Ahmed Osumanu Halid: The circus in Burkina Faso, the contrast in Ghana!

It has happened again, not in Europe, the Americas, Asia, and Australia, but in Africa. On the continent of Africa, not in North, South, East, Central but the ‘usual part,’ West Africa.

The destination again in Burkina Faso. This time, the Military removed the illegal military government. Ibrahim Traore removing Lt col Paul Demimba. The irony of life again being displayed in this landlocked neighbour. Now, the new head of state of Burkina Faso is no more Paul Demimba but Ibrahim Traore, who was a member of the dethroned illegal government. Life!

The reason for the overthrow was the inability of Demimba’s government to defeat the Islamic insurgents tearing the country apart. Remember, Traore was part of that government, even though unknown. Lt col. Paul Demimba was his boss saluting him daily. Now, it is the opposite.

Paul Demimba has been arrested, and he is currently being held by the new junta. Wow! When will the West African sub-region population be given the peace of their democratic rights?

I have repeatedly stated that Military regimes are backward and alien to our political culture. Therefore, we should not in any way welcome them. Such regimes have numerous disadvantages. These include curtailments of all rights of the citizens; political, economic, legal, expression, movements, democratic, social, and other rights or opportunities. These regimes feature corruption, mismanagement of our resources, poor leadership, secret homicides, and other nefarious activities.

No matter the imperfections of democracy, it is a far better system of government than the stealing brigade of the military regimes. The sickness in democracy in our part of the continent is the refusal of some leaders to leave the scene when their constitutional terms expired.

We can see this madness in Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Uganda, Rwanda, and saw it in Sudan and others.
It is, therefore, prudent to commend our nation, Ghana, for maintaining our democratic culture for thirty years and still counting.

Yes, challenges are visible, but we can use legal and constitutional systems to resolve them. We move, express ourselves freely, vote freely, and institutions, both public and private, are performing their assignments in accordance with the laws and other regulations.

The three arms of the state are constitutionally performing their tasks, and other state bodies are doing the same.
Citizens exhibit their rights to criticise the duty bearers when they goof, and at times, they are being challenged at the precincts of the courts. State winning and losing cases depend on the facts, evidence and laws. Individuals are doing the same.

The print and electronic media are freely doing their job even though some forget that their rights are not unlimited. They should know that defamation laws are still in operation, and they can bite when they defame individuals or states.

It is, therefore, absurd for some disgruntled persons to ponder over coup d’etat as a solution to our nation’s challenges. It is not the solution or the substitution. The ground norm of our country, the 1992 Constitution, has empowered us, the citizens, to change or retain our governments through the ballot box. Finito!

No person has been granted the power or authority to steal our rights. The coups that dethroned our democratic governments of Nkrumah, Busia, and Liman had offered nothing beneficial to us. Those ‘stealers’ only came to steal, kill and destroy, after which they indemnified themselves from any future prosecution.

The economies of the world are struggling, including the so-called superpowers, but no one is calling for the illegal removal of their governments but rather critiquing their governments and proferring alternatives to solve the economic upheavals; that is the way to go.

Therefore, it is appropriate to commend ourselves and our leaders from the late Jerry John Rawlings, JA Kufour, late Prof Atta Mills, JD Mahama, and the current President Nana Addo for making our democratic culture sustainable. Burkina Faso, Mali, Rwanda, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, and the rest must and should learn from Ghana.

Burkina Faso should stop the circus.