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The coup in Niger

 

E. Ablorh-Odjidja, Ghanadot

February 21, 2010

 

The African Union has come out to condemn the coup in Niger of February 2010. And today, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has also added his voice.

 

Meanwhile in Niamey the capital of Niger, thousands of people are parading the streets to support the coup against President Mamadou Tandja who had imposed previously a presidential term referendum on them. 

 

The subject of the referendum was to lengthen the presidential term in office for Niger, obviously to benefit Tandja.

 

Apparently, the AU and Secretary General Ban Ki-moon had no idea of Tandja’s machinations – that it could lead to a coup.

 

President Tandja had seized power, closed Parliament and the Courts in Niger under the pretext that “Niger's independence was under threat.”

 

He had assumed emergency powers and forced a referendum on the people.  All this, while the UN and the AU sat unmoved.

 

It should be recalled that the US had earlier seen through Tandja’s machinations and correctly called his move a coup on the people of Niger.

 

The current coup against the Tandja regime must, therefore, be fittingly seen as a counter coup.

 

"President Tandja has been trying to extend his mandate in office. And obviously, that may well have been, you know, an act on his behalf that precipitated this act…." said a statement from a spokesperson at the US State Department.

 

No such statement has come from the AU or the UN and Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s office. This leaves one to wonder whether they preferred the strong-arm tactics of President Tandja, in his fervent to use the referendum, to extend his stay in office past the traditional, constitutional presidential term limit.

 

Again, if you would recall, a similar attempt to increase the presidential term in office was made in Honduras by the then President Zelaya.  Fortunately, that effort failed and is now history.

 

The Zelaya ouster was a big political event.  The leaders of the Organization of American States (OAS), like the AOU, had reacted quixotically to support Zelaya and to impose him on the Honduran people.

 

But, the Honduran Parliament, the army and the courts had resisted, preferring the mandate of the constitution.  They saw Zelaya’s act as treasonable and criminal.  And have agreed to stick to the presidential term as one of seven articles of the Honduran constitution that could not be repealed or amended.

 

But in Africa, the story is different. Constitutions can always be reviewed, amended, and abrogated completely, all in the search for power and control.  And the AU, by supporting Kandja, has agreed to this bumpy ride to rule.

 

Africa has always been an incubator for dictators, strongmen, and empty-headed bullies who when they get into office think they are the only ones fit for a rule.

 

No wonder the colonials thought Africa, left to itself, could not be ruled peacefully - a continent that is used to the longevity of the big man in office and where acts of political bullies are always non-events.

 

The AU, as an organization, should be familiar with this perception.  It should because its membership of presidents has either extended the term of office in their own countries or have the ambition to do so sooner or later.

 

Just recently, Gadhafi, against the very tradition of the AU, wanted his term as AU chairman extended because he alone would be able to do more in that seat in order to save Africa. Thankfully, his ambition was thwarted.

 

The new rulers in Niger - the Supreme Council for the Restoration of Democracy – have announced their intention for a peaceful rule. They have quickly lifted the curfew imposed immediately after the coup. Hopefully, they will soon open the country for a constitutional election for president who will observe his legal constitutional term. This is the move the AU and the UN must support.

 

E. Ablorh-Odjidja, Publisher www.ghanadot.com, Washington, DC, February 21, 2010 

 

Permission to publish:  Please feel free to publish or reproduce, with credits, unedited.  If posted at a website, email a copy of the web page to publisher@ghanadot.com. Or don't publish at all.

 

 

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