arrogantly and mischievously governed. If leaders learn to govern well, and restrict themselves within constitutional confines and have profound interests of the country and people at heart, the military will always naturally be saved the headache of extending their duties beyond defending the fatherland from external aggression or other internal peacetime duties. Leaders who do not listen to their people, do not care when lives of their country men are wasted or abused, or remain nonchalant when people starve, or are homeless and unemployed just when a few swim in affluence, usually make the military uncomfortable with the internal burden of thinking that they are themselves failing the people, a situation the Egyptian military got entangled in. An analyst who prefers to be known simply as Solomon, says the Egyptian military were gentle with Mursi by giving him a deadline. They could easily have swarmed on him without any notice, after all, all the prolonged protests and killings without any political solution were enough notice, he said. Leaders who listen to their people and read the handwriting on the wall, rule longer, stronger, better.