West Africa for the past few years has witnessed a number of military takeovers. The region has been an unstable place despite the countries gaining their independence from their colonial masters. Since 2020 there have been number of coups and coup attempts in West Africa. Mali witnessed her coup in August 2020. This was followed by attempted coups in Niger and Central African Republic. Mali saw another military takeover in May 2021 while Guinea got their share in September 2021.
Burkina Faso also witnessed 2 coups alone in 2022. Earlier this week the democratically elected government in Niger was also removed from office. This coup has generated so much attention with many asking the role of ECOWAS in all of these coups. Some ECOWAS leaders have resolved to militarily intervene in Niger and have given the coup leaders up till Sunday to restore the democratically elected government.
President of Liberia, George Weah has reacted to the coup in Niger and according to reports questioned why West African leaders allow their colleagues to constitutionally manipulate their constitutions without questioning them and yet are quick to react to coups. He called on West African leaders to be bold to criticize their colleagues so as to prevent the occurrence of coups.
Kwesi Pratt, managing editor of the Insight newspaper has reacted to the coup in Niger. According to him democracy has failed to transform the continent. He added that no revolution has been caused through voting and lambasted ECOWAS leaders led by Nigerian President Tinubu for calling on an armed intervention in Niger. President Akufo- Addo has also called for calm and said democracy must be restored to Niger.
Kwesi Pratt, while speaking on Pan African Television' s Alhaji and Alhaji today, Saturday, August 5, 2023 also paid respect to George Weah for being bold to tell West African leaders to act constitutionally in order to prevent coups. According to Kwesi Pratt he never believed that George Weah had such wisdom until his message to ECOWAS. He noted that George Weah had won his respect as a sensible and wise president for making this call to other West African leaders
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