Letter to a Young African

A warning about soldiers in power, and the folly of cutting off one’s nose to spite the face

Ebenezer Obadare

My fellow African:

For some time now, I have been meaning to get a few words across to you about the moment we live in. But I did not quite feel the urgency to do so until a few nights ago when, as I reread the great Kenneth Minogue’s didactic essay, “The Positive Side of Freedom,” the following sentence struck me like a bolt of lightning: “How societies develop depends upon what they remember, and as they forget experiences in the past, so they become victims of the folly which was conquered in those forgotten experiences.” I realized there and then that I have a sacred duty to remind you of my generation’s bitter experience, one that, as it happens, some of my own contemporaries seem to have forgotten. I am talking about military rule, an epidemic that is fast spreading across the Sahel, fanned by a lethal combination of Russian geopolitical mischief, misplaced ardor about militarism’s entailments, and amnesia about its corrosive effect on the social fabric.

I did not acquire my knowledge of the depravity of military rule from books. In the 1990s, I was a journalist and, following that, an academic, in Nigeria. In both capacities, I was a ringside witness to what the military in power, unrestrained by law and unaccountable to no one but itself, is capable of. I saw it all as the Nigerian military, starting with the mendacious and profligate Ibrahim Babangida (1985–1993), and followed by the bloodthirsty Sani Abacha (1993–1998), systematically brought the country to its knees by attacking its normative foundations and destroying every institution in sight. I feel proud to have been counted among the journalists and prodemocracy activists who stood up to that singular barbarism, a cause for which, sadly, many friends and colleagues were forced to pay with their lives. You do not have to look too carefully to see that in many ways, Nigeria continues to be haunted by the zombies from that dark era.

And that is why, today, I feel compelled to revisit that experience and, pace Minogue, warn you against becoming victims of the folly which was conquered by it. That folly has three elements as follows: (1) there is a shortcut to development; (2) revolution provides that shortcut; and (3) a soldier whose word is law will lead you to the promised land if only you would let him take the reins. I am here to tell you today that: (1) there is no shortcut to development; (2) no one will save you except yourself, hence; (3) you should distrust any soldier who promises you heaven on earth (maybe both) in exchange for your freedom.

Which brings me to the flavor of the moment and the figure on which many in your generation seem desperate to stake everything, Burkinabè tyrant Ibrahim Traoré. There are two things about him that I want you to know right off the bat. The first thing is that, contrary to everything you have read about him, including all the nonsense that Russian bots continue to manufacture about him, Traoré is no revolutionary. As a matter of fact, he would not recognize a revolution if one set up residence on his frontal cortex. What he is, is a fraud. And an impostor. He is not alone in his fraudulence. It is a characteristic that he shares with the heads of the other juntas in Mali and Niger. None of them are into you; all of them are in it for power and power alone, and as you can see from reports filtering out from the three countries, they will do anything to eliminate anyone who dares to stand up to them. Like the thief in John 10:10, they have only one mission: “to steal and kill and destroy.”

It is important that you truly understand what is going on in these countries. Far from a revolution, what you are witnessing is a power grab. Therefore, you should not be surprised when the self-appointed savior says that “no country has ever developed under democracy.” Apparently, he has never visited India. Or South Korea. Or Kenya. Never mind Senegal to his west, or any of the Scandinavian countries. In any case, you should know that he really does not mean that, that what he is really trying to do is set the stage for holding on to power for as long as possible, without the inconvenience of a political opposition, not to talk of a free election in which he runs the risk of being defeated.

Note that this is what it all boils down to each time they appeal to ideas like sovereignty and ask you to ignore “Western values” and settle for “our own” values. Ask yourself: why is it that every time someone insists on doing things the “African way,” they end up either organizing sham elections or canceling them outright, brutalizing the opposition, and arranging sinecures for their friends, intimates, and cronies? What is African about corruption and rapine?

I want you to know this: I am not just asking you to be wary each time someone comes to you touting “African values” and pointing accusing fingers at real and imaginary Western “enemies of Africa,” I am in fact asking you to fully embrace Western values. This is what I mean by Western values: individual liberty; freedom of thought, expression, religion, and the media; separation of powers; regular elections; and last but not least, self-rule, anchored by the principle of accountability of rulers to the ruled. In a nutshell: the antithesis of militarism.

As you yourself must have noticed, societies that, however imperfectly, have upheld these values, have been the most successful. Not only are those successful countries not necessarily part of the West, geographically speaking, in some significant cases (see Japan and India), their cultures could not be more different from Western culture. So, just to be clear: I am not asking you to stand with Western countries; all I am asking is that you commit to Western values, and that you continue to champion them even if specific Western countries renege on them. Remember: it is not so much the genealogy of an idea that matters, as what it founds and elucidates.

One more thing while I have your attention. Believe me, when I say that I understand your grievance against the system; as a matter of fact, I share it. For the most part, civilian rule has not lived up to its billing across Africa. However, I want you to know that the solution to a civilian rule that is suboptimal is never military rule, but a civilian rule that is optimal. Military rule is not just anti-modern; it is fundamentally irreconcilable with the life of a free people.

Do not embrace it. Decry it and send the soldiers back to the barracks where they belong.

*Professor Ebenezer Obadare is Douglas Dillon Senior Fellow for Africa Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).This article was originally published by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) as part of the Diamonstein-Spielvogel Project on the Future of Democracy: Letter to a Young African | Council on Foreign Relations