By Adams Lateef
 
The recent wave of the military coup in some sub-Saharan African countries is becoming alarming. The instability in the political and economic atmosphere in most of these countries has given rise to the emergence of armed insurgency and as a result coup, coup attempt or counter-coup has become the order of the day.
 
In just about 2 years, about six coup or coup attempts have happened in the continent with a majority in West Africa. As gloomy as the military interventions may sound, it is despicable to note how some section of the civilian population has openly embraced some of these military interventions. As seen in Mali and Burkina Faso where hundreds of people gathered to celebrate the ejection of democratically elected presidents Ibrahima Keita and Roch Marc Kabore respectively. Although, the actions of these sections of the populace to a large extent must not be interpreted to mean support for the coups, but to some extent in support for the removal from power of the corrupt political leaders that have made life much unbearable for the ordinary masses.
 
This ugly situation tells how the corrupt political elites in this part of the world, exploit the resources of their countries, condemning the working masses into abject poverty. In Mali, most of the people jubilating are said to be mainly supporters of the opposition coalition who had been demonstrating for Ibrahima Keita to step down from power. However, this scenario shows that the working masses need an independent movement of their own with a clear programme to win political power with the sole aim to transform society in order to meet the needs of the working masses, as opposed to a military coup overthrow that will only replace the corrupt ruling elites with another set of military adventurers that will not be different from the former. 
 
The spread of the coronavirus otherwise known as the COVID-19 to Africa in early 2020, saw a continent already battling with economic challenges entering a serious emergency with high socio-economic crises. According to the analysis by African’s Pulse: Charting the Road to Recovery  revealed “The pandemic could also drive up to 40 million people into extreme poverty in Africa in 2020, erasing at least five years of progress in fighting poverty.” Mobility restrictions also contributed to worsening the economic survival of the people as their earnings come from either petty trading or engaged in informal jobs. The poor response from the government in addressing the economic challenge arising from the lockdown further created anger among the people. While the ruling elites are not bothered about the suffering in their country, the people only need the appropriate time to vent their anger. In Nigeria, the anger was the mass invasion of warehouses across the country where palliative meant for the people are been hiding by the politicians.   
 
How the Coup Spread Around the West African Corridors  

Most times when a coup takes place, the reasons given by the coup plotters are usually centred on corruption and maladministration. The high level of insecurity in the Sahel region has played a major reason behind the coup in the West African regions. The growing insecurity and insurgency coupled with a dwindling economy and corruption triggered massive protests in Mali. The protesters stormed the streets on 5 June 2020, asking for the resignation of President Keita. The protest was led by a group of organizations known as the June 5 movement- Rally of Patriotic Force (M5-RPF) putting up demand for the resignation of President Keita without concrete agenda for the working people of Mali. The absence of a working people political alternative and trade unions in the event of the protest to raise workers’ demands helped create a seemly atmosphere for the military to come in. The group of military officers calling themselves the National Committee for the Salvation of the people (NCSP) emerged and led the coup to oust the president on August 18 2020.
 
Thereafter, a coup d’etat attempt took place in Niger on 31st March 2021. A military unit tried to seize power but was thwarted. Niger, just like Mali is also characterized by attacks by Islamist militant couples with political and economic challenges. Just a few months after, the coup d’etat returned to Mali. Coup leader Assimi Goita seizes power again on the night of May 24 2021.
 

The wave of the coup around the West African corridor blew next to Guinea on 5 September 2021, where President Conde was captured and removed by the country’s armed forces, President Alpha Conde who was the first democratically elected president came to power in 2010. Got re-elected in 2015 for a second term and thereafter organized a referendum to remove the presidential term limit which made it possible to be reelected for the third in office in late 2020. The move had been controversial and triggered massive protests before and after the referendum. The coup leader Colonel Mamadi Doumbouya said in a statement to justify the taking over, said: “they did so because of the rampant corruption, disregard for human rights and economic mismanagement under the ousted president.” 

Sudan in 2021, witnessed a military coup against the transitional government that came to power after the revolution that overthrew the longtime ruler Omar al-Bashir. The military dissolved the transitional government over the excuses referred to a quarrel among the political elites.
 
