The House of Representatives Minority Caucus has expressed its displeasure at the growing trend of military adventurism in Africa.
The leader of the Minority Caucus, Kingsley Chinda, identified bad governance, inordinate ambitions and outright disconnect from the citizens as the root causes of military incursions into governance.
In a statement he signed, Chinda cautioned the African Union, AU, against the use of force.
According to Chinda: “It is extremely sad, deeply worrisome, and pathetically shameful that the continent, in the past few years, has witnessed a sudden rise in military coups in some countries, thereby rolling back the gains of the democratic struggles for the return to the civil rule of the late 1980s and 1990s.
“It is totally condemnable that in the past decade, military putschs have taken place in Sudan, Mali, Tunisia, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Niger Republic and now Gabon. The fact that these countries are in the Western, Northern, and Central regions of Africa, which represent more than half of the entire continent, calls for serious concerns and debilitating worries.
“Confronted with the pains and miseries foisted by these sit-tight leaders on hapless citizens, who have been going through years and decades of bad governance, colossal economic hardship, serial social deprivation, deep-rooted poverty, deliberate intimidation and corrosive lack, military interventions of any guise will not only be welcomed but celebrated by citizens of these countries.
“Fact is, having suffered long and painful years of total neglect by their Leaders through official insensitivity, deliberate class segregation, enforcement of inimical political and economic programmes and other negative decisions and actions, sadly, the sound of martial music has become a welcome relief and friend for citizens.”
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Chinda wondered why leaders in these countries, in their respective bids to achieve inordinate ambitions, take decisions and actions to perpetrate themselves in office and in some cases, turn the leadership of their country to “family’s birthright.”
The now-frequent coups on the continent are also attributed to the sit-tight, obnoxious desires of some of these Leaders, who continuously manipulate and compromise the system to achieve their egoistic and undemocratic ambitions.
