Coups and bandits are all the rage these days.
Just the other day, December 7 to be exact, there was the hot news that soldiers of neighbouring Benin Republic Armed Forces led by Lt-Col Pascal Tigri had staged a coup ousting President Patrice Talon.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu of Nigeria was quick on the take to announce that he had ordered Nigeria troops to foil the Benin coup.
There were gasps in some quarters that a country that can abort a coup in another country has been quite unable to lay a hand on the bandits terrorizing Nigeria for years on end.
It is akin to, quoting Adaora Lily Ulasi’s novel title, “many thing you no understand.”
Back to Benin Republic, when he found his voice after the tense moments, Beninoise President Talon announced to his nation that the attempted coup was thwarted by loyalist troops.
It is not in my constitution to dwell in the neither here nor there matter of tales by moonlight.
The developing story coming on the heels of the circumstances is that Burkina Faso grounded Nigeria’s NAF jet and detained 11 Nigerian military officers over airspace violation.
The Alliance of Sahel States (AES) of which Burkina Faso is a strong pivot is a zone of relentless coup manufacturing, and it is well worth knowing that a coup gunman can never let you pass by him with an ordinary machete let alone a gun or jet-fighter.
It has to be stressed that the resurgence of coups across the African continent commands urgent attention.
Let’s recall that the small Central African country of Gabon was rocked by a military coup in the wee hours of August 30, 2023.
The Gabon putsch occurred just barely over a month after the July 2023 coup in Niger Republic.
Between 2020 and 2023, a welter of African countries, notably, Gabon, Niger, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Chad, Mali, and Sudan came under the charge of military dictatorship.
While the coup in Gabon marked the end of the 55-year-rule of the Bongo family, the Niger coup abruptly ended the civilian regime of the then newly elected President Mohamed Bazoum.
In both instances, economic degeneracy and electoral malfeasance were the buoys of the coup leaders.
It’s remarkable that the streets rose in tumultuous support of the coup makers much to the chagrin of ill-assorted defenders of democracy.
There were also jubilation on the streets of Conakry in September 2021 when the military ousted President Alpha Conde of Guinea.
The attempts to preach popular democracy in the bid to stop the coup plotters have been very ineffective over the years.
For instance, the order by Nigeria’s President Tinubu as the leader of the Economic Committee of West African States (ECOWAS) that the coup honcho and head of Niger’s Presidential Guard, General Abdoulrahamane Tchiani, should immediately hand back power to the ousted Bazoum was flatly rebuffed.
Maybe it’s worth celebrating that Tinubu’s command on the Benin Republic aborted coup stood up triumphant.
Let’s raise a toast to democracy!
Nigeria used to rank quite high in the coup business until 1999 when General Abdulsalami Abubakar handed over civil power to ex-General Olusegun Obasanjo.
From independence in 1960 to the transition to civil rule in 1999, Nigeria experienced nine successful military coups and three aborted putsches.
It was after the annulment of the June 1993 presidential election and the diabolical coming to power of the iron regime of General Sani Abacha who wanted to transmute to a civilian democratic leader of the country that the majority of Nigerians, with the support of the international community, somewhat avowed: Never Again!
The heart of the matter is that democracy must render dividends to the people for them to defend it.
It is steeped in history that leaders – martial or civil – generally earn acceptance when they can guarantee the wellness of the populace.
Culturally, democracy and the African chief are not the best of friends.
An African chief sees the throne as his forever, and he is therefore alarmed that democracy makes the case for elections, and the concomitant change in leadership. Asking the chief to quit power is akin to trying to move a mountain.
This way, holding an election in Africa is a high risk venture as the votes of the people hardly ever count.
Election has been turned into coup at the polls!
Even when an incumbent clearly loses an election there is no guarantee whatsoever that he would accept the result.
Ex-President of Nigeria Goodluck Jonathan who led the West African Elders Forum Election Observation Mission to monitor Guinea Bissau’s recent presidential election alleged that President Umaro Embalo staged the military coup in his country to avoid losing the election!
It all points to this truism of the new age – Even as a president, if all else fails, manufacture a coup against your own government!
The military coup somewhat becomes a Deus ex Machina, as in the theatre, that resolves all the overhanging issues.
It was even the supposedly ousted President Embalo, walking about freely, who announced his “arrest” by the military coup manufacturers!
Call it a ceremonial coup made by the manufacturers of coups in Africa!
Even so, let’s end on this hopeful note – Now that Nigeria can stop a coup in Benin Republic there is the hope that the Giant of Africa will some Monday, for sure, finish off the bandits making the country an uninhabitable human abattoir.