President Akufo-Addo
President Akufo-Addo is not the least happy about the rising incidents of coup d’etat in the West African sub region.
It follows recent military takeovers in neighbouring Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso.
He thinks the incidence of coup d’état, ongoing jihadist activities and the COVID-19 pandemic has made the region a toxic one.
This was when he opened an emergency virtual summit of Heads of State and Governments of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) held this morning.
He said the ECOWAS Supplementary protocol on democracy and good governance adopted in 2001, is being breached by military takeovers in the region whiles quoting provisions of the ECOWAS Supplementary protocol on democracy and good governance “any ascension to power must be through free, fair and transparent election.”
He also indicated that “unconstitutional change is prohibited as well as any undemocratic method of gaining or retaining power”, “zero tolerance for power obtained or maintained by unconstitutional means” and “the Armed Forces must be apolitical and must be under the command of legally constituted authority. No serving member of the Armed Forces may seek to run for elected politics office.”
For him, “the happenings in the region tell us that not everybody has accepted democracy as the preferred mode of governance”, insisting “we still have some work to do to convince such people that we are all safer under democracies.”
“The resurgence of coup d’etat in our region is in direct violation of our democratic tenets and represents a threat to peace, security and stability in West Africa” he added.
In the last year and a half, there has been four coup d’états in the ECOWAS sub-region alone.
On 18 August 2020, the first military takeover occurred in Mali where the second also occurred on the 24th of May 2021.
The third unconstitutional takeover of power took place on the 5 September 2021, in Guinea and the latest power seizure took place on the 24 January 2022, in Burkina Faso.
With the exception of Burkina Faso, ECOWAS heads of state have instituted sanctions against the military leaders in Mali and in Guinea and demanded that the military junta in the two countries take immediate steps to restore democratic rule in the affected nations.
By Charles Takyi-Boadu, Presidential Correspondent