DEMOCRACY, ELECTIONS AND INTERVENTIONS

The antidote to military intervention and the protection of democracy is good government, argues Dayo Sobowale

The integrity of elections has always been the true test of any democracy as well as the legitimacy of the leaders who emerge as products of such elections. My concern in this space and henceforth, is to focus on the quality of elections and the performance of governments ensuing from such elections on a comparative basis both on a regional or geopolitical and global basis. I take a peep at some interesting political scenes in world politics today and it is difficult to find more interesting places now than the nations and governments I will identify, where the use and romance of power and its intoxicating effects are on display more than my choice picks for today’s analysis. The nations are Niger Republic and Nigeria in ECOWAS or West Africa, the USA and France, the former Francophone colonial power in Africa.

I will briefly give some background on the issues that have attracted my attention before proceeding to highlight their importance for comparative government analysis. In Niger Republic there was a coup on July 26 when the elected government was sent packing and given the boot by the nations’ military. Nigeria  –  Niger’s  big  neighbor in terms of population and not land mass, condemned the military coup and since its newly elected leader has just been elected Chairman of ECOWAS the regional community of a 15 – nation member states of which  both nations are members   –   mobilized for a one – week ultimatum for the errant Nigerien  soldiers to report back to the barracks or face military intervention by ECOWAS .

In the US, the leading democracy of the world, the sound of music on elections is getting bitter and grating to the ears,  with one election nose diving into another and a charge of treason literally dangling around the neck of the last president,  even  as he remains, and in spite of that, the leading opponent of the incumbent US  president of the day as the US prepares for the next election in 2024. With France it is a handwringing political and diplomatic perplexity, as it watches its colonial heritage in Africa  disappear into hostility and  hatred in Francophone Africa as protests have shown that former French colonies and their governments blame France for their present poverty and suffering and even their worsening climatic condition in the Sahel, as well  as the terrorism and insecurity of Islamic jihad in sub- Saharan Africa .

With these initial observations in place, let us proceed on seeing the emerging lesson therefrom. In Niger’s military intervention we see a copycat of what happened recently in Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso. Indeed the three nations have declared solidarity with Niger which is to be expected as birds of the same feather flock together. This is a return to the gale of military interventions that swept away the first set of African leaders in the sixties immediately after independence. The charge against the Independence leaders were corruption, tribalism and nepotism and the coups were popular then. The politicians were replaced by soldiers in government but they too showed they were not immune to the vices of those they displaced in government. That led to the bloody coup in Ghana in which Rawlings executed three former military leaders in one day. Globalisation made military coup unfashionable and democracy the vogue for many years, until it reared its ugly head in Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso in recent times. The antidote to military intervention and the protection of democracy however is good government and delivery of promises made at elections. ECOWAS should be wary in the way it sends delegations to coup leaders in their nation to avert an hostage crisis as hostage taking has become a common crime in the region nowadays. Diplomacy should be used strongly to show respect for the sovereignty of such nations so as not to injure the pride and patriotism of the citizens as well as their leaders.

In the Nigerien military intervention the world is looking up to the US for solution and an American official, a lady who met the leaders said  the meeting was difficult. Indeed America has its own internal problem first caused by Donald Trump’s MAGA – Make America Great Again –  which  meant    the US was inward looking for the one tenure term of  the Trump  presidency. His successor Joe Biden is promoting Woke Culture and its government priority is promoting gay and gender rights and it has scant respect for marriage and the family. The insensitivity of sending a woman to negotiate with a military regime in Niger, a Muslim nation under arms of mutiny, is lost on the Biden government and one can understand why the female US diplomatic leader said the talks were difficult with the Nigerien coupists.

It is pity for France that its initial objective of helping Francophone nations fight jihadism and terrorism failed and the reason is not far- fetched. The Sahel is populated by Muslims and the Jihadists have sympathy if not empathy in such environment and any foreign power killing them cannot have sincere support of those living there for long. Add that to the resentment of French colonialism and you see why and how the French have outlived their presence in the Sahel or indeed the whole of Africa.

Sobowale is of Arise News