By: Nfansu Camara
Sandu Kuwonku
It’s not so ambiguous for even a blind person to see the recent constitutional breakdowns orchestrated and engineered by military interventionists who had showcased dissatisfaction fuelled and ignited by the conceived perception of maladministration within the continent of Africa particularly the ECOWAS bloc.
Over the past half-decade, the ECOWAS region being a sub-regional body responsible for preaching the tenets of constitutionalism and trashing any attempts of downplaying the legality of democratic establishments, has experienced and witnessed uncountable constitutional destabilizations. The fundamental question one must ask is, what are the genesis of these constitutional breakdowns?
It has never been oblivious that African leaders are always at the forefront of subverting the legality of our democratic dispensation and deeply institute themselves at the helm of political leadership to the detriment of the people.
It’s clearly evident that many political anchormen and women perceived leadership, especially political leadership as a matter of life and dead issue and whosoever wishes or wants to protest against that will be badly rewarded with the most nefarious gift of liquidation or be subjected to caging within one confinement.
Movingly, it will be outrageously inconsiderate for one to support this unconstitutionality by disposing of a democratically elected government or destructing a constitutionally established order, but one should be tempted to say that the genesis of these illegalities was a result of subversion of the constitutional order by the sitting governments and compromisingly amending certain segments of the constitution for one’s political aggrandizement. Not to unconstitutional amendments!!!
As Plato philosophized that militarists should be in barracks and allow the elites (political practitioners presumably) to spearhead the affairs of the people while they safeguard the territorial integrity of the country but what we have seen over the past five years is an opposite interpretation of what he (Plato) philosophized. The question to be asked is, have they (the political practitioners) fulfilled the contract (social contract) with the citizenry?
If they had fulfilled the contract with the citizens, we should not be seeing leaders trying to subvert the constitution for solid political installation or not being unable to fulfil the promises they made to us during the epoch of the electioneering period.
My prescription is that when constitutional coups are discontinued and the third limit is given the portion it deserves, peace and tranquillity will flourish, and the development pace of the continent would have been at the highest level. These unending coups would have been a thing of the past. As the old age saying goes “no matter how good a dancer is, he or she must know when to relinquish the stage.”
The recent seizure of power in Niger is a clear manifestation of the level of dissatisfaction and untrustworthiness the military has towards the elite class and when that happens, it germinates to such political brouhahas. It’s, therefore, germane for the political leadership to be corrupt-free and spearhead over the plights of citizens in the most possible way that will usher in a transformative
development.
The conduct shown by some vituperated protesters to vandalize the French embassy is another disadvantage of military interventionism to dispose democratically elected government. The French authorities have also threatened to apply the principle of reciprocity in diplomacy when the vandalism continues.
In conclusion, the Constitution should be respected by all leaders, and they should not utilize the powers bestowed on them by citizens to subvert the verdict of the people for self-perpetuation.
I pray and hope that the Almighty restore orderliness and tranquillity in all the countries experiencing political unseating. The ballot box is more sophisticated than the barrel of guns!!
