On Thursday, October 20, 2022, the United Kingdom (UK) Prime Minister Liz Truss showed the way by tendering her resignation letter to the Conservative Party, following a failed tax-cutting budget that rocked the British financial markets. She bowed out just 44 days after her appointment to lead government business.
Prior to her resignation, the shortest ever serving Prime Minster, Truss had earlier dismissed her Finance Minister, Kwasi Kwarteng, after his so-called mini-budget did not settle down well with the British people.
The moral lesson here, which African leaders must take a cue from, is that even though the former UK Prime Minister meant well with the policies that she introduced, she did not hang onto power after it backfired.
African leaders tend to hold onto power at a cost to their nation’s peace, economy, and food security. Thus, no matter how bad or worse the lives of the people become under a serving government, resignation is often out of the question. Unfortunately, unorthodox ways have been devised to seize power from such power drunk leaders, such as through civil uprising or coup d’états.
Recently, six countries in the West African region – Guinea Bissau, Chad, Mali, Guinea, Sudan and Burkina Faso – had experienced overthrows of governments that had existed for over a decade or came to power less than a year ago.
The African Union (AU) turns 20 this year and celebrations are underway, under the motto: Our Africa, Our Future. Though coups d’état have become rare, there is another kind of coup – when incumbent African presidents have manipulated constitutions to extend their tenure of office.
For the long term, the AU is working towards developing guidelines to prevent constitutional abuses. If adopted, the guidelines would formalise the power of the AU to suspend countries and sanction incumbents engaging in constitutional coups.
But these would take time to adopt, and there is no guarantee that they will be effective. Instead, the AU should engage more aggressively to detect and prevent instability that results from incumbent attempts to cling to power.
Although Ghana has had it fair share of political turbulence after the first republic, The Chronicle is glad to say that the Fourth Republic has remained the most peaceful of all. The Chronicle is happy we have been a good example in a chaotic sub-region.
We, as a media house that interfaces between the public and the government, we believe that the majority of people are glad with the democratic path we have chosen and we must guard it jealously. African politicians must learn to leave the stage when the applause is loudest.
