Folks are raising their eyebrows at the spate of military coups in Africa. According to one report covering just the last three years, there have been eight coups starting with the first in Mali in 2020. Then in 2021 five countries experienced military interventions (Chad, Mali, Guinea, Sudan, and Niger). In September special forces ousted the President of Guinea who’d removed term limits the year before! Earlier in the year, Chad’s army took power after the president was killed on the battlefield while visiting troops fighting rebels in the north. Mali had a second coup after the installed 2020 president broke promises.
Matters in the coups department didn’t let up. In 2022, there were also five attempts, with two – both in Burkina Faso – succeeding. And that brings us to the year 2023 – which has seen two coups – in Niger and Gabon – and the year ain’t even over yet!! The coup in Gabon exemplified all that makes the African country’s coup-prone. President Ali Bongo Ondimba was just about to extend his 14-year stay in power after the electoral commission declared him the winner of the disputed presidential election. In 2009 he’d succeeded his father Omar Bongo – who’d ruled uninterruptedly for FORTY-TWO YEARS!!
In those fifty-six years, the country remained mired in poverty even as Gabon became the fourth largest oil producer in Africa. Corruption got so bad that even France – which had turned a blind eye to Papa Bongo’s depravities – had to arrest some of the children of the Bongo dynasty for secreting millions in their country!! There’d even been US Senate investigations into accounts in Washington stashing money for Papa Bongo – while ordinary citizens were scrounging for food.
There’s been a lot of chatter about the latest coups being in the “Francophone” Sahel region of Africa. That goes back to 1885, of course, when at the Berlin Conference, the European nations sat down in that European city and drew lines on a map of Africa to decide who owned which part!! Imagine that!! No African at the table…and even Belgium’s King Leopold gets the Congo that’s at least ONE HUNDRED TIMES LARGER than it!! France and England got the lion’s share!!
The point of it all was for these European countries to rape Africa of its natural resources – and as Rodney showed, to keep them poor and underdeveloped. In the case of those French so-called “ex-colonies”, France still controlled them by being in charge of their monetary system. But hopefully, that’s now gonna be over!! Your Eyewitness hopes our hemispheric hegemon learns the lesson from French mistakes.
To wit while all countries will seek to further their own interests, don’t back anti-democratic regimes – and insist the citizenry get their share.
…with the COP?
PNC and Opposition Leader Aubrey Norton’s making a mountain out of a molehill over the extension of COP (ag) Hicken’s appointment – now that he’s reached age 55. The irony is, it was his Founder Leader Forbes Burnham who introduced the 55-year retirement time -limit – but as usual, did so to secure his dictatorship. In 1967, as he was preparing to rig the 1968 elections, he instructed the 54-year-old COP Felix Austin to promote some police officers. Austin balked and Burnham promptly sent him on a one-year training program in the US!!
By the time he returned, Burnham had gone to parliament and altered the Regulations so that Austin could be fired and the most pliable “Bobo” Austin – no relation to Felix – be appointed. But even then the new Regs made the retirement discretionary up to the age of 60 – when it became mandatory.
Now Norton is using some technicality of Hicken being “acting”, the rule doesn’t apply!! He’s no Forbes!!
…tastes?
Yes…to fulfill our 25BY25 goal we don’t only gotta produce more – but get our people to eat more of what we produce. We can’t be like Burnham who pushed “Buy Local” yet lusted for – and snuck in – Condensed Milk on the sly!!
