STRONG MESSAGE FROM OUAGADOUGOU TO AFRICAN TYRANTS

The overthrow of Blaise Compaoré sends a powerful message from the streets to other leaders planning to extend their rule in the soil of Africa; Africa still have un-liberated liberation leaders, Whose tyrannical grips to power have denied Africans basic human rights, democracy, peace and human dignity

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One of Africa's canniest operators, Blaise Compaoré, was forced out of power on 31 October; over 100,000 protestors in Ouagadougou and Bobo-Dioulasso demanded his exit. Unable to trust anyone to protect him from prosecution after 27 years of corrupt and brutal rule, Compaoré had gambled on his ability to persuade the political class and his presidential guard to back him for another term in office.

After he seized power almost 27 years ago following the murder of his own close colleague, the charismatic revolutionary leader Thomas Sankara. Now in 2014, seeking to change the constitution so he could run for up to three more consecutive terms of office starting with next year’s presidential election he appears to have pushed popular acceptance beyond breaking point.

We have witnessed that Burkina’s people powerful revolution or just a wave of angry urban protest that will be contained as the regime regains political dispensation. At the very least, these events demonstrate the depth of urban disenchantment with Compaoré, who has never commanded the sort of popular affection felt for Sankara – posters of whom are still widely on sale on Ouagadougou street stalls more than 26 years after his death.

There is anger at the growth of corruption. A once admired focus on grassroots development has faded, while well-connected elite has grown prosperous. Three years ago, a wave of army mutinies over soldiers’ pay and working conditions exposed the state machine as more fragile than had been imagined.

It is against this context that the proposed relaxation of presidential terms limits finally breached public tolerance. It was also a drastic miss-judgment of political tactics on the part of President Compaoré and his regime as originally expected, if former president Compaoré opted for a referendum to secure constitutional change, he might well have pulled it off – using his presidential profile to mobilise the vote of the placid rural majority to his favor.

Impact on Africa Leaders’

 The revolutionary action of the Burkinabe may lead to a wider implication within the continent particular Sub-Sahara Africa where a sizeable number of its leaders appears to have a similar grip in power and are currently working on relaxing presidential term limits enabling themselves to hang on to power. During his last week address to the Chatham House audience, Rwanda’s President, Paul Kagame, hinted on this similar direction. President Thomas Boni Yayi of The Republic of Benin – where any attempt to change term limits would dramatically challenge a well-established tradition of regular democratic changes of power.

We have witnessed that in Niger, a third term bid by former president Mamadou Tandja provoked his removal by the army in 2010, followed by a transition to new elections. In Senegal, President Abdoulaye Wade managed to change the rules, only to be punished by the voters with crushing defeat in the 2012 subsequent election. The Republic of Mali experienced similar when the former president Mamadou Tandja provoked his removal from power by his own military in 2010. This brief military removal was followed by a transition to fresh new elections. Former President Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal, a presumed democrat wasn’t different from other tyrants; he managed to manipulate the system for a third term only to be punished by crushing defeat in the hands of Senegalese voters at the 2012 elections.

Burundi’s Pierre Nkurunziza and Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo might also be tempted to follow suit – although for them it could be a higher risk exercise, governing countries with vocal civil society and state machines of limited establishment power.

Systematic unlimited office term in Cameroon, Ethiopia, Equatorial Genuine, Eretria, Sudan, Uganda and Zimbabwe are in a big question mark: the whole excuse of the west, former colonizers, imperialism and for that matter development agenda suffers a great setback and poverty multiplies. The these tyrants remain in power, the more they become irrelevant because some or most of them turned to groom theirs family members or cronies for succession.     

However, the political culture in East Africa, central Africa and the Great Lakes is rather different and authoritarian traditions are still influential in most countries. Few would bet against Mugabe or Congo-Brazzaville’s Denis Sassou-Nguesso successfully pushing through a rule change to open their way to further terms of office.

Burkina Faso has demonstrated that in today’s Africa popular acquiescence in presidential ambitions for extended stays in power can no longer be taken for granted. The events that unfolded in Burkina Faso last Thursday proof that Africans are no longer comfortable with life times president, especially when they are not consistence with the socio economic advancement of the countries they rule.

Africa Speaks communiqué and political analyses based on Burkina Faso political situation

Yours In Pan Africanism

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