A file photo
The August 30, 2023 coup that ousted Gabon’s President Ali Bongo Ondimba has come as a surprise but one carrying several messages, depending on what argument one wishes to make.
The surprise is that, unlike a good number of African countries, Gabon has been ruled by a coup leader for just two days since its independence on August 17, 1960, after becoming a territory in 1910.
History has it that that country’s first president, Léon M’ba, elected in 1961, with Omar Bongo Ondimba as his vice, was toppled in a coup d’état on February 17, 1964, and his political nemesis, Jean-Hilaire Aubame, installed president by the military plotters.
Aubame assumed power for just two days after which order was restored on the night of February 19 following France’s intervention.
M’ba was reelected in March 1967, but died of cancer in November 1967 and was succeeded by his vice, Albert-Bernard Bongo, who came to be known later as El Hadj Omar Bongo Ondimba (or simply Omar Bongo), who ruled for almost 42 years, until he died in 2009.
Upon his death, his son, Ali Bongo Ondimba, succeeded him by winning that country’s 2009 presidential election.
Ali was reelected in 2016, but observers said the election was marred by numerous irregularities, arrests, human rights violations, and post-election protests and violence.
Another aspect of the surprise is that an attempted coup in Gabon in 2019 should have taught Ali Bongo a lesson to avoid anything that could truncate his rule and third-term bid, yet he did not care about the recurrence in 2023 of some of the acts that marred his 2016 reelection.
Probably, he thought but now proven erroneous, that he would always have his way and coups could not succeed in Gabon.
Now, everyone, organisation, political blocs, and even whole countries can express relevant views, both negative and positive, that can be seen as messages being carried by the Gabon coup.
On our part, the coup is sending certain signals and the earlier the whole of the African continent identifies those signals the better for democracy on the continent.
To be honest, some of us thought the coup-motivating factors were strong in only West Africa but our view can be debated and defeated.
With events in Gabon now, we would rather say that it seems certain things are going on in former French colonies on the continent that need to be found and fixed.
Currently, military juntas are ruling in four West African countries, namely Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali, and Niger, and these are former French colonies.
We must not only condemn these juntas and blame them for drawing back democracy in their respective countries and across the continent.
We need to go further to ascertain the causes, and specifically what the ousted presidents did before their toppling.
Before now, West African leaders probably thought coups were becoming a sub-regional headache and so they were going to use military force to restore democracy in Niger and by that single act stop coups in their jurisdictions.
We remember the African Union in joining the fray in condemning the coup in Niger and we want to say that condemnation cannot stop coups.
If it could, none of the recent five coups would have occurred because earlier coups elsewhere had been roundly condemned.
African leaders must be advised strongly that they should always play by the rules, common sense, and morality.
Why should two members of the same family, father and son, rule a nation for 56 years?
Father and son ruling at various times may not be wrong but forever is a huge problem.
Africa must grow democracy.
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