Former Speaker of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS Parliament, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, has condemned in totality the military coup d’état in the Republic of Guinea, which ousted President Alpha Conde, describing it as a “huge setback for democracy in West Africa that must not be allowed to stand”.
Also, the members of an advocacy group in Abuja, the Citizens Advocacy for Social & Economic Rights (CASER) have joined to condemn the military coup.
Ekweremadu said that while leaders must work hard to enhance democratic governance and freedoms in the sub region, experience clearly showed that unconstitutional change of government had never been the answer either.
In a statement on Sunday, the Nigerian government frowned at Sunday’s sacking of Condé by members of an elite military corrps, which struck after word of planned increase of salaries for politicians and slashing of funds for security forces went public.
“The Nigerian government is saddened by the apparent coup d’etat that has taken place in the Republic of Guinea today, in clear violation of the ECOWAS Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance.
“The government of Nigeria strongly condemns and rejects any unconstitutional change of government and therefore calls on those behind the coup to restore constitutional order without delay and protect lives and property,” Nigeria’s Foreign Ministry said.
In a statement by his media adviser, Uche Anichukwu, on Monday, Ekweremadu, who chaired the ECOWAS Parliament’s Ad Hoc Committee on the Political Situation in Niger Republic and Republic of Guinea in 2009, called on ECOWAS leaders and the international community to apply the necessary pressure on the coup leaders to immediately release and restore President Conde to power.
“The coup in Guinea Conakry is yet another sad commentary on democracy, and the quest for political stability and economic prosperity in the West Africa.
“It is condemnable, unacceptable, and must never be condoned. Capture of power by unconstitutional means is against the letters and spirit of the ECOWAS Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance as well as the provisions of the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance.
“So much sacrifices have been made to entrench democracy as a permanent means of governance in the sub-region and military officers in every part thereof must be made to understand that any attempt to scuttle it will always be met with rigid opposition by the leaders and peoples of the Community.
“Therefore, this is a call on the ECOWAS leaders and members of the international community to stand up to the coup plotters to ensure that they reinstate President Alpha Conde immediately”, he said.
The lawmaker, however, called for more political freedoms, strict observance of the rule of law, better management of diversity, and preservation of the sanctity of the ballot box to detoxify the democratic environment, weeding it of every factor that makes coup making attractive.
“I must admit that our leaders must also strive and committedly bring to an end a culture of political impunity, winner-takes-all, sit-tight syndrome, and exclusionist tendencies in order to establish a egalitarianism, culture of democratic freedoms, rule of law, transparency, accountability, sanctity of ballot box, respect for term limits to ensure that democracy and its blessings endure in all of West Africa”, Ekweremadu said.
In a statement, Mr. Frank Tietie, Executive Director of CASER noted that Article 1 (b) – (e) of the ECOWAS Protocol A/SP1/12/01 on Democracy and Good Governance Supplementary to the Protocol relating to the Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management, Resolution, Peacekeeping and Security states as follows:
b. Every accession to power must be made through free, fair, and transparent elections.
c. Zero tolerance for power obtained or maintained by unconstitutional means.
d. Popular participation in decision-making, strict adherence to democratic principles and decentralization of power at all levels of governance.
e. The armed forces must be apolitical and must be under the command of a legally constituted political authority; no serving member of the armed forces may seek to run for elective political.
Consequent upon the provisions of the above referred Protocol, we hereby call on the Nigerian Government to take all such necessary steps to resist the renegade military leaders of Guinea. The coup leader should be made to understand that military coups are totally unacceptable, especially in West Africa irrespective of the unpopularity of the sitting government of any country.
Particularly, it must be made clear to the disgruntled Guinean military leaders who are behind the recent coup that they will be held accountable and punished under the present international criminal regime for such egregious violations of the human rights of the Guinean people and that of President Alpha Conde, if ever such occurred during this misadventure of theirs against democracy.
CASER further calls for a serious, concerted resistance by the international community to the recent coup in Guinea to serve as a strong deterrence to all other armed forces, particularly in West Africa who may be tempted to consider seizing political power by any unconstitutional means because of the prevailing economic and security challenges facing the region.
