Abba Hamisu Sani
Africa-Press – Nigeria. Waves of Military coup in Africa now from the West Africa to the central Africa.Gabon is the recent country to experienced the menace as the Niger Junta have already set up their machineries by appointing the prime minister as the head of the government and ministers to run the affairs of different Ministries.
With all the threats Niger received from the West African sub- regional organization ECOWAS and its former colonial master France the Junta under the leadership of Abdourahamane Tchiani stood its ground as it continued to enjoy support from the country’s citizens through different demonstrations against France and ECOWAS.
The actions of Niger people particularly youths indicated the former leadership under President Mohammed Bazoum who was democratically elected President was not catering for their basic needs of people of the nation which is rated as the poorest country in the continent.
The kind of bad leadership exhibited by African leaders like Niger make citizens have no choice but support any regime that they think might put food on their table.
The leaders turn their countries resources to be like their personal belongings .
Gabon is a country of 2,436,566 people which accounts for 0.03 percent of the world population.
The course of the Military takeover in the central African nation is attributed to election rigging as the incumbent President Ali Bongo Ondimba is seeking for the third term.Ali Bongo and his father rule the central African country for 56-years.
The country which is the fifth richest African country but the citizens are finding it difficult to survive because of poverty.
The Gabon Coup d’etat and the matters arising
The coupists led by Brice Oligue toupled the Ali Bongo’s 14 years government on 30th August 2023.
As Gabon joins the league of African countries under Military rule such as; the The Republic of Chad, Niger Republic ,Sudan, Burkina Faso, Guinea and Mali
Other reasons that might be part of the military coup in the oil rich country beside the suspected rigging during recent polls is the strong tie that exists between Gabon and it’s former colonial leader France. Now Gabon is the fifth Francophone country under the military.
Nigeria should learn lessons from Gabon and Niger Republic
Nigeria being the giant of Africa economically with the population of 220 Million People and the largest producer of crude oil coupled with the enough natural and human resources .
The Nigerian Government under President Tinubu who is the chairperson of the Economic Community of West Africa ECOWAS should rethink about some of its decision which push the citizens in to the economic hardship as poverty and unemployment rate increased to the level that majority of the people can not even eat or transport themselves from one part of the country to another for commercial and social activists.
These policies include ; fuel subsidy removal from the day one of Timubu’s administration and Foreign exchange rate unification.
While the policies are biting harder in reality, some categories of elites keep praising the decisions and the President.
Such stress put on the citizens is what makes citizens of the countries affected by the military coup to support the Juntas in Nations like Niger Republic and Gabon.
To avoid such incidents the present government should be mindful of the citizens’ plight as it always urged the public to be patient while those in government are living in luxury and the same government created additional financial burden on the government by appointing a large number of Ministers.
Femi Falana is a renown human right lawyer .He’s said Nigerians are provoked by government spendings as he warned the Nigerian government and the political class not to provoke the citizens to mutiny.
Falana gave the warning in Abuja while speaking at the National Symposium organized by the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, with the theme: “Nigerian Economy and the Crisis of Survival: Robbing the Poor to Pay the Rich. “
The warning is coming on the heels of the forceful removal of a democratically elected government through a coup d’etat in Africa by the soldiers.
The activist lamented that while the government has told the poor to tighten their belts and suffer the burden of the economic issues in the nation, public officials keep spending lavishly.
The legal luminary also attributed the recent trend of military juntas in Africa, particularly the most recent one that occurred in Gabon, to a number of factors, including the ruthless exploitation of African countries’ mineral resources by the west, third term syndrome, political manipulation of the constitution, and the establishment of foreign military bases in African nations.
He warned that as long as figures of extravagant spendings by the National Assembly continue to be churned out, Nigerians will be irritated and so will be enemies of democracy.
“They must be careful not to provoke Nigerians to mutiny. Some of the things going in the National Assembly show that we are in trouble; 70 billion Naira( $90,263.86 ) for palliatives for 469 people and when we said no they claimed it was for the facelift of the National Assembly.
Three years ago, 37 billion Naira was earmarked for the facelift of the National Assembly. That contract has not been fully executed and there is no renewal of the contract so you cannot talk about 70 billion Naira ( $47,710.90 )for facelift.
Secondly, 40 billion Naira( $51,579.35 )to buy exotic cars now for the leadership of the National Assembly, this is not going to be allowed.
The latest provocative news from the National Assembly is that 54 billion Naira has been earmarked for constituency projects for 360 members of the House of Representatives. It has come to 150 million per person; under this austere condition of the country.
So when these figures are oozing out of the National Assembly Nigerians are being provoked and enemies of democracy are being provoked.
The military has been honest to say that they are under pressure to dismantle this rickety political system but someone told them to go and deny it and they came out and denied it. But we can read between the lines. We can’t gather here to talk about democracy that is under threat”. The lawyer said.
Professor Khalifa Dikkwa is the Chairman of Borno elders Forum and International affairs analyst.He said Nigeria has enough capital and human resources and they can be found everywhere in the world.It is bad that Nigerians are still suffering from the shortage of electricity,lack of hygienic water, deteriorating education system, food shortage and poor infrastructure.
Dikkwa stated this while featuring on the Television programme “Politics Today” recently.
Khalifa Dikwa said there is so much sabotage with regard to fixing government own refineries that can provide the petroleum product required by the Nigerians at affordable prices.And the same saboteurs are behind the country’s inability to fix electricity.
On what lessons should the Nigerian political class learn from what is happening in Gabon and Niger Republic the International affairs analyst says the political class should be asked if the IMF and World policies they are implementing worked in any part of Africa.He said they can not answer such questions.
” Subsidies are supposed to increase not be removed because Europeans are subsidizing basic amenities at list by 80 percent ,they subsidize fuel for their vehicles. cooking gas ,education . America should not serve as an example because America is entirely different .European countries tries as much as possible to run away from the situation that their citizens will tell them to step down ,we don’t want and their parliament will do the needful but in our own case the politicians personalize the Judiciary they play double standard ” professor Khalifa said .
The analyst says that the political class should know that the game is over as technology has made it easy to trace whatever they are hiding and the freedom of information act is also there and they should not laugh at the Francophone countries even in English and Portuguese speaking countries the scenario is the same , the same hunger faced by the citizens of countries that are affected by the military coup is also faced in Nigeria as people are dying on daily basis and if this continues people may likely be on the street and if that happens the political class should be responsible for it
” I am telling Tinubu Fuel subsidy removed must be return and added to it , education too must be subsidize ,this is the only way to out, whatever is dictated by France abroad and so on including Buddy Professors, buddy economist miss leading our own people to do the wrong things let them tell where it works weather they are doing the same in their own Countries ,it is just the opposite and therefore don’t take and swallow any thing that is being dictated beside I am telling them what they politicians deed in the past , the wrongs and so on they shouldn’t be intimidated by their secret dossier which they tell them you either do this one or we are going to expose you, we are taking you to International court of Justice and so what let them face the issues of their people and they can bring in enough food for the people to eat first.” He stated
Professor Dikkwa reiterated that Nigeria has the resources to subsidize education and transportation through fuel subsidy ,also food items should be subsidized , health provision and Agriculture for the food security.
He also says why the war between Ukraine and Russia should bother Nigeria in terms of food provision as the country has vast land and enough rain to even do irrigation farming to feed ourselves. He described it as abnormal and things are about to change. Politicians should be ready for the upcoming change.
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