Ali Bongo, Military Coup: Beyond Gabon -By Kehinde Oluwatosin

Growing up, I took an unusual fondness with the Italian Serie A, and specifically Ac Milan and inter Milan, the two San Siro clubs shared the same stadium making the San Siro fixtures a tensed cracker at all meetings.

The quality of the football players, managers and the intensity of the fans  often make the matches a great watch. Beyond the furore of the fixtures, the shirt of Inter Milan often fascinates me because of the chequered blue stripes on it but beyond the hue the brand name Pirelli engraved on Inter Milan’s Jersey comes with a philosophical slogan. 

Pirelli’s adverts often comes with an ending strap line/slogan “Power is nothing without control.” Over the years the slogan has been a subject of my thought processes . Living in Africa and more specifically Nigeria explains the intricacies of having power without control to anyone who cares to know, yet in the true sense of it, power is only said to be power when it’s controlled.  

To the African however, the seizure of power is his definition of leadership, when Nigeria’s APC slug it out with PDP, the context of the contest is often not leadership or the ability to lead, not good governance but rather power. 

When they talk about the opposition it’s with a mindset of seizing power. The latest coup d’ état in Gabon is yet another attempt in a ‘not to end soon’ list of African coups, it’s instructive to state here that of Africa’s 54 nations only 14 has escaped a coup, culpable often times is the military of such nations. 

However beyond the military’s culpability is the ‘sit-tight’ leaders in Africa who often impoverish their people and superintends almost eternally over the resource of such nation. 

For instance Ali Bongo the president of Gabon  left Gabon on a medical trip yet did not hand over power hence creating a vacuum to be exploited by the soldiers who often are on the receiving end of poor governance. 

An inference can be made: The African is often power drunk and he hardly could differentiate between power and leadership, and when he has power he hardly leads because his power is often uncontrollable, he often forgets that power is nothing without control.

Email: Kehindeobabatunde@gmail.com
Twitter: @_tqatq