By Raymond Nkannebe

Resurgent Coup d’états on the African Continent bring back sordid memories of a distant past in the conventional history of African politics. When it made its first stop in Sudan on April 11, 2019, it was thought by many analysts to be a fluke. But successive occurrences in Mali, Tunisia, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Niger, and only recently, Gabon, have exposed a method in the madness in a manner that is most disturbing, yet not unforced.

Whereas Coup d’états are in principle, an illegitimate takeover of a duly constituted legal order, the sheer popularity of these military incursions in almost all the indicated countries has left political scientists grappling with the question of legitimacy. To the extent that every government gains currency and legitimacy from the level of support it garners in the general population, could it really be said that these boisterous military orders are illegitimate in the actual sense of it? I would think that this is a question political scientists must answer.

Make no mistake, it is the local acceptance of these regimes by the masses that have complicated efforts at ‘delegitimizing’ them within the framework of ECOWAS, the African Union, and their allied regional organizations. It would therefore appear that the African Continent is dealing with a new problem that her leaders are clearly not prepared for; and one which has been touted to be bankrolled outside the shores of the continent with Russia being the first suspect.

From one incident to the other, one notices that the default response of African and Western leaders has been the often repeated and arguably time-worn narrative that “the worst democratic regime is better than the best military government”, in their case for a return to a constitutional order.

This is a clear indication that these distant leaders (clearly removed from the reality of their societies) and arm-chair foreign policy experts are living in a bubble of their own. What is not confuted however is that the mass of African peoples who have paid the supreme price of the excesses of African leaders are not interested in the sloganeering of government theories clearly designed to perpetuate the selfish interest of the fat cats sitting on their common wealth. This is the message writ large from the jubilant scenes witnessed in Mali, Niger, Gabon and elsewhere.

The point is that African leaders; particularly those with a notorious proclivity for sit-tight must wake up and smell the coffee otherwise they might continue to wake up to a people’s revolution anchored on the quest for socioeconomic freedom and liberty.

That being said, I think the situation in these countries calls for deft diplomacy. Like the proverbial fly that perches on the scrotum, it must be handled with delicate care in order not to make an already bad situation complicated. The threat of sanctions and/or mobilization of a regional army against the military juntas would not cut it; particularly against the backdrop of the fact that they are coming from governments battling their own share of legitimacy crises at home, such as the government of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in Nigeria.

Clearly lacking in moral authority, ECOWAS & African Union Leaders must look in the mirror and begin to remove the log of wood in their own eyes before attempting to remove the speck of dust in those of neighboring countries whose peoples are rising up to the extreme demands of citizenship.

Now to the mutinous army who might have stepped up to the “call of duty” in these countries, I hope that it would not be lost on them that immediately the honeymoon of their unconventional ascent to power is spent, they would be subjected to even higher standards by this cheerleading crowd today. The scope of their mandate therefore, should not exceed charting the framework for a new constitutional order in their respective countries within a ‘reasonable time’.

That is the only way they would have justified the enormous goodwill they now enjoy. That is the only way they would have risen to the pantheon of such revolutionaries who answered the call of the motherland; not for self; but the higher calling of nationhood.

A Writer and Global Affairs Analyst, Raymond Nkannebe is of Ken Ahia SAN & Associates.