The destabilizing coup attempt, clearly another setback in the coup-prone tiny African state, should be strongly condemned, coming at a time democracy is gaining popular acceptance in Africa and across the globe. The continent is in dire need of a stable democratic milieu and can obviously do without unnecessary instability.
It is instructive that the attempt against Sanha’s government, allegedly masterminded by Navy chief Jose Americo Bubo Na Tchuto was foiled, according to Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior. Scores of soldiers have been arrested. However, those arrests should not be a licence to punish the innocent among them in the guise of ridding the country of opposition who have genuinely called for debate early 2011 to discuss the nation in a bid to steer it away from “political turbulence”. Most likely, the opposing voices were still being muffled until late in the year when the 64-year-old diabetic Sanha was flown out in an emergency to Dakar, en route Paris.
A feeling of political discontent was obvious in the various reasons adduced for the coup, including soldiers attacking the army headquarters demanding pay rise, two factions of the armed forces fighting for the control of the drug smuggling trade (Guinea Bissau is a renowned transit point) and third, an attempt by a group to overthrow the government. The last claim by army chief Gen. Antonio Injai and Defence Minister Bacrio Dja was made at a joint press conference to drive home the import perhaps.
It is also noteworthy that in its political history after independence from Portugal in 1974, Guinea Bissau has hardly known any peace, transiting from coups to army mutinies and political murders and unrest. More negative than positive achievements became its lot.
Hedged in by coups and civil wars - characteristic of many African states - current events in the poor state of 1.6 million people continue to reflect its unfortunate past, with the coup of 1980 setting the tone. The result is a traumatised country now blessed with a few security structures and a corrupt police and civil service among other ills. The first free election two decades after independence in 1994 rarely helped its cause.
Bissau’s lot has always been that of tension between the military and the political class. ECOWAS secretariat chief Ibn Chambas once described developments in the embattled country as “assassination of democracy”. He could not have been more apt. Barely a year ago in February 2011, the European Union suspended part of its aid based on the concern over governance and the rule of law.
It is pathetic that many African countries have been short on governance unlike other politically advanced climes of the world. Worse still, the leaderships have failed to learn from the experiences of others. They are yet to imbibe the essence of true service to the people. Guinea Bissau is no exception to the rule; neither is any conscious effort being made in that direction, at least going by the recurring instability. Regional political grouping, the Africa Union (AU) and in particular the sub-regional Economic Community of West African States under which Guinea Bissau is classified ought to do more than moan Bissau’s fate, to help the poor state out of its quagmire.
But the greater lesson in all of these, for Guinea Bissau and indeed all African states is that when leaders or governments fail to do their part, they become a threat to the people and to their countries.
Not the least is the unrelenting plundering of the continent by greater powers especially the colonial masters who still find it convenient to look over the shoulders of their former territories in furtherance of undeclared agenda of getting more from the supposed colonies in spite of their independence. Could that be part of the hidden agenda to further exploit and destabilise Africa?
Bissau’s case has been complicated by its inglorious status as an international drug pushing zone. As a key conduit for South American cocaine smuggled into Britain, further political chaos after years of coups could allow an even greater surge in drugs shipment to Europe. It is no coincidence that the drug business lends credence to the second theory of factions among soldiers fighting for control of drug trade, to rationalise the last putsch.
Injai’s claim that the situation in the riverside capital Bissau is under control is reassuring. No effort should be spared by the country’s political actors (and the international community) to ensure constitutional order and the rule of law in Guinea Bissau. That of course is a prerequisite for future economic stability too.
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