Buzzapp Master 
Coup has become a theme song in the mouths of many Sub-Saharan Africans. The reason is simple: the vast majority are yet to benefit from the democratic gospel preached to them, like salvation. When elections fail to deliver progress or protection, people grow disillusioned — and desperate.
It’s cheaper to import goods from China than from a neighbouring African country, due to poor infrastructure and weak monetary cooperation.”
Currently, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Guinea, and Sudan are under military rule. Côte d’Ivoire was recently gripped by unverified coup rumours. As one analyst put it, “When the democracy they signed up for didn’t meet their expectations, they lost faith in it.”
Democracy without delivery
Despite independence and constitutions, many African governments remain structurally dependent on foreign capital, Western aid, and imported ideas. Emmanuel Macron, French President, was recently quoted as saying, “Africa is too young to be left alone.” Though dressed in diplomacy, it reinforces a patronising belief that Africans cannot manage their affairs.
Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, in their famous book Why Nations Fail, show how Europeans reversed the development trajectory of Sub-Saharan Africa in the 19th century. “In 1885, the German Chancellor Bismarck convened a conference in Berlin where the European powers hatched the ‘Scramble for Africa’ — that is, they decided how to divide up Africa into different spheres of interest.”
At the conference, many European nations secured their rights to colonise African countries.
The Europeans intensified slave trading in Africa. In Nigeria, “Kidnapping became the order of the day due to the booming slave trading business. As Oyo expanded south toward the coast, it crushed the intervening polities and sold many of their inhabitants for slaves,” wrote Acemoglu and Robinson.
It was when the Europeans abolished both extractive political and economic institutions in the West that they began to intensify them in Africa. This reveals one truth: the West will not solve Africa’s problems. The problems they solved for their people, they exported to Africa.
Unfortunately, when the colonial masters left, the leaders who took over continued where they stopped — concentrating economic and political opportunities in the hands of a few.
The Sahel revolt
Across Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso, a new generation of young military leaders has emerged — not by election, but by force. While the West brands them autocrats, many citizens see them as corrective forces — rebels against elite failure and foreign domination.
Temitope Musowo (PhD), a public policy expert, explains, “The recent trend of military takeovers… can be attributed to different factors based on the peculiarity of each country. But one common factor across them is security concerns… Terrorism, insurgency, civil unrest — people begin to believe the military can do better.” He also notes, “Rising poverty, unemployment, and inequality tempt citizens to turn to the military for rescue. Sometimes, one successful coup creates a bandwagon effect for neighbours. And behind it all? Weak institutions and, often, foreign interference.”
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Why the West is Afraid of Ibrahim Traoré
According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s April 2025 report for Burkina Faso, “Despite a challenging humanitarian and security context, growth is estimated to have accelerated to 5 percent in 2024, driven by strong performance of agriculture and services.
Economic activity is expected to remain robust in 2025, while inflation, which reached 4.2 percent in 2024, should recede to 3 percent.
The World Bank also notes, “Despite inflation rising from 0.7 percent in 2023 to 4.2 percent in 2024 due to insecurity and delayed rains, poverty decreased. The extreme poverty rate dropped by 1.8 percentage points, from around 26.7 percent to 24.9 percent, largely due to strong performance in the agriculture and services sectors.”
These economic trends point to a rare combination in the Sahel: rising inflation alongside falling poverty and accelerating growth.
This, according to Moussa Ibrahim (PhD), is exactly why some global powers are wary of Captain Traoré’s government. Speaking on Nigeria Info (99.3 FM), Muammar Gaddafi’s former spokesman said, “Even if the West loses Burkina Faso, loses the wealth of Burkina Faso, it will not harm them big. So what are they afraid of? Is this an example? If Traoré succeeds as an African liberator… if he can show that he can use the wealth of the country for the good of the people, then this will set forward an example that many Africans will demand. And that is exactly what they fear.”
It was also reported that nearly 80 percent of the country’s territory, once overrun by terror groups, has been reclaimed under his rule.
Africa’s missed opportunity
In a landmark interview with Ireti Bakare-Yusuf on Nigeria Info FM, Ibrahim outlines how Gaddafi’s vision — from an African Central Bank with its headquarters in Abuja to a unified gold-backed currency called the “Afro” — made him a target.
Gaddafi’s project wasn’t just pan-African in name. It was revolutionary in content. He pushed for an African Central Bank and Sovereign Wealth Fund, a unified currency backed by Africa’s gold reserves, a United African Army (UAA), and free African satellites independent from Western surveillance. “This, of course, would have liberated our continent from the enslavement—financial, economic, and political enslavement by the West,” Ibrahim said.
Today, Africa grapples with 33 national currencies — none of which are accepted for cross-border trade. It’s cheaper to import goods from China than from a neighbouring African country, due to poor infrastructure and weak monetary cooperation.
As Patrick Lumumba, a professor and Pan-African scholar, bluntly observed: “I fly from Nairobi for one and a half hours… I come from the shilling zone. I go into the birr. I come to Addis Ababa and show my shilling — they say, ‘What is this?’ But show the dollar or euro — ‘Ah, this is it.’”
“You may have the central bank of Kenya, the central bank of Ethiopia — you may have all these 54 central banks useless. Because we’re not playing in the real league, we are playing in the small league. His point is clear: until Africa unifies its financial systems and trade structures, its 54 central banks remain fragmented instruments in a global game rigged against them.
As if fragmented currencies weren’t enough, Africa’s infrastructure deficit further cripples intra-continental trade. According to The Economist’s special report Africa’s Gap, “The cost of transporting goods in Ethiopia and Nigeria is 3.5 and 5.3 times higher than in the United States, according to analysis by David Atkin and Dave Donaldson, two economists.”
Sub-Saharan Africa also suffers from poor road access, with a road density barely one-fifth of the global average and only about a quarter of roads paved. This lack of basic infrastructure reinforces Africa’s dependence on foreign markets and discourages regional economic integration, even among neighbouring countries.
If a united Africa had been supported, these challenges might not exist today.
It was a vision of an Africa no longer begging at the gates of the IMF but standing shoulder to shoulder with global powers. And for this, he was isolated, betrayed, and eventually killed.
The betrayal of Gaddafi
“This is the sad story of our continent — that the sons of Africa get besieged, isolated, and killed before our own eyes,” said Ibrahim.
He recounted how Gaddafi, despite his popularity and long-standing relationships across the continent, was left alone when Libya came under NATO attack. “Gaddafi asked for African peacekeeping forces… for African diplomacy to replace UN diplomacy in Libya. But most leaders kept silent, watching their brother being killed.”
According to Ibrahim, the pain of that betrayal, especially from the African Union, which Gaddafi had helped shape, is what Gaddafi took with him to the grave.
Backing this sentiment, Adebola Bakare (PhD), a political scientist from the University of Ilorin, reflected, “Africa missed the opportunity, as Western imperialists deliberately killed Gaddafi to thwart the idea (United Africa). They did this because he was opening the eyes of Africans to the devil they are perpetrating in the name of giving us aid while exploiting our resources.”
“I doubt if Africa can see such an opportunity again in the near future,” he added.
Today, Ibrahim warns that history may be repeating itself: “The same Western playbook is being dusted off for a new target: Captain Ibrahim Traoré.”
The People’s perspective
Yet it isn’t just about geopolitics. There’s a growing detachment between African leaders and the people they govern. Babatunde Olanrewaju, a Nigerian administrator, says, “As much as military coups are unfashionable, bad governance by the political class remains unacceptable. 80 percent of people don’t care who governs — military or civilian — as long as their lives are secure, the economy works, and they can afford basic needs.”
He adds: “The political class — less than 5 percent of the population — are the ones who truly yearn for democracy. Ordinary people just want food, security, and opportunity. If democracy can’t deliver, who cares whether the leader wears khaki or a kaftan?
A dangerous shift
But there’s danger in exchanging one strongman for another. Edmund Obilo, a political scientist, warns of rising autocratic influence as Russia and China expand their reach in Africa. “As China rises and Russia re-emerges, autocratic rule will be solidified in many parts of the world — especially in Africa.”
More troubling is what happens when power corrupts institutions, and he quotes from the book How Democracies Die, written by Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt: “Institutions become political weapons wielded forcefully by those who control them against those who do not.” This is quite evident in many African nations today, including Nigeria. Many times, you see a politician in power using the public institutions to fight the opposition. These institutions include, but are not limited to, INEC, the Nigeria Police, the Nigerian Army, EFCC, the Judiciary, etc.
So far, Traoré’s government has faced allegations of suppressing the press and conscripting critics. And that raises a difficult question: “What happens when institutions no longer constrain the powerful but protect them?” Obilo asks.
From coup to constitution
The real question is not whether coups are good or bad — it’s what comes next. Ibrahim cautions, “If revolutions don’t create democratic structures from below, the people won’t defend them when trouble comes.” He calls for civil societies rooted in local communities, not donor NGOs; critical voices to be heard, not silenced; and power to be shared through unions, youth movements, and women’s platforms.
A call to grow up
Africa is at a turning point. One path leads back to familiar cycles of repression. The other demands something new: maturity. The courage to unite, to build, and to govern — not as proxies or strongmen, but as accountable leaders grounded in their people.
Ibrahim sums it up best: “We are not liberated yet. Our borders are free, but our decisions are not. Our leaders wear suits, but their minds are still shackled.”
From coups may come control, but only the people can deliver true liberation.
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