Military Coups in West Africa–Why are they coming back?
What is going on?
By Alusine A. Sesay
There have been five coups across West Africa in the past months amid growing public frustration and collapse of trust in state institutions.
Military Coups in West Africa–Why are they coming back?
What is going on?
There have been five coups across West Africa in the past months amid growing public frustration and collapse of trust in state institutions.
“Democracy” has been poorly practiced by politicians and its surrogates among the business elite.–
The problem of worsening insecurity, deepening of grinding poverty, abuse of public offices, widespread and mindless corruption among the political elite, grand corruption and inefficiency in the bureaucracy or public service are daily experience for millions of people in West Africa today.
Deepening and widespread poverty which is the corollary to wasteful human capital and arrested factor in national development; remain as the essential obstacle to economic growth.– Fritting away resources to maintain rule-based democracy that DO NOT challenge the productive base and unlock its potentials for sustainable growth, remain the most existential deficit of democratic rule in the sub-region.
The events of the military take-overs in Mali, Guinea ,Burkina Faso et al in the past months is not the occasion for grand rhetoric of condemnations and denunciations,– as condemnable as they seem, but occasion to soberly reflect on the critical missing links in the operation of democracy in ECOWAS and The ECOWAS as an Institution..
I always ask myself, –If seeming apparatus and rules of democracy are in place, why is it failing?– is a crucial question and additionally, the question should be asked whether the process and institutions by which democracy is operated, is rooted in the existential reality of the sub-region. —
Are they mere hybrids displaying outward bloom but lacking in the popular consensus of broadly rooted legitimacy? Huh?
Time will tell.
“Democracy” has been poorly practiced by politicians and its surrogates among the business elite.–
The problem of worsening insecurity, deepening of grinding poverty, abuse of public offices, widespread and mindless corruption among the political elite, grand corruption and inefficiency in the bureaucracy or public service are daily experience for millions of people in West Africa today.
Deepening and widespread poverty which is the corollary to wasteful human capital and arrested factor in national development; remain as the essential obstacle to economic growth.– Fritting away resources to maintain rule-based democracy that DO NOT challenge the productive base and unlock its potentials for sustainable growth, remain the most existential deficit of democratic rule in the sub-region.
The events of the military take-overs in Mali, Guinea ,Burkina Faso et al in the past months is not the occasion for grand rhetoric of condemnations and denunciations,– as condemnable as they seem, but occasion to soberly reflect on the critical missing links in the operation of democracy in ECOWAS and The ECOWAS as an Institution..
I always ask myself, –If seeming apparatus and rules of democracy are in place, why is it failing?– is a crucial question and additionally, the question should be asked whether the process and institutions by which democracy is operated, is rooted in the existential reality of the sub-region. —
Are they mere hybrids displaying outward bloom but lacking in the popular consensus of broadly rooted legitimacy? Huh?
Time will tell.
