KAMPALA – Global Peace Ambassador, Milton Kambula has warned that military coups will continue to mar the continent if leaders fail to learn from history.
Military coups were a regular occurrence in parts of Africa in the decades after independence. But after a period of relative democratic stability, there are indications they are on the rise.
The takeover in Gabon is just the latest in a string of coups that have taken place in recent years and comes just a month after soldiers took control in Niger.
There were two in Burkina Faso in 2022 as well as failed coup attempts in Guinea Bissau, The Gambia, and the island nation of Sao Tome and Principe.
In 2021, there were six coup attempts in Africa, four of them successful.
Speaking to PML Daily on Friday, Ambassador Kambula blamed the recent resurgence in coups on overstay in power by leaders who have failed to offer good leadership that would ensure full utilization of African resources and indigenous people to get united to transform Africa economically, politically, and socially.
The failure of leaders to significantly improve the lives of their populations has left people frustrated and desperate,” he said in an interview.
“Leaders that traded on conflict used violence and guns to get to power, and have overstayed in office with limited development outcomes on the continent must learn from what is going on right now in African countries. See what is happening in Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, Guinea, and Gabon: the wave of coups and war may expand because people are discontented with unvisionary leaders together with foreign masters they represent,” Kambula said.
“When people resort to the use of force especially through coups, guns, bombs, and identity-based politics to capture power, they will offer the same type of leadership that will continue making Africa unstable both economically, politically, and socio-culturally,” Kambula said.
He asked the army not to continue being tempted into capturing positions of their bosses as this may become a culture of getting into offices hence frustrating peace, democracy, rule of law, and aspirations of local citizens.
Amb. Kambula said that most African leaders who captured power through coups and wars lack a clear vision, and because of this they change constitutions and structures to match their selfish desires and they end up resorting to looting, conflicting, misdirecting, and killing citizens especially those that try to provide alternative views to the development of the country.
He noted that today the same leaders who called for Pan-Africanism and Nationalism are the same leaders killing African innovators, entrepreneurs, environmentalists, policymakers, scientists, and persons with divergent views.“Our experience now is that we are faced with a different generation of thinking and dreams; we risk the future of our nations by trying to overstay in power while we have very limited capacity to cause social cohesion, peace, and economic prosperity, which the current generation is desperately demanding,” Kambula observed.“Our Presidents can’t hold anymore because less development is expected out of them. Their empty speeches don’t transform society. The focus must be handing over power after 7 years of service; and if possible, even much earlier if 40% of the population is not joining a super income economy.”
The Global Peace Ambassador highlighted the fact that once leaders stay long enough in power, they become preoccupied with only one agenda of keeping the regime in power which undermines the development agenda.
“We must give the opportunity to peaceful handover power to the next generation as this will give a chance for peaceful transition and opportunity to strengthen the foundation that previous leaders have built over the years. This would form the basis for the successful performance of the next regimes in power,” Kambula suggested.
He added that it was time for the African Union to further push for the Integration of Africa to become the United States of Africa under one president.
Amb. Kambula further suggested that Africa should be occupied with fighting wars around the transformation of education outcomes, opening borders for the same tax, pricing, and currency, as well as bringing indigenous Africans into the super economy by allowing value addition, industrialization, and celebration of extended Africa family values on wider scale replacing religions, laws, and politics that do not benefit Africans.
Sudan has had the most coups and attempted takeovers amounting to 17 – six of them successful.
In 2019, long-serving leader Omar al-Bashir was removed from power following months of protests. Bashir himself had taken over in a military coup in 1989.
Burkina Faso in West Africa, has had the most successful coups, with nine takeovers and one failed coup.
Nigeria had a reputation for military coups following independence with eight between January 1966 and the takeover by Gen Sani Abacha in 1993. However, since 1999 transfers of power in Africa’s most populous nation have been by democratic election.
Burundi’s history has been marked by eleven separate coups, mostly driven by the tensions between the Hutu and Tutsi communities.
Sierra Leone experienced three coups between 1967 and 1968, and another one in 1971. Between 1992 and 1997, it experienced five further coup attempts.
Ghana has also had its share of military coups, with eight in two decades. The first was in 1966, when Kwame Nkrumah was removed from power, and in the following year there was an unsuccessful attempt by junior army officers.
In 2021, the UN Secretary-General António Guterres said that “military coups are back,” adding that “geo-political divisions are undermining international co-operation and…a sense of impunity is taking hold,” he said.
Overall, Africa has experienced more coups than any other continent. Of the 18 coups recorded globally since 2017, all but one – Myanmar in 2021 – have been in Africa.
