Of coups in W/Africa’s Francophone belt

The real and realistic antidote to military coups in Africa is ‘good and responsible governance’. Nothing more, nothing less. Their deficits create the needed ‘excuses’ for coups even when the military administrations are no better eventually.   Bad governance opens to democracy a ‘window of vulnerability’. After all, as late MKO Abiola once said: “Politics (governance) […]

The real and realistic antidote to military coups in Africa is ‘good and responsible governance’. Nothing more, nothing less. Their deficits create the needed ‘excuses’ for coups even when the military administrations are no better eventually.  

Bad governance opens to democracy a ‘window of vulnerability’. After all, as late MKO Abiola once said: “Politics (governance) is not about the kingdom of heaven but about making life better for people on earth.” 

Fledgling democracies in Africa, nay, the developing world need to be up and doing and be genuinely responsive to the aspirations of their peoples. 

The Niger-ECOWAS debacle is particularly intriguing; not when the Francophone states have lately turned into the latest “coup belt” of Africa. 

Is there more to the recent coups in this belt beyond the normal military adventurism? Why this upsurge of coups in the Francophone and NOT the Anglophone axis of the West African sub-region? 

Do we fear to look deep into the abyss so that the abyss doesn’t look back into us?  

Sure, there are things known and there are things unknown and in-between is the door of conjecture. 

Military coups remain an aberration for any polity and should not be condoned but then, we must not also ignore those things that give rise to them. 

The handling of the Niger-ECOWAS issue calls for the greatest diplomatic and political tact. It must be handled gingerly like a dynamite. The minefield staring at us menacingly must be carefully meandered to avoid the unleashing of combative salvos. 

Talks and dialogue which men avoid before shooting wars are what are eventually resorted to, to end such wars. 

A word is enough for the wise. 

Celsus Ohain, a veteran journalist and scholar of Global Diplomacy, wrote from Benin City