•It is unfortunate that the former president tried to justify coups to young Africans who visited him

Against the background of the sudden resurgence, in the last few months, of military coups in Africa, coming when many were optimistic that the era of violent overthrow of governments on the continent had been put behind, it is understandable that the subject of democracy and military interventions in Africa was the focus when former President Olusegun Obasanjo received a group of African youths at his Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library (OOPL) in Abeokuta, Ogun State. Sitting governments, most democratically elected, have in recent times been displaced by the military in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Gabon, reigniting debates on the prospects of democracy in the region.

Speaking at an interactive session on public service and governance with members of the Africa for Africa Youth Initiative drawn from Botswana, Benin Republic, Ghana, South Africa, Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, Obasanjo subtly but dangerously tried to justify military incursion into politics by submitting that bad governance was the fundamental cause of the recent coup d’e tat in some African countries. This appears to be a hardly disguised and mischievous attempt to rationalise military coups and mislead the young minds Obasanjo was speaking to into believing that perceived bad governance could be an acceptable and plausible reason for accepting military coups. Nothing could be further from the truth.

True to type, rather than point out the intrinsic evil, lawlessness and ultimate inefficacy of military rule in promoting good governance and development, the former President cited a purely personal reason for his purported hatred of military rule. He referred specifically to his bitter experience at the hands of the military dictatorship of the late General Sani Abacha, when he, alongside some other persons were jailed in 1995 for what many believed was a phantom coup plot charge. Despite this, however, he averred that it was the maladministration of many African leaders that was making citizens seek ‘alternative liberators’ beyond the government of the day, resulting in a wide acceptance of coups by the populace of affected countries. According to him, it was the practice of democracy without integrity, bad governance, nepotism and favouritism amidst sit-tight syndrome that are fuelling coups in Africa.

It is instructive that some of these ills identified by Obasanjo as being responsible for the new resort to military coups in Africa were also features of his administration during his eight-year stint as elected President of Nigeria between 1999 and 2007. Many analysts contend that his administration was grossly negligent in laying a solid foundation for democratic governance in the country, fought a hypocritical war against corruption, even as the menace thrived under him and compounded its impunity by Obasanjo’s brazen attempt to impose himself on the country for an unconstitutional third term, a move that was checkmated by a pro-democracy coalition. It is unfortunate that he foisted his characteristic dishonest selection of facts and skewed analysis on the young minds that certainly sought wisdom and enlightenment from a supposed elder statesman.

Playing the emotional card and seeking to exploit the sentiments of members of his young audience, Obasanjo referred to the desperate attempts by boys and girls from Africa to go across the Sahara and Mediterranean in a bid to get to more developed climes, particularly in Europe. In his words, “When you see and hear that kind of thing, what do you do? Yes, I love democracy, having suffered in the hands of Abacha, I will never love military rule; but if it has to come, what can we do?”. Here is Obasanjo at his pretentious best and his disdain and contempt for democracy is demonstrated more starkly when he told his visitors, “Secondly, we are told that democracy is the government of the people, by the people and for the people, but you may ask, which people? And what does this democracy deliver?”

Obasanjo’s statements to his young visitors were a complete misdiagnosis of Africa’s political problems and the challenge of coups on the continent. True, every democratic government must aim at good governance which promotes political stability and economic development. However, perceived bad governance cannot be a justification for unconstitutional change of government through military force. The lesson of our history is that most military governments that overthrow elected civilian ones due to purported bad governance end up providing even worse governance themselves. The people through free, fair and credible elections, and not the military, must determine the fate of extant governments as provided for by the constitution. Obasanjo is probably yet, despite his democratic pretentiousness, to live down his own personal trajectory as a past beneficiary of military coups in Nigeria.

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