The latest coup in Africa is the coup in Burkina Faso on January 24 and the coup attempt in Guinea Bissau on February 1, 2022. The military in Burkina Faso accuses President Kabore of its inability to deal with the growing armed militant violence against the state and to protect the lives of soldiers on the front line as several of them were killed as they were under-equipped to face the militant. The story is the same in the Sahel regions. The growing wave of insecurity has now spread to other regions such as northern Nigeria and Cameroon. An urgent intervention to stop the growing insecurity and improve the living standard of the people should be an urgent fight to stop capitalism. The sorry state of the situation in the northern part of Nigeria where the armed groups are now organised with repeated attacks on military formation is alarming. A report made available by Sahara reporters on 9 September 2021, from the European Peace Facility (EPF), states that “between 2015 to 2020 that the country had lost 1,952 military personnel from a total count of 500 attacks on military formations”. 
 
Nigeria with its history of coups, is also not in any way immune from the possibility of a coup as well, given the growing disenchantment of the working masses against the ruling elites. Despite having the longest reign of bourgeois civilian rule that has lasted 2 decades and it’s on the eve of another general election that clocks its Fourth Republic to be 24 years. It has its share of insurgency and banditry, with scores of mutinies in the military as well against what the rank and file of the military perceives as intended sabotage by both the top echelon of the military and the government. Corruption is at a grand scale, with oil wealth mismanaged and looted, it is the poverty capital of the world.
 
Coups can therefore no longer be the exception on the African continent, if anything they are back in vogue, as the ruling class from country to country fail to break with capitalism, stifling and stagnant the development of the means of production, So long will the crises become intense and without an independent political initiative and programme of the working masses to confront the ruling class, defeat and wrestle power from its grip and rescue the country, so long will top echelon of the military take it upon themselves to rescue the entire ruling class by taking over power to temporarily diffuse the anger of the working masses against the whole of the ruling class. 
 
The Economy, Imperialist interventions and ECOWAS
 
For the majority of countries in the West Africa region, the challenges of underdevelopment have been there. The unproductive attitude of the African ruling elites alongside the embracement of the imperialist policies has remained the major challenge fueling growing unemployment and insecurity in the region. In 2019, the government of Guinea agreed to the extension of credit facilities with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) on the condition they would run a fiscal surplus, increase tax collection, reduce subsidies for petrol and electricity and promote the development of the private sector. In January 2021, the economy bits harder. The price of petrol increased from 9,000 to 11,000 Guinea francs per litre. The price of a 250-gram loaf also increases from 1500 to 2000 guinea francs. The hunger crisis has set in with mounting mass anger against the government of Conde.  
 
The situation in Mali is not any different. Mali’s human development indicators are among the lowest in the world and the country faces poor delivery of basic social services or infrastructure. Just like in Guinea, in August 2019, the IMF approves a new three year extended credit facility to the tune of US$191.9 million. Of course, similar conditions will be agreed upon. Capitalism has shown that it cannot advance the course of the working masses. The conditions of the decaying capitalism in the developing economy of West Africa will further worsen the living condition of the working people. The Burkina Faso economy under president Kabore has not been delighted, with over 40% of its population living below the poverty line according to the World Bank report. Burkina Faso is a low-income country with 80% of its workforce employed in the agric. sector. A socialist planned system of economy that will nationalize the commanding sector of the economy and place it under the democratic management and control of the working people can guarantee enough resources to diversify the economy and improve the living standard of the people.   
 
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to an extent has played little or no role to bring peace and security function in the Sahel region. After a month of protest in Mali, the ECOWAS leaders tried to intervene between protesters and the government. The intervention of ECOWAS is not to resolve the growing insecurity or the dwindling economy but its concern was to contain the spread of the growing mass anger of the working people from spreading fast around the region. While the protesters wanted Keita’s resignation, the West African leaders made clear that president Keita should continue to remain in power and called on the opposition members to join Keita in the proposed unity government. After the overthrown of Keita by the military, the ECOWAS leaders suspended Mali demanding the military restore Ibrahim Keita to office. This is just a step to protect themselves from office.
 
The military with its command structure is a readymade organ to serve the interest of the powers that be in any given society, and from the point of an army of the armed group put in place to serve the interest of the ruling elites. We put clear our opposition against a coup, stating its inability to correctly indicate the way forward, the whole history of humanity has in no way sided with military putsch has capable of taking hold of the reign of political power and based on this develop the means of production and transform society ultimately in favour of the working masses.