The coups that enfeeble Africa

Yet one more coup d'etat has taken place in Africa. This time the military has deposed Niger's elected President Mohamed Bazoum and installed itself in power. After Burkina Faso and Mali, Africa is thus up against soldiers whose unbridled ambitions have caused havoc across broad stretches of it.
The Niger coup has been having grave repercussions. On the one hand ECOWAS and the African Union have held out the threat of regional military action against the coup leaders if Bazoum is not reinstated within a week. Though it remains unclear as to how such action will be organised and which African countries will take part in it, it is obvious that in an era when political illegitimacy in the form of coups is increasingly being discouraged, some ambitious generals are unwilling to shed their desire of seizing power through the gun.
On the other hand, Niger's military has been playing the conspiracy card, this one against the French government, accusing it of planning an invasion of Niger. That statement has been accompanied by images of hundreds of Nigeriens trying to storm the French embassy in Niamey, prompting Paris to demand that French citizens in Niger be guaranteed safety. Added to that is the suspicion that now the Russians are making moves to enter a region where anti-western hysteria is gradually being generated.
It is all so unfortunate for Africa. In recent years the continent has shown promise in terms of economic progress. Businesses have been picking up, largely as a result of the democratic changes which have been coming into the landscape. Countries like Nigeria, which once was a breeding ground for soldiers to commandeer the state, have in these past many years done much to uphold democracy despite the flaws associated with such exercises. The position of ECOWAS and the AU are reflective of a trend where regional cooperation has been becoming the norm.
Africa of course is not the only region where coups in these times have undermined democratic aspirations. Myanmar remains a prime instance of how soldiers cheerfully go into the business of undermining the popular will. Aung San Suu Kyi, whose National League for Democracy attained a huge majority at the last elections, was not only deprived of carrying on in government but was arrested, put on trial and kept in an isolated location. In Thailand, General Prayuth Chan-ocha seized power nine years ago but his party lost at the elections this year. And yet the parties which outpaced the military in gaining popular votes have found themselves confronting impediments to forming a democratic government for the country.
The history of coups in Africa goes back a long way. Through the 1960s and 1970s as also the 1980s, the continent was a hotbed of armed military action against civilian governments. Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah was deposed by the military as he landed in Beijing on an official visit. Abubakar Tafawa Balewa's government was brutally removed from power in Nigeria. Sudan has had its spell of coups, beginning with Ibrahim Abboud's takeover in 1964.
Somalia has been destroyed by its soldiers and its warlords. In Egypt, General Abdel Fatah al Sisi overthrew Mohammad Morsi, the elected President, in a coup. Decades prior to that, HouariBoumeddienne removed Algerian President Ahmed Ben Bella and had the latter held in detention for fourteen years. Samuel Doe violently removed the government of President William Tubman in Liberia and plunged the country into chaos in 1980.
That dark phase, if one ignores the recent coups in Africa, is now in the past. But it is these new coup makers in Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso who will need to be flushed out of the scene if the continent is to bring itself to its full potential. That is not to say that African countries where democracy has taken centre stage are going through happy times.
Corruption, bad governance, authoritarian practices and the tendency of rulers to hold on to power are but a few of the ailments which prevent a full flowering of the popular will in nations where democracy is tentatively part of politics. Senegal is an instance where the opposition is being effectively silenced through detaining the opposition politician OusmaneSonko and clamping a ban on his party.
Senegal was once a model of what the African future could be. Its poet-President Senghor exemplified a distinctive form of nationalism in the country. That idealism is now no more part of the country's politics. In the Central African Republic, President FaustinArchangeTouadera, who has been in office since 2015, is now intent on having presidential terms extended from five to seven years.
If the referendum he has organised goes his way, he will continue in office till 2025 and perhaps will run again. In Sudan, the army and the Rapid Support Forces have in these past many months ruined the country through their running battles against one another. It is a situation which reminds one of the ways in which the Mujahideen factions destroyed Afghanistan following the withdrawal of Soviet forces from the country in the late 1980s.
Around the world, countries which once were prone to coups are today home to civilian elected governments. Turkey is a shining instance of democracy deepening itself, though the same cannot be said of Pakistan, where the army continues to operate the levers of power.
But come back to Africa, where a democratised Tunisia in the aftermath of the fall of Zine el Abidine Ben Ali is struggling to free itself of the authoritarian clutches of President Kais Saied. Robert Mugabe's successor in Zimbabwe has so far not inspired any feeling that the country will move on to proper democracy.
But, yes, there is hope in such nations as Zambia, where President Hakainde Hichilema has made it known that he means to lift his country to heights which will turn it into a significant regional player. Likewise, Tanzania, Malawi, South Africa and Kenya remain focused on promoting democracy to its furthest limits. That inspires hope not only in Africans but in people around the world.
Every coup d'etat is debilitating for a state. Every action by a general against established elected civilian authority aimed at removing such authority from power is behaviour which goes against the principles of political morality in our times. When soldiers overthrow a government, it is a sign of the weakness of democracy in that pluralism is yet not strong enough to beat back the pretenders to power and indeed subject them to the full authority of civilian rule.
If the Niger military bows out, though, it will be a sign of democracy acquiring maturity not just in Africa but elsewhere around the globe.

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