‘I applaud the boldness to find solutions through coups in Africa, but is it the right solution?’ - Chike Ukaegbu questions
Nigeria’s youngest presidential candidate Chike Ukaegbu has questioned the effectiveness of military coups d’etat in Africa which has resurfaced in the past two years on the continent.
Speaking on The Qonversation with Ismail Akwei, Chike acknowledged the “audacity” of Burkina Faso, Niger, and Mali to find solutions to their problems but wondered if they will actually find that solution considering Africa’s gloomy history with military leadership.
“For the countries that you have mentioned, that was a solution they thought was viable to correct the ills of the prior administrations and they went ahead and did it. I cannot judge it either way to say all that was wrong. No, I do not live there to say this was wrong… I applauded the audacity, the boldness, the confidence to find a solution to their current problems. Now. Was it the right solution? That's for them to decide. And if under the military administration, they are thriving better than they were under the democratic prior administrations, who am I to say anything against it. So in other words, kudos to people who found solutions to their problems,” he said.
He quickly dismissed the possibility of a military coup in Nigeria which he believed would impact the country negatively. He said Nigerians trust their democratic institutions and would not support military intervention.
“Nigeria's a very peculiar place. And I say that because we have a people who as much as we say we do not trust institutions. I think sometimes we overtrust them. After the elections, we were hoping the judiciary would do what was right according to the people or at least be fair in their duties. That did not happen. Now, do I think a military coup is what Nigeria needs? No, but we've been there before. We need the right leaders that there are. There's a good amount of Nigerians in the diaspora. There are many others who are against Japa as well. I think that there are ways that we could have impact. There are ways that we could work with what we have right now to start to correct some of the ills in the country,” he said.
In January 2024, Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, three West African states led by the military announced their exit from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), a regional economic bloc that has been urging them to return to democratic rule.
The decision by the three is a blow to the bloc's regional integration efforts after it suspended the three following coups. The move could further weaken ECOWAS which has struggled to contain a democratic retreat in the West Africa region.
