In Africa, democracy is to be weighed, disguised, confiscated; everything changes and everything evolves, only Cameroonians do not change and firmly believe that things that happen to others cannot happen to us. There is no worse blind person than someone who refuses to see. However, Gabon speaks to us, A Bambara proverb teaches us that “ the knife that slits the throat of the chicken, can also slit the throat of the pork”.
The latest coup d’état, that of Gabon, in Central Africa, reveals the contagious and transmissible migratory nature of this scourge. A coup d’état is nothing but a blow caused by those who overthrow regimes and those who are overthrown.
Looking at the euphoria of the Gabonese people after the announcement of a new strong man at the Renovation Palace in Libreville, one had to understand that they were welcoming a messiah, a liberator who put an end to a repugnant monarchy over the years, a dynasty ruling for 57 years, and which was preparing to take over the institutions, to extend its lease for the next seven years.
Experience shows, however, that disillusionment and disappointment always arrive at a gallop, after the jubilation and joy of the arrival of the welcome of a ” strong man “. Gabonese citizens, who are experiencing a coup d’état for the first time, are forgivable. Citizens of other African countries who have experienced a putsch several times, or only once, know that a putschist is an ephemeral hero. Generally it is one of their compatriots who actively participated in the violence they suffered. It was often a general or an officer of their national army, deputy of the outgoing dictator, who organized the bloody repressions which kept them in fear.
Gabon: “good” or “bad” coup d’état?
We cannot say that the coup d’état in Gabon was a saving operation for this country. Certainly, the famous international community shows complacency and goodwill towards the putschist soldiers who took power in Gabon. What’s more, it fails to consider that it is a junta like those that have entered palaces in West Africa in recent months. While it is indeed a coup d’état, in the very essence of the operation, which did indeed occur in Gabon.
Looking back at the circumstances, an election had just happened. The regime, feeling in an unfavorable situation, attempted to corrupt the expression of the majority of Gabonese people to declare the candidate Ali So You’re Dead re-elected It was at this moment that a general who had been at the forefront of the regime appeared to “deliver” the Gabonese people.
The people took to the streets with joy without knowing what tomorrow will bring. Because we must above all appreciate the method of accession to power and not the circumstances in which they are perpetuated. Empirically, there are no good, there are no bad coups. What matters are the causes of these anti-democratic operations: longevity in power in several cases, impossible alternation at state summits, bad governance in several cases; the abandonment of populations in poverty, the confiscation of democracy…
We remember that both labels always cause inconvenience to the people; the time of euphoria after the fall of dictatorships, ballot-diggers and autocracies has passed.
The case of West African countries under the influence of juntas is proof of the dangers brought by coups d’état. Economies are victims of embargoes and sanctions; local industries suffocated. Without recalling the brutality with which the people suffered the agonies of a power that they supported, acclaimed, and installed by singing the hour of deliverance upon the arrival of the putschists.
The danger of the presidential guards
In the examples from West Africa the danger regularly came from the presidential guards with the commanders of these presidential guards at the head of the putschists. These are copiously fattened and pampered units which become, through a genetic mutation, Praetorian guards capable of perfidy and ingratitude towards those whose protection they were responsible for.
In Gabon, the head of the junta was for a long time an aide to the deposed president. At the time of the putsch, he was lover of the first lady, commander of the Republican Guard, therefore responsible for protecting the head of state. There was “deliverance” of the Gabonese people but also betrayal on the part of Brice Oligui Nguema. Commander of the Republican Guard against the one who made him king and whom he was supposed to protect.
There are no longer any trusted men in the presidential guards in Africa. Given this reality, in another Central African country, a nephew, commander of the presidential guard, could rise up and take power from his uncle. Because this uncle has been in power for more than forty years, because the country is crumbling under corruption and embezzlement of public funds; because the majority is poor; because this uncle is almost a hundred years old and may even be ill. Perhaps then he will want to protect his uncle against these intrepid opponents and these hypocritical courtiers who can conspire to harm him. What would it be, a good or a bad coup d’état?
Democracy needs to be weighed. Will it be heavy or light? Especially in this other Central African country? Faced with the screaming suffering of the people, faced with the pressing calls of the people for their liberation, when the so-called republican and patriotic army puts itself behind the people, will it be a good or bad coup d’état? What are we going to call them? “Putschists” as in 84 or the “Patriots” as elsewhere? That is the question. And that will be known.
By Saint Eloi Bidoung
