Abdul-Rashid Pelpuo, a member of parliament (MP) for Wa Central, has stated that the progress in Niger, following its military takeover is a worrying matter that has to be addressed.

Since 2020, there have been nine coup d’état attempts in the Sub-Region of Africa, leading to the military takeover of seven nations.

In response to the news, Abdul-Rashid Pelpuo asserted that such coups occurred because the populace was unhappy with the governing class, which raised the possibility of a military coup. Moreover, he added that occasionally it also resulted from the fact that the country’s democratic transition was not the best because the constitutions drawn through democracy, led to the current problems.

“There is a possibility that leadership is beginning to become complacent about being in power and so, has started to side step the will of the people. Leaders may have forgotten that when they are in power, they are in power for the people and not themselves. And when you slack from being a committed person on behalf of the people, rather than serving yourself, then the dissatisfaction begins to grow.
“It might not be realized immediately but when the external military strikes, then you begin to examine that you were not doing what you were supposed to be doing. There are often some red lines that leaders should not cross; leaders in the sub region are actively crossing the red lines. They want to live beyond their historical provision of a term of office allocated to them.”
Abdul-Rashid Pelpuo

According to the Wa Central MP, politicians frequently violate the constitution by breaking economic regulations and favor themselves over the general populace. Also, he claimed that leaders start acting autocratically by instilling fear and panic in the populace, such as imprisoning individuals who disagreed with the government without cause or risking their lives, all the while being aware that the rights of the populace were violated.

Additionally, he stated that a problem always arose when people’s human rights were infringed upon. He advised West African nations to go above and beyond what they now do and its leaders should always think through their actions whenever they gained power.

“You come to an economy, you do the bad things that you shouldn’t do and when people complain, you say this gov’t or fellow has also done same. As if to suggest that you were brought to continue the bad things other people are doing.”
Abdul-Rashid Pelpuo

Continuum In Bad Governance

In relation to how coups started, the Member of Parliament mentioned that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) for instance, encountered difficulties while in office because it was expected that a government in power could not do miracles.

He said that when an administration slipped, it had to own up to it, thereby arguing that the NDC actually did notable things that ultimately led to the party being expelled from power.

However, he asserted that the New Patriotic Party (NPP) has performed worse and still continues to criticize the NDC, while avoiding taking accountability for its own actions.

“They pass off the worse and try to take comfort in the bad things that they do. And so, when the people are dissatisfied, they can point at someone who shouldn’t have what he has or a gov’t agent who should not be where he is and who is there. Because he has taken much more than the people allowed him to take and so, it becomes a problem. It’s the character of the Ghananaians and we need to address it. So that we can criticize the gov’t to get the right things done, rather than saying that the NDC did that also.
“So West African countries seem not to be seeing the challenges ahead of us in focus, the need for us to transform our economy and the need for us to address the concerns of our young people. And so, we all the while, relapse in what we do and create a vacuum, where the military can come in. We are against military takeover; we don’t want it to happen in Ghana, we don’t want it to happen anywhere in Africa.”
Abdul-Rashid Pelpuo