Reps Condemn Re-emergence  Of Coups In West Africa

The House of Representatives on Wednesday condemned the resurgence of coups in Burkina Faso and other West African countries, saying it portrays great dangers to democratic values in the region.

The House also called for sanctions from Nigeria, and other countries as well as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

This is sequel to an urgent motion by a member, Julius Ihonvbere, with the title, ‘Need To Condemn Increasing Resort To Military Coups In The West African Sub-region.’

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Ihonvbere lamented that there had been at least four coups in the subregion in the last six months alone, with recent cases being Burkina Faso and Mali.

“These coups violate the constitutional rights of the people and subvert democratic processes, as they can erode the achievements so far recorded in rebuilding good governance across the subregion,” he was quoted by the Facebook page of the House as saying.

According to him, if the trend was allowed to gain traction, the sub-region could return to the dark era of what he described as inconsistencies in governance.

The lawmaker stressed the importance of the adoption of the motion so that the ugly trend does not continue to spread within the region.

In his submission, the House Minority Leader, Hon. Ndudi Elumelu said that the lesson in the coups was that African democratically-elected leaders must wake up and deliver good governance to their people.

He argued that bad governance would lead to frustration and resentment among the citizenry, allowing them to fall to the temptation of supporting undemocratic change of government.

Elumelu called on leaders of all arms of government in Africa to emulate other developing nations of the world such as Dubai, which have become socioeconomic hubs.

This, he stated, will have the twin effect of bringing investment/ development to the nations, as well as wealth to the citizenry.