For me;
Fundamentally there’s not much difference between those who plot coups in military uniforms and those who rig elections and steal a mandate using a compromised electoral body.
You can’t be angry with a coup plotter when you rigged elections and stole a mandate yourself.
Because in the end:
You have both violently imposed yourselves on a people who do not want you, who have not chosen you and whose choice to reject you have been forcefully taken away from them.
You are both thieves.
You are both criminals.
You are both detestable rogues.
And you should both die in jail for criminal treason and the suppression of the will of the people.
So while I’m a huge proponent of “democracy”, I’m not a supporter of democracy “at any costs” or “any kind of democracy”.
I’m only a huge proponent of true democracy. As long as it’s a true representation of the will of the people, then I’m for it.
But the moment you are suppressing votes, stealing ballots, killing people, compromising the electoral body, bribing the judiciary, assassinating opponents, attacking opposition, threatening critics and harassing anyone who doesn’t align; what you have is not a democracy. What you have is an autocracy, a tyranny and a totalitarianism - and it doesn’t matter if the executors are wearing a military uniform or a civilian outfit.
The inherent beauty of a true democracy is the inalienable guarantee of the people’s right and freedom to choose (and to reject) a leader.
Freedom is the singular most important virtue and quality of democracy- and this is what makes it an absolutely beautiful style of government.
The moment you take away that right, the moment you take away a people’s freedom to choose their own leaders, or you impose on them someone they really do not want against their true wishes; what you have is already a coup and it should be called what it really is:
a civilian tyranny.
Going by the above;
What we see going on in many African countries is NOT a democracy.
What is going on in many African countries is a civilian autocracy and a tyranny of the political elite on the masses sprinkled with a stinking flavour of periodical sham elections.
This is exactly why the recent coups across Africa have been met with a lot of praise and excitement, because in the first place, the ousted leaders were never truly elected by the people. They are civilian coup plotters who themselves have now been thrown out by military coup plotters.
It’s like hearing that the petty thief who came to steal in your house was himself ambushed by armed robbers. If the news get to you as a victim; why would you care if your oppressor himself met a brutal waterloo in the hands of another oppressor?
This is why I have zero sympathies for a lot of the men who were ousted from power in Africa. Zero sympathies.
The idiot in Gabon for instance, at the height of his autocratic insanity, reportedly imported snow from abroad to give his family a “white Christmas” right in Africa in a country where his own people were languishing in poverty.
Don’t get me wrong.
While I have zero sympathies for the men ousted from power, I do have huge sympathies for these countries- because coups represent instability and uncertainty in governance which more often than not, tends to ruin a nation rather than build it.
On a final note;
I do not believe in coups.
And I will never support any coups.
Whether it’s the coup carried out by the men in military or the civilian coups which are now rebranded as “democracy” done every four years where some mad man imposes himself on everyone against the wishes and the desires of the people.
And to be clear;
This civilian tyranny of the political elite which we have rebranded as “democracy” in Africa needs to end.
Because until we do this and unless we do this, all these military coups will never end.
Remember: if you can rig elections and steal a mandate, why can’t someone else also plot a coup and kick your dirty ass out of office?