Africa Needs Heroes

For valid reasons, Africans have increasingly become disillusioned with democracy and unsurprisingly, opportunist putschists have exploited this discontent to install themselves as messiahs. Though this is largely a francophone phenomenon for now, Africans have thrown their support behind these coup leaders, whether they be Captain Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso or General Abdourahamane Tchiani of Niger. They think that if democracy has failed to offer them a better life, then to hell with it. They are willing to trade their freedoms for a dictator. And so they roll out the drums to celebrate every time a coup has been staged.

Typically, there are theories social media pundits float around whenever ECOWAS issues a statement condemning these coups or is rumoured to want to deploy forces to restore democracy in these countries. The regional bloc gets accused of doing the bidding of Western forces. If the citizens of these countries welcome these coups with open arms, that’s as democratic as they come. Isn’t it then hypocritical for ECOWAS to sermonise on democracy, sanction these countries, and even attempt to intervene to restore democracy in these countries?

One might think that the fanfare around these coups suggests naivety about the dangers of dictatorships. But Africa, more than any continent, has experienced more dictatorships in the past 60 years. George Ayittey once said that, as late as the early 90s, Africa had four democracies. Nigeria, for instance, returned to democracy in 1999 after having gone through more than three decades of successive coups. The human rights abuses, extrajudicial killings, flagrant corruption, and maladministration of the economy that characterise these dictatorships are in living memory. It then boggles the mind that Africans are supporting coup plotters today.

As if to reassure themselves, they spread AI-generated propaganda videos to legitimise these putschists. This is especially true of the fans of Ibrahim Traore, the Thomas Sankara wannabe. He is the most loved of all these coup plotters. Reports suggest that Russia helps fund his propaganda campaign. He is young, anti-West, and panders to Africanism, the perfect trifecta that has won the hearts of Africans at home and abroad. He has banned everything from French as the official language to Western judicial wigs. He has reportedly survived a number of assassinations and coup attempts. Expectedly, his supporters alleged France was behind the attacks.

We can debate the merits and demerits of these coups till the cows come home. The uncomfortable truth, however, is that democracy has failed to live up to its promises in Africa. The emergence of the Traores of this world is an indictment of democracy. It’s not a function of naivety on the part of Africans. In a manner of speaking, Africa has had the worst of both worlds: military rule and democracy. This time, the pendulum has swung in favour of military rule. It’s convenient for ECOWAS, France, the United States, and other self-styled custodians of democracy to issue condemnatory statements. But that overlooks the shortcomings of so-called democracy in Africa.

If truly all the condemnation was about preserving democratic values, why doesn’t France have a problem with a life president like Paul Biya, but is quick to condemn a Traore, whatever his motivations are? Cameroonians are certainly not living in paradise. Matter of fact, there is an anglophone crisis going on in Cameroon. Yet, Biya, a corrupt Switzerland-holidaying nonagenarian, election-rigging, self-perpetuating president, is supposed to be the embodiment of democratic values and virtues. This is the paradox that must be acknowledged; otherwise, we risk misunderstanding why Africans have come to welcome these coups with open arms.

That these coups have mostly taken place in Francophone West African countries is also instructive. Through Françafrique, France has maintained a predatory relationship with its former African colonies. These countries are anything but independent. This, of course, is not an attempt to absolve the leaders of Francophone Africa of any responsibility. The real and perceived French imperial influence is enough motivation to support coup leaders who present themselves as the antithesis to democratically-elected Élysée Palace stooges.

Resource nationalism is also a motivating factor for why Africans support these dictators. Rightly or wrongly, it is widely believed that despite Africa being resource-rich, it has remained income-poor largely because of exploitation by foreign corporations. The global order, it is argued, is designed to keep Africa dependent on the West. And to ensure that, Africa has to remain a poor raw material economy. For example, Niger supplied Uranium to France for years, yet, Nigeriens never enjoyed the dividends of their own resource. That must mean that France exploited them in cahoots with their leaders. And so, it is highly tempting to support any gun-toting Khaki-wearing coup leader who promises to cut ties with France.

Democracy has also failed in guaranteeing security, especially in the Sahel region. Large swaths of territory in Mali and Burkina Faso are under the control of jihadists. States with weak governments and institutions make strong leaders appealing. What is the point of having a defined territory, but non-state actors like terrorists and kidnappers operate with quasi-autonomy? Fragile states cave under the weight of insecurity.

But it should be said that the disaffection Africans have with democracy has assumed a dogmatic dimension. As long as a coup leader spews anti-West rhetoric, they become legitimised. They become inducted into the pantheon of messiahs who are fighting to rescue Africa from the apron strings of imperialism. And any attempt by ECOWAS or a country like Nigeria to conduct an intervention is immediately met with hue and cry. But from a geopolitical perspective, no one wants to admit that it is reasonable for a country like Nigeria to want to protect its interests by preventing coups from metastasizing to its own borders. Nigeria’s intervention in Benin, for instance, was a reasonable campaign. It helped restore confidence in ECOWAS and reminded Africa and the world of Nigeria’s military heft.

Unlike Niger, Mali, Guinea-Bissau, and Burkina Faso, the Benin coup was not greeted with celebration and fanfare. For all the failings of the Beninese president, he seems liked by his people. But social media pundits were vociferous in their criticism of Nigeria’s intervention. Might I add that the current anti-democratic orthodoxy in Africa is hypocritical when one thinks about how these dictators have chased out Western allies only to ally with Russia. The entire project was never really about independence. Otherwise, why are Wagner forces and Russia’s Africa Corps in these countries? Shouldn’t the same criticism of Western imperialism also apply to Russia in this case? Isn’t this simply a case of trading one master for another?

Africa needs new heroes. I am not one to be dogmatic about democracy. Good leaders come in all manner of shapes and sizes. It’s very possible to have a benevolent dictator who may indeed turn things around. After all, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, and China have benefited from benevolent dictatorships. Though the chances are slim, it is possible to have a dictator who implements free market reforms and economic liberalisation like Augusto Pinochet in Chile. But if Ibrahim Traore and his ilk fail to address the discontent Africans have, it’s just a matter of time before the pendulum swings back in support of democracy.