Sports administrator and media personality, Ransford Annetey Abbey, also known as Randy Abbey, has criticized West African leaders over their inability to resolve the coup menace in the sub-region.
He bemoaned the lack of commitment of the West African leaders to come together and deliberate on how to deal with the coup situation being recorded in the sub-region recently.
The host of Good Morning Ghana on Metro TV on August 2, 2023, chided West African leaders for not tackling the problem seriously and called on them to aid countries that are in such distress instead of leaving them on their own.
“Look, we must at all times speak truth to power. The ECOWAS leaders are not seen to be engaging themselves and speaking truth to themselves and advising themselves on the things that they need to do or not to do in order to deal with some of these issues, these Islamist issues, and all that.
“It has become a West African problem. We have not seen West African leaders decide to come together and speak in such bravado terms on how they can come together, put together a regional force to drive these things out and do this thing. When these things are happening, these countries are left on their own to fiasco,” he lamented.
Randy Abbey further said although West Africa has a bad record when it comes to coups, he believes it is high time leaders in the sub-region take proactive measures to overcome the canker.
“The fact that we have a very terrible history in terms of what coups have done to us, and therefore we have resolved that, we would want to use the democratic path. It appears that all of our West African people we're just taking advantage of the experiences and, of course, the willingness of people to focus on the democratic path. We perhaps are not living up to expectations and not doing what is right," the host of Good Morning Ghana added.
Background
Following the coup in Niger, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) directed the military to return to the normal government system or face possible military intervention.
The soldiers dissolved the country’s constitution, suspended all institutions, and closed its borders to prevent intrusion.
President of Niger, Mohamed Bazoum had been held by troops from the presidential guard early Wednesday with US Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken promising his “unwavering support” to him.
Mali and Burkina Faso have suffered coups triggered by Jihadist unrest in recent years.
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Media personality, Randy Abbey