By Owei Lakemfa
There are civilian or constitutional coups in Guinea Bissau and Senegal, yet the regional body, the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, is pretending otherwise. It appears interested only in military coups, not those carried out by its bosses in the Heads of State Summit.
Yet, the ingredients of a coup are present in both countries where the constitution is subverted, the President assumes dictatorial powers, parliament is illegally banned as is the case in Guinea Bissau or emasculated as in Senegal, and the judiciary is under siege to do the bidding of the President.
Guinea Bissau, when it was one country with Cape Verde, produced Amilcar
Cabral, one of the greatest Pan Africanists in history. Tragically for Africa,
on January 20, 1973, Cabral at 48, was assassinated in Conakry, Guinea in a
conspiracy linked with the PIDE, the secret service of then colonial master,
Portugal.
However, the African Party for
the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde, PAIGC, which he led, survived, and
led the country to independence. But the country has been plagued by violence
and coups leading to Cape Verde breaking away on January 20, 1981.
On December 20, 2019, retired
General Umaro Sissoco Embalo, a former Prime Minister, defeated the PAIGC
candidate, Domingos Simoes in a disputed presidential election.
In May, 2022, President Embalo
carried out a constitutional coup by dissolving parliament citing “persistent
and unresolvable differences” with the parliament. Rather than ECOWAS
sanctioning him, it elected Embalo, two months later, as the Chair of the
Authority of Heads of State and Government of ECOWAS!
On June 4, 2023, the opposition
coalition, the PAI Terra Ranka, led by the PAIGC, swept the parliamentary
elections. But President Embalo refused to allow it function.
On December 4, 2023 Embalo again
dissolved the parliament, claiming the Speaker, Domingos Simoes, wants to
overthrow him. He also put the Supreme Court and its president under armed
siege, forcing the latter to “resign”.
Despite these civilian coups by
a man who was the sitting Chairman of ECOWAS, the regional body has kept mute
in cold complicity. But ECOWAS will yell, if there is a military coup.
Senegal is the only West African
country fortunate to have escaped a military coup. A 2012 attempt by President
Abdoulaye Wade to run for an unconstitutional Third Term, was resisted, and
Macky Sall was elected. In turn, Sall decided to run for an unconstitutional
Third Term which in June 2023 led to street protests with 16 killed. Sall
backed down, but got opposition leader Ousmane Sanko out of the race by getting
him convicted.
However, as the February 25, 2024 presidential election approached, Sall
decided on February 3, to extend his stay in power by indefinitely postponing
the election on the basis that there is a dispute over the candidates list.
But the issue of the
presidential candidates of political parties is the business of the party,
electoral body and the courts, not the President of the country.
Unfortunately, ECOWAS, which has
a reputation of chasing shadows, would not tell Sall the truth or defend
constitutional rule. Rather, it same day, sanctioned Sall’s illegality by
accepting the postponement . In its Saturday, February 3, 2024 statement,
ECOWAS accepted the postponement and tamely appealed to the Sall Gang to
“expedite the various processes in order to set a new date for the elections”.
Then it praised Sall: “The
ECOWAS Commission salutes President Macky Sall for upholding his earlier
decision not to run for another term and encourages him to continue to defend
and protect Senegal’s long-standing democratic tradition.” Incredible! First,
it was not in Sall’s place to decide not to run for a Third Term; it is a
constitutional limit.
Also, Sall actually shed the
blood of Senegalese who protested against his initial attempt to run in
violation of the constitution. So, a serious ECOWAS, rather than praise him,
ought to demand that he answers for the murder of pro-democracy Senegalese on
the streets.
This ECOWAS statement which
“…encourages him (Sall) to continue to defend and protect Senegal’s
long-standing democratic tradition”, unfortunately presents Africans as idiots
. This is because Sall, rather than defending and protecting the democratic
tradition, is actually, endangering it. In fact, Sall is the greatest danger to
democracy in Senegal.
Then after renewed street
protests, the Senegalese Parliament met on Monday, February 5, 2024 on the
indefinite postponement. During sitting, security forces removed by force,
parliamentarians opposed to the postponement. Then rather than restore the electoral
calendar, what is left of that parliament, endorsed Sall’s decision to
illegally extend his tenure, by postponing the presidential election by ten
months. This, of course, might be an initial date as it can always be
postponed.
Rather than be concerned about
the non-democratic postponement and its implications for democratic governance,
ECOWAS, the next day, issued another of its pathetic statements.
Where even the United States
which is not known to be a Sall antagonist, declared that the Senegalese National
Assembly vote “…cannot be considered legitimate given the conditions under
which it took place”, ECOWAS chose to be silent on the undemocratic process.
Rather, it took refuge in bland sermons, reminding “…the population and the
political class of their responsibility to maintain peace and stability in the
country”.
To show the ECOWAS mindset and
its lack of principles, it ended its second statement with a pledge to “…take
all necessary steps to support the government and people of Senegal in their efforts
to sustain the country’s democratic tradition”. How can ECOWAS pledge to
support the subversive Sall government in Senegal that has no regard for
democratic cultures, the will of the people and their human rights?
So, if tomorrow, such a
government is overthrown, ECOWAS will be shouting about democracy and the
sanctity of the constitution when it is actually in connivance with the Sall
regime to subvert the constitution and democracy in that country.
In 2016, following Gambian
presidential election, there was a dispute between incumbent President Yahya
Jammeh and opposition leader, Adama Barrow. ECOWAS on January 19, 2017 sent a
regional military force, the ECOWAS Mission in Gambia, ECOMIG, to force Jammeh
out. It was tagged ‘Operation Restore Democracy’. When the over 4,000 ECOWAS
troops, mainly from Senegal reached Banjul, Jammeh stepped down and left the
country. The ECOWAS then installed Barrow who had been sworn in as President,
not in the country, but in the Gambian embassy in Dakar, Senegal.
The Gambian situation is way
better than what is going on today in Senegal. At least in the case of the
former, presidential election held, while in that of the latter, presidential
election is being prevented from holding. Yet, ECOWAS is engaged in double speak
and ambivalence.
*Lakemfa is a commentator on public issues
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