President Ouattara

By Lanre Arogundade

President Alassane Ouattara of Cote d’Ivoire is one of the West African leaders waxing lyrical over the need for war to dislodge the Nigerien military junta, supposedly to restore constitutional order, and not ‘Uranium order’.

But he has been sabotaging both constitution and democracy in his own country.

Here was someone who was propelled into office following popular revolt against erstwhile president Laurent Gbagbo who had refused to accept defeat in 2010. The maximum presidential term in Cote D’ivoire was two, but Ouattara who was re-elected in 2015 claimed a constitutional review in 2016 had ‘reset’ the order, hence in 2020 he ran for a controversial third-term sham election in which he won almost 95% of the votes.

Ouattara had indeed said he would not run for a third term and had anointed a successor in his prime Minister. It was when that one suddenly died that he changed his mind claiming only he was best suited to continue to lead the country. Meanwhile, there were protests against his candidacy during that 2020 election boycotted by the opposition parties and not less than 40 people were killed.

You can bet that if he has his way this Ouattara would run for fourth, fifth, etc, terms, which may end up provoking further crisis. Hasn’t it been repeatedly said that those who make peaceful change impossible make violent change inevitable?.

Yes, we should say NO to military coups but we should say BIGGER NO to and strongly condemn those whose acts of sabotage against democracy and the people’s interest make military intervention attractive option for some. Ouattara is one of them.

Come off it! 

Come off it. Don’t be under any illusion. Any war against Niger is not fundamentally about restoration of democracy, which in any case the citizens believe have failed them.

Just Google URANIUM and the underlining economic interest of the military-industrial complex of the West and how vital Niger is to that interest becomes all clear.

Were it not for this, there would also have been military intervention in Burkina Fasso and Mali that have equally transited to military rule.

The other side of the equation is the revulsion at years of exploitation by the French, and the anti-colonial/anti-neo-colonial revolt it has provoked in erstwhile West African French colonies.

On top of these are the many nationality, ethnic, demographic, geographic, etc, questions woven around Niger, which taken into consideration may mean a long-drawn war, should one break out. Think Syria. Think Congo.

All considered, an ECOWAS war against Niger, spearheaded by Nigeria, which is bound to be at significant cost to her shaky economy, would not make sense.

For me, it is no to war. We should say no to war.