Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Coups and Corruption

the problem is, how can conflicts in africa be confronted and overcome.

gloria posts some of the problems, and you can multiply them. for instance, if a regime is particularly egregiously authoritarian and exploitative, you might want it overthrown, and would not want the au to intervene and stop a coup.

who gets to decide? the situation in equatorial guinea, for instance, might fit that description, but it isn't unique. and perhaps alpha conde was particularly bad, as certainly was the case with nkurunzima, whom covid decided to depose.

but the other side strikes me as more compelling. moses, i think it was, once remarked on how the victims of conflict in africa have needs and rights that outweigh any other considerations, like the legitimacy or justice of a given rule. we might say, better a bad peace than a good war. i suspect over the long run that might be true (i don't know if i quite got moses down correctly here).

to get specific: life in east congo is hell. there are 126 or more armed groups; there are killings, esp by the adf almost daily; there is outright theft of mineral wealth  probably to the tune of billions of dollars every year; and there is a weak and dysfunctional govt incapable of stopping this.

shouldn't it be stopped, in the name of the people of the congo?

ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

harrow@msu.edu

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From: 'Emeagwali, Gloria (History)' via USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, September 12, 2021 7:31 AM
To: OLAYINKA AGBETUYI <yagbetuyi@hotmail.com>; usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Coups and Corruption

 

OAA

If the African Union should create a military 

force to intervene in  countries, you would see

the proliferation of endless warfare on the 

continent.

Abiy Ahmed thought that he would put down

the rebellious TPLF in a month. In fact he 

declared victory  not long  after - but that 

war is far from over.   Military battles

have a life of their own. Egypt may be

supplying arms to suit its own Dam interests

in this particular case.

 When the idea of "Collective Security"

 was brought up as an

option for dealing with nation states

at the international level, in the newly formed 

United Nations, policy makers soon realized 

the difficulties in implementation  and control

with contributing forces and countries

 taking sides.

The US thought that ousting the Taliban 

was a cakewalk. We know better now.

Let us say that Colonel X staged a coup.

What would prevent the coup leader from 

creating  alliances with  external forces bigger

than the AU military that you propose?

Don't get me wrong, I like this idea, in principle,

but it wouldn't work in practice.

Professor Gloria Emeagwali
Prof. of History/African Studies, CCSU
africahistory.net; vimeo.com/ gloriaemeagwali
Recipient of the 2014 Distinguished Research
Excellence Award, Univ. of Texas at Austin;
2019 Distinguished Africanist Award
New York African Studies Association

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From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of OLAYINKA AGBETUYI <yagbetuyi@hotmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, September 9, 2021 7:37 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Coups and Corruption

 

Please be cautious: **External Email**

Brother Sabella.

You confirmed by your response the need for an alternative party of governance in Nigeria unyoked to the party in government and its main opposition.

You also confirm that the failure of Nigeria is the failure of its intellectual class and its failure to re- imagine an alternative future and alternative ways of bringing that future about.

New Labour in the UK  effectively knuckled down and did this so well in 1997 that it recorded an unparalleled landslide against the seemingly immutable Old Conservatives in the UK that it earned the sobriquet of the the greatest social engineers of the 20th century anywhere in the West.  

They permanently shifted the goal posts that every Conservative govt ever since had to deal with the new reality in order to win elections.  It was extremely hard work considering the previous reality on ground but it was completed with a single minded determination.

When you see the Nigerian intelligentsia cuddling with successive military regimes, rather than reading them the riot act that their moral capital is not for sale, that was a self- evident indictment of the whole intellectual class without singling out individuals.

No state in Africa deserves a military take over in view of the unsalutary performance of individual governments.  In fact the African Union should provide a caveat of exclusion in the African Union Charter excluding military regimes in its principle of non- intervention, inserting the proviso that the African Union reserves the right to flush out military regimes who take over civili y an governments in member states by a coalition of military forces.

Any military force that took over power in this connection MUST name an interim civilian government within 24 hrs to organise fresh elections immediately.

OAA

A coin is not a coin without the operational validity of both sides.  It is a CRIMINAL oversight that in more than SIXTY years of its existence Nigeria has not produced a female president. Let those who believe in equity clamour for a FEMALE president come 2023. Let us end the testosterone driven climate of violence and fear in the polity.

Sent from my Galaxy

-------- Original message --------

From: Sabella Abidde <sabidde@gmail.com>

Date: 06/09/2021 06:21 (GMT+00:00)

To: USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>

Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Coups and Corruption

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Dear Brother Olayinka,

Good greetings! When I think of countries that are ripe for a temporary military coup, Nigeria does not come to mind. Did you say, "We need a clean alternative party of governance that can reject membership from the soiled parties… New carefully selected and elected members can be found"

Really? From where?

I read somewhere there that amongst the elected, selected, and the appointed, "if they are not stealing, they are waiting to steal." When the opportunity presents itself…you chop, you carry, you steal.

As an aside: Those who railed against Gowon did the same when it was their turn to rule. Same with those who railed again Babangida.

Oh, the NADECO activists have been in power since 1999 - engaged in the same things they accused Babangida and Abacha of in terms of abuse of power, incompetence, trickiness, and larceny.

The same people who are today railing against Buhari are not likely to be different if given the opportunity. Many mainly think of Nigeria as a bordello – you go there to take your turn.  No penalties, no repercussions. This sh#it has been going on since at least October 2, 1960.

Sabella Abidde

On Sun, Sep 5, 2021 at 8:44 PM OLAYINKA AGBETUYI <yagbetuyi@hotmail.com> wrote:

Sabella my brother,

Yes you are right about corruption in Nigeria.  But we have been down the ' road to Kugali' of military coups in Nigeria before.  It is not a viable alternative.  It made Ibrahim Babangida one of the leading billionaires in the country today- the man who decisively corrupted all institutions so that he might NEVER be caught and brought to justice.

We need a clean alternative party of governance that can reject membership from the soiled parties.

There are almost 200 million Nigerians.  New carefully selected and elected members can be found.

OAA

Follow the Elegbara/Idoto blueprint.  Elect the first female Nigerian president come 2023

Sent from my Galaxy

-------- Original message --------

From: Sabella <sabidde@gmail.com>

Date: 05/09/2021 23:31 (GMT+00:00)

To: USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>

Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Coups and Corruption

Military coups can be terrible. In almost every