Africa needs stronger stance against coups to avoid return to cold war era, says Osinbajo

Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo says the recent spate of military coups in African countries, if not checked, could return the continent to the cold war era.

Osinbajo spoke on Monday at an event organised by the Coalition for Dialogue on Africa (CoDA) in Abeokuta, the Ogun capital.

Beginning after the Second World War in the 1940s, the cold war saw tensions rise between the United States and the Soviet Union at the time over issues bordering on control of geographical territories.

The cold war also saw the opposing sides scramble for African countries without necessarily providing much support for the independence that was craved by Africans at the time.

In recent months, have been a wave of coups across African countries, and according to Osinbajo, the trend needs to be addressed to prevent the situation from leading to chaos.

“Our commitment to democratisation must be predicated on the aspiration of our people and not from the whims of foreign powers,” he said.

“We must not allow our continent to become as it was in the cold war era — fetter of proxy wars and great power conflict.

“The recent spate of military coups across our continent and attempts at military coups not only portend the risk of a damaging democratic recession, it also takes us back to the cyles of extra-constitutional disruptions that plagued us decades ago.

“Since 2017, there have been 12 military coups in Africa, and half of them occurred since 2020. Two months ago, the democratically elected government of Burkina Faso was overthrown, while only in February, there was an attempted coup in Guinea-Bissau, which was thankfully repealed.

“This much is clear; we know that we cannot secure Africa that we want by turning back the hands of the democratic clock.

“We have walked this thorny road before with many decades of bitter experience. No matter how dire our circumstances may be, we now have concrete proof that resorting to extra-constitutional regimes is not the way forward.

“These attacks on constitutional governance should be the subject of deeper reflection. When social and economic rights are unsecured, people are unable to fully maximise their civil and political rights.”

Below are photos from the event.