Not yet Requiem for Coup De’tats: The West African Experience

Abstract

This paper outlines the history during the latter years of colonialism and the euphemism of independence as it swept across West Africa. After independence, conflicts started between the nationalists turned politicians and/officials and soldiers who served the colonialist governments. The new found freedom unearthed the ethnic tension existing between the political and military leaders. Also, political independence did not translate to economic prosperity for the common Africans as was expected it would with the demise of colonialism. Rather the post-colonial leaders became corrupt. The military as the guardians of the commonwealth overthrew the civilian leaders but in most cases, they became worse than the civilian governments. Rather than solving the contemporary political and socio-economic problems, military coups d’état in West Africa have led to civilian sufferings and turmoil.  This has been the case in countries such as Ghana, Nigeria, Togo and Mali.  The future trend is that coups will remain a common phenomenon as long as political and economic instability prevails.

KEYWORDS: Colonialism, Coup, Ethnicity, Military