Extracts from a Paper delivered at Security Conferences held in Sweden and Finland in late January 2024 by Prof. Kwesi Aning, Dean of Academic Affairs of the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Centre, KAIPTC in Ghana highlight the causes of military takeovers in the West Africa Subregion.
Per the reflections of the Security Expert, ”State Capture” by internal forces of individual nations, and the poor response by Ecowas to reversals on democracies, explained to be uneven scales to similar situations, have slipped the subregion down the road of Coups.
Prof. Aning recognizes the democratic gains made by the West Africa Subregion in the immediate post-Y2K period but noted that gradually constitutional rule incurred major losses in the form of state capture an advanced variant of winner-takes-all mode of governance. He said the incidence returned to the fold not suddenly but through a systematic political malaise.
Among the nations that smelled coups are Guinea Conakry, Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso. There have been attempted coups in Guinea-Bissau, and Sierra Leone. The Ghanaian Security Expert said Senegal is undergoing a prolonged but certain curtailment of democratic gains.
BELOW ARE THE SUGGESTED CAUSES OF THE RECENT COUP D’ETAT IN WEST AFRICA.
- Corruption
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Gradual spread in extremist violence or insurgencies particularly in the Sahel region, and to coastal states to some extent.
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Electoral fraud.
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Human rights abuses.
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Institutional weaknesses, or the political manipulation of the judiciary and the legislature.
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Togo and The Gambia rejected the two-term cap on elected governments breaching the uniform principles.
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The failure of Ecowas to deal with misrule by governments, and the lack of response to governments that extended their rule by forcing changes to constitutions.
CHALLENGES POSED BY EXTERNAL POWERS
The blessings in the discoveries of rich natural resources, and the alleged Islamist-related attacks across the Sahel have drawn big powers to the nectar and the militancy. The discoveries of oil and gas reserves, gold, uranium, and aquifers have made countries such as Chad, Niger, Mauritania, and Senegal to be of greater strategic importance to the following external powers.
A Western group represented by France, Germany, and the United States, an Eastern group made up of Russia and China, and a group of emerging powers represented by Turkey, India, UAE, Brazil, and Iran. These groups crisscross the path of Ecowas in a territory of common or mixed interests.
CONCLUSION
Prof. Kwesi Aning said the net effect of Ecowas’ inactions and inconsistencies is that it has brought collective shame to an already divided organization, made more visible by the decision of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger to quit the group. However, he said Ecowas is still an important force for democracy and stability in the region simply by enforcing its own rules consistently.