Says military governments not doing any better in terms of security
Restates ECOWAS opposition to coups
President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has reiterated his stance and that of the sub-regional bloc, ECOWAS, against military intervention in politics.
He stressed in an interview on BBC Africa in London that elections remained the globally acceptable way for any regime to show that it had the popular support of its people.
“The only proper indication all over the world of whether a regime has popular support or not is through the ballot box, I am a firm believer in that,” he stated while responding to a question on the Mali coup.
Akufo-Addo, who is the current ECOWAS chairman dismissed the view that the military in Mali had popular support – with the journalist citing mass protests in the capital – when the military overthrew the government of Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and later the transitional government, in a space of nine months.
“You see a few people in Bamako, does that make it Mali? You sit here in London and you see a few people on your screen jubilating in the streets of Bamako, that make it Mali? Bamako is Mali?
“Mali is much more than just the capital city and being able to raise even a few thousand people to come on the street,” Akufo-Addo stressed.
ECOWAS under his leadership has recorded a number of coups in what has been described as a coup contagion by the UN Secretary-General.
Aside from Mali’s double coup in nine months – led by Assimi Goita, Guinea and Burkina Faso have also recorded overthrows whiles Guinea-Bissau survived a coup attempt months ago.
Akufo-Addo pointed at the previous cycle of coups in West Africa and stressed why ECOWAS had outlawed it.
“It isn’t as if this is a new phenomenon and it is because of that, that the regional body made it a fundamental part of its culture that we will no longer tolerate unconstitutional changes of government. If people want to get into office, they should do so by persuading our people to vote for them,” he stressed.
View his Timepath below:
President Akufo-Addo is current Chairman of ECOWAS