In many ways, Africa has continued to underperform as a continent. It has been many years now since an astoundingly gifted continent was supposed to take a prominent place among other continents of the world that seem to be going in the right direction in terms of holistic development which takes in infrastructural development as well as human capital development.
Yet, in spite of the prodigious promise it has often shown as continent, in spite of the extensive talk that has raged on for a while that countries on the continent were well on their way to offering some redemption to a continent that has underperformed for so long, numerous opportunities to put the continent at par with other continents that have some how managed to shake off their demon have gone begging.
A continent plagued by the past
To justify why a continent that is the second largest in terms of size as well as population has failed so embarrassingly to get its acts together would be many who would cling to the coattails of the past to argue that the 1884-85 Berlin Conference, which provided the occasion for the scandalous partitioning of Africa, set the stage for the depredation of the continent for more than fifty years and set up Africa to fail.
They would argue that a conference that will go down as the grandest coven and coup against a continent provided the stage for the justification of what was in reality an invasion of a continent by colonialists
The colonialists, many of them driven by racism, and the race for Africa`s abundant natural resources, could not have covered themselves in glory while their plunder lasted, and expectedly, they did not.
The trans-Atlantic Slave trade had indicated that there was little Europeans were willing to invest into the argument that Africans were human beings who deserved to be treated like other human beings.
Thus, in countries like DR Congo, the colonialists not only played their cruelest hands, they ensured that before they pulled out, they had lit the fires that would consume the countries they were unhappy about leaving.
Independence came for many countries in the 60s, perhaps too early. However, while many of those countries have since taken in internecine civil wars, others have since seen military coup after military coup carried out by bloodthirsty and greedy military officers.
A disturbing pattern
Over the years, while the argument that Africa needs to fully and unreservedly embrace democracy to realize its considerable potentials, has grown stronger, the frequency of military coups, especially in the West African sub-region has only increased to leave behind a disturbing trail of consequence.
Guinea, Mali and Burkina Faso, all in West Africa have recently witnessed coups to further cast those countries who had a history of instability into further instability.
In the case of Burkina Faso where a harrowing humanitarian crisis has been unfolding in the last few months, a recent military coup has put paid to any hope that the country was on the way out of its labyrinth of terror and horror.
On September 30,20222, soldiers in the country successfully overthrew the government of Lt. Col. Paul-Henri Damiba with thirty-four-year-old Captain Ibrahim Traore taking over and dissolving the transitional government.
One thing is clear: Burkina Faso cannot continue to be passed like military boots from one military man to another. The activities of the military in the country pose not only a threat to the people of the country, but to Nigeria as well as neighbouring countries.
The incessant military coups in the country continue imperil the state of democracy in Africa just as the terrorism quickly gaining foothold in the country. Perhaps if the African Union was not so toothless, it would have long done something about it.
Kene Obiezu,
Twitter: @kenobiezu