President Akufo-Addo
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has announced to coup plotters that coups d’états will never be a sustainable option to Africa’s political, economic and security challenges.
He indicated that that sense of unity and conviction in Democracy as a natural and viable option should be enough to send a strong message to the fickle-minded and coup mongers that it has taken the continent a long time for consensus to emerge that democratic form of governance is preferable.
“We should not take it for granted that everybody has accepted democracy as the preferred mode of governance,” he, however, noted, urging that more needs to be done in public sensitisation..
President Nana Akufo-Addo said this when he delivered the keynote address at the opening session of African Union Commission Reflection Forum on Unconstitutional Changes of Government in Africa yesterday in Accra.
He told the Heads of State that more work needs to be done, particularly on leaders “who anchor after authoritarian personal rule because they claim Africa is underdeveloped and democracy is cumbersome and we need to get things done in a hurry”.
“This notice must go to those who seek shortcuts to office to exercise power without limits and to those who have no respect for the free choices of the sovereign people because they do not accord their so-called ideological preferences,” he stressed
Proposing a sell-rounded approach to sustaining the fight, he insisted that “statements condemning coups alone without corresponding action will however achieve little or nothing as witnessed in recent times.”
What is needed in addressing the problem, he explained, requires collective agreements, effective deterrence, bold action and equally important adequate preventive measures,” he noted.
What the books say
President Nana Akufo-Addo referred to a study by the African Centre for Strategic Studies which indicated that 18 African leaders have either modified or eliminated constitutional term limits in the past two decades. In addition, another eight resisted efforts to institute term limits, bringing the number of countries lacking constitutional restraints on political power to 24.
According to him, the same source noted that 21 countries upheld term limits and 15 now have them in their constitutions.
Citing the 2019 annual risk of coup report, he stated that Africa has experienced more coup d’états than any other continent, a tag which he described as an unsavory statistic. Also 30 percent of all coup attempts on the continent have occurred in democracies.
Deficiencies in governance, political greed, mismanagement of diversity, failure to seize opportunities, marginalisation, human rights violation, unwillingness to accept electoral defeat, manipulation of constitutions and unconstitutional means to serve personal narrow interest have been identified as factors underpinning unconstitutional changes of government.
Foreign interference
He also regretted the influence of some foreign countries in recent coups in Africa.
He argued that, while coups are often carried out by internal elements, they play in the interest of some foreign countries who take advantage to cement their influence and interests on the continent, revealing that these foreign countries instigate coup makers with disinformation campaigns to topple their governments.
“As much as the drivers are largely domestic, the international dimension cannot be overlooked. Foreign involvement in fomenting unconstitutional changes often in favour of repressive governments, foreign economic interest and other would-be geopolitical benefits are contributory factors,” he stated, insisting that such foreign entities engage in all forms of disinformation campaigns in a bid to disparage the authority of democratically elected governments and instigate opposition protests against incumbents.
He therefore urged African government to adhere to regional and continental agreements standing against unconstitutional take-over of governments since the occurrence of coups on the continent destroys the continent’s developmental agenda.
“The reappearance of coups in Africa in all its forms and manifestations must be condemned by all since it seriously undermines our collectives bid to rid the continent of the menace of instability and unconstitutional change of governments,” he charged participants.
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