Coups: Countries with entrenched democracy are not safe – Adib Saani

Coups are contagious – Adib Saani

Africa has a coup pandemic – UN Secretary-General

Coups due to deep sited socio-economic and geo-political deficits – Saani

Security consultant, Adib Saani, has said countries in West Africa are not safe from the current wave of coups in the sub-region including countries that are regarded to have entrenched democracy.

According to him coups are contagious and could easily spread to many countries in the sub-region and the factors that led to coups in some countries are present in these entrenched democracies.

Adib Saani who made these remarks in an interview with Aljazeera on the sidelines of an emergence ECOWAS Heads of States Extraordinary Summit on the Political Situation in Burkina Faso, said the "so called countries with entrenched democracy are not safe."

The security analyst said the recent coups were a result of the socio-economic hardships which have created human insecurities in the sub-region.

He added these insecurities leads to explosive charges by the masses and eventually to military overtakes.

These coups, he said, are as a result of “deep sited socio-economic and geo-political deficits that create that explosive charge that comes sometimes expected and sometimes unexpected.”

He added that he agreed with the assertion of the United Nations (UN) Secretary-General, António Guterres that Africa has a coup epidemic.

“It goes without saying that coups are contagious, the UN Secretary General, António Guterres could not have said it any better, he said we seem to have found ourselves in a coup epidemic,” he said

Over the past decade, there has been a number of coups and coups attempts in Africa with the recent coups being in Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mail and an attempted coup in Guinea Bissau.