Now that Gabon Has Joined the Pack

CICERO/ISSUE

The recent military takeover in Gabon was obviously a rebellion against tenure elongation and acute misgovernance the Central African country witnessed in the last 63 years of its independence, Gboyega Akinsanmi writes

While the African Union (AU), Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and western powers are still ruminating on what to do about the military takeover of power in Niger Republic, Gabon, a Central African country with a population of 2.43 million, last Wednesday, fell to the iron fists of soldiers. 

The military takeover, obviously unconstitutional, put paid to the reign of President Ali Bongo Ondimba, who governed the oil-rich country since October 12, 2009.

The putschists did not just truncate Ondimba’s 14-year government that was encumbered with acute legitimacy crises. They equally ended the dynasty of Omar Bongo that had been in control of Gabon for 55 unbroken years. The dynasty came into being in December 1967 when Bongo first became the president of Gabon. 

Until his death on June 8, 2009, Bongo governed Gabon for 42 years, leaving behind legacies of abject poverty and untold miseries. His son, Ali Bongo Ondimba, sustained these horrible legacies, starting from the heavily flawed election that brought him to power on October 12, 2009 to scathing economic woes that had destroyed the purchasing power of the country’s currency.

The legacies crystallised into the coup plot that occurred on August 30, four days after Gabon’s general election was conducted. As a result, the putschists placed the ailing Ondimba, under house arrest. Likewise, one of his sons, Noureddin Bongo Valentin and Chief of Staff, Ian Ghislain Ngoulou were apprehended for alleged treason.

The fall of Ondimba brought the number of countries currently under military rule in Africa to seven within three years. From Mali to Burkina Faso, Chad, Guinea, Sudan, Niger and now Gabon, military rule is on a steady rise on the continent. No fewer than 12.72 per cent of independent states that constitute the AU are currently under military rule.

The coup had immediately elicited stern responses from the diplomatic and international communities, especially AU, Commonwealth of Nations, ECOWAS, European Union (EU) and the United Nations (UN). The great powers – China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States – also reviewed the coup with discordant tones.

While France, UK and US reaffirmed strong opposition to coups, China and Russia viewed it differently with separate messages of cautious optimism to all parties without expressing concern about the proliferation of military regimes on the continent.

For many analysts, the response of China and Russia depicted outright disregard to civil rule, a system of government that had brought relative stability to Africa’s political space in the last three decades.  Rather, as shown in their statements, both China and Russia simply called the key actors to embrace dialogue without condemning the seizure of political power through coercion, guns and violence. 

But what triggered the August 30, 2023 coup, the first successful military incursion that Gabon has ever witnessed since it became independent on August 17, 1960? General Brice Nguema, the Commander of the Gabonese Republican Guard that truncated Gabon’s 63-year civil rule, partly provided justifications for the incursion in a nationwide address he delivered after he led the rebellion.

Nguema first cited irregularities that characterised the August 26 presidential election. He, specifically, noted “a serious institutional, political, economic and social crisis,” which the country has been going through. The crisis was compounded after the conduct of the last presidential election. For the putschists, the process lacked transparency, credibility and inclusion that Gabonese hoped for.

Besides deep-seated discontent about the presidential election, the putschists cited Ondimba’s ailing conditions, which they claimed, resulted from a stroke he suffered in 2018. Yet, with this condition, as the putschists observed, Ondimba, now 65 years old, but practically invalid to discharge the duties of his office, refused to steer the process that would end up in democratic transition. 

 Despite his ailing condition, Ondimba sought a third term in contravention to Article 9 of the Constitution of the Republic of Gabon, 1991 (as amended to 2020). The article simply stipulates that a president is elected for a term of seven years, by universal and direct suffrage with a right to seek a second term.

Are these grounds sufficient for the putschists to truncate civil rule? Experts in international affairs largely shared the concern of the putschists. However, they argued, truncating civilian administration is not an antidote to diverse concerns the putschists have expressed about an uncertain future confronting Gabon and its people. 

Though coup d’etat is not an antidote to Gabon’s irresponsible government, former Minister of External Affairs, Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi observed that the military “is the only institution that can check Ondimba’s unconstitutional conduct and disrupt his plan to perpetuate himself in off by hijacking the state and its institutions.”

Will Gabon’s coup be the last in Africa? Like Akinyemi, Professor of African Studies, African Leadership Centre, King’s College, London, Prof. Abiodun Alao foresaw more military incursions in Africa, which according to him, should be expected in countries that were noted for authoritarian regimes, regime protection and self-secession. 

From Equatorial Guinea where President Teodoro Obiang has been ruling since 1979 to Uganda where President Yoweri Museveni has been holding forth since 1986, Africa is still a home to at least 10 civil regimes, which according to Akinyemi, have no regard for their constitution and treaty obligations that emphasise adherence to democratic principles. 

The checklist of such countries include Cameroun, where President Paul Biya has been in control since 1982; Eritrea where President Isaias Afwerki has not transited power since 1993; Congo Brazzaville where President Sassou Nguesso has dominated political space since 1997; Rwanda where President Paul Kagame has resorted to self-succession since 2000; Togo where Président Faure Gnassingbé succeeded his father in 2005 and Cote d’Ivoire where President Alassane Ouattara has refused to transit power since 2010.

Perhaps in response to the gradual return of military rule in Africa, Biya carried out major changes in Cameroon’s armed forces to further strengthen grips on the presidency. Kagame too promptly retired 83 senior officers including 12 generals. But will these exercises stop military interference as envisaged?

The Chairman of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government, President Bola Tinubu has pledged to defend Africa from “autocratic contagion.” But he did not explain how he planned to reverse the rise of autocrats on the continent, especially in countries where bad governance has become a norm in the last two decades or where the presidents have altered the constitutions to elongate their administrations.

For decades, the AU has been a participant observer of gross infractions to its own treaties and protocols by authoritarian regimes. Yet, it has been treating the regimes with kid gloves, which analysts believed, had been a recipe for the spread of military incursion in Africa. 

Until the AU starts placing stringent sanctions on their members for failing to honour constitutional term limits and ensure accountable governance, the military will not stop usurping political power on the continent rather than focusing on their core objectives.