Coup attempt in Guinea-Bissau was obvious – Diplomacy Expert

International Diplomatic Consultant, Farouk Al-Wahab has posited that the recent attempted power takeover in Guinea-Bissau was highly projected, therefore comes as no shock to him.

In his submissions, he demonstrated that the West Africa body, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has failed to critically understand the character of each associate country in recent times.

Farouk Al-Wahab opined that ECOWAS’ failure to discuss the political phases of every member country indicates that the community as a whole has some crucial issues to tackle.

“I think we may have to understand every country. The little problem ECOWAS as a bloc has is that they haven’t studied the character of the individual countries. The political character of each individual country, the political culture of the various countries and even the political traditions of every individual country have never been brought on the table to be assessed by ECOWAS as a body. So I can say ECOWAS as a body have their serious problems,” he told Don Kwabena Prah in an interview on Happy98.9 FM’s Epa Hoa Daben.

“Guinea-Bissau is a very funny country historically. If the ECOWAS body knew their history, they would know that Guinea-Bissau was the only tiny country in the world that fought the Portuguese army and defeated them. From 1974 when they gained power and became an independent country, they have transitioned into 17 Head of States,” he said.

Giving the historical background of the country, he mentioned that compared to other West African countries like Ghana who achieved independence through protocol arrangements, Guinea-Bissau gained its independence basically through war.

On Tuesday, February 1, Guinea-Bissau’s President Umaro Sissoco Embalo was reported to have survived an attempted coup.

However, the reports indicated that many members of the security forces had been killed repelling an attack on democracy that may have been linked to drug trafficking.

The attempt came barely a week after neighboring country Burkina Faso deposed its legitimate president through a military attack.