Niger Republic Coup: The Call Of Duty On ECOWAS by Dr George Ogunjimi

The ECOWAS under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu must crush the rebels in Niger Republic and they must be crushed totally.

Coup d’état is the sudden, violent overthrow of an existing government by a small group. The chief prerequisite for a coup is control of all or part of the armed forces, the police, and other military elements and more than oftentimes found subjecting citizens to inhuman and degrading conditions.

Unlike a revolution, which is usually achieved by large numbers of people working for basic social, economic, and political change, a coup is a change in power from the top that merely results in the abrupt replacement of leading government personnel.

A coup rarely alters a nation’s fundamental social and economic policies, nor does it significantly redistribute power among competing political groups.

Among the earliest modern coups were those in which Napoleon overthrew the Directory on November 9, 1799 (18 Brumaire), and in which Louis Napoleon dissolved the assembly of France’s Second Republic in 1851.

Coups were a regular occurrence in various Latin American nations in the 19th and 20th centuries and in Africa after the countries there gained independence in the 1960s.

We continue to feel the rumble of the 1966 coups in Nigeria when a group of rebels forcefully took over the government and drew the country backwards. The reverberating effect is what being felt by citizens of Nigeria and this goes to every country in Africa where a small clique have had their voyage to governance through violence.

We have come to a point in Africa that coup detats must be viewed as an aberration that must not be tolerated.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS; also known as CEDEAO in French and Portuguese) is a regional political and economic union of fifteen countries in West Africa.

Collectively, these countries comprise an area of 5,114,162 km2 (1,974,589 sq mi), and in has an estimated population of over 387 million with strong military prowess that can easily overrun some tattered rebels foraging into governments in West Africa.

Nigeria stands tall in such call of duty with her disciplined and strong armed forces and would not mind to be burdened with such humanitarian call of duty to mother Africa.

We don’t need military dictatorship under any guise in Africa and President Tinubu must swiftly act to chase the rebels away from our sub region.

* Dr George Ogunjimi is a lawyer, human rights advocate and international affairs specialist