In March 2024, in the journal Global Africa, political scientist Abdoul Karim Saidou published an article entitled « Democracy and Insecurity in the Sahel: An Impossible Cohabitation? » In this text, which « analyses the effects of insecurity on the democratic order from the Sahelian perspective, » the researcher deciphers the way in which the military, rich in their bayonets, has arrogated to itself the right to wrest power from civilians. The argument of restoring the security that the latter, due to their incompetence, have sacrificed for the benefit of terrorist factions, fools no one.
In reality, do these military men, with the avowed ambition of taking their « revenge », through the means of coups d’état, think, « the expression of a political side lining poorly digested by the military who pride themselves on a historical legitimacy in the formation of States ». This means that these military personnel, who have deserted the battlefields to slumber in presidential palaces, are only obsessed with political power and the « feeling of prestige » (Max Weber) confers.
The various transitions— or enthronisations — drag on. The military refuses to relinquish power for anything in the world. Freedoms, in the name of a so-called reconstruction, are systematically flouted.
The populations, who cheered the military during the various coup d’états, are now seeing all their freedoms undermined. Journalists are hounded and imprisoned; political parties are dissolved or suspended; civil societies are simply eliminated from national political life. Only the military powers decide, at gunpoint and without any opposition force, the fate of their peoples.
Despite their limited successes in the fight against terrorist groups, particularly in Mali, insecurity is increasingly tragic in the AES countries. The victims, both civilian and military, are countless. Populations are haunted by the unexpected and dramatic actions of terrorists. These terrorists—who operate on the move and reinvent their methods of killing on a daily basis—camp everywhere and escape the control of these states, whose skeletal armies have shown their limitations. The services of Russian mercenaries, Russia’s Trojan horses, have provided no satisfaction in squaring the circle of restoring security. And, worse still, these mercenaries, who act solely in the name of profit, sometimes participate in the persecution of certain civilian populations. The Fulani community, regularly accused of supporting the ranks of terrorists, is generally the victim of these systematic attacks, which amount to ethnic cleansing.
The military has no solutions to the various problems plaguing these peoples. Their inability to govern has plunged their respective countries into a poverty that shows no sign of diminishing. Unable to do better than the civilians accused of all of Israel’s ills, they seek, by all means, to find scapegoats to blame for their failures on others. France is their whipping boy. The former colonial power and « its » language, aided by their henchmen of Françafrique imperialism, fuel their victimhood refrain. This, as we know, is only a means of evading the enormous challenges facing their peoples.
The fact remains that slogans do not stand the test of time and reality. In Burkina Faso, for example, the authorities accuse Côte d’Ivoire, presented as one of the last remaining members of Françafrique, of fomenting manoeuvres to destabilize the regime of Ibrahima Traoré.
These military men don’t love their countries; they have only one obsession: power. Given their incompetence and their inability to grasp the real issues facing our world, it’s easy to see that failure is their ultimate finale. But at what cost?
At the cost of African integration. At the cost of diplomacy. At the cost of the economy. ECOWAS, wrongly considered a cartel of heads of state serving France, has already suffered the first attacks. We must expect further devastation.
Our country, fortunately, has a universalist vocation. This, like all great nations, constitutes our manifest destiny, the eloquent manifestation of our greatness.
We must never tire of thanking poet-President Léopold Sédar Senghor…
POST-SCRIPTUM:
Our world recently lost one of its great voices of wisdom, His Holiness Pope Francis. A voice against the various wars that threaten the balance of life. A voice against poverty and the predatory logic orchestrated by the great powers. A voice for the fertilization of our inexhaustible possibilities for living together and in common. May his sermons—marked by the celebration of others, love, and humility — continue to inspire us in the creation of an earthly commune.
By Baba DIENG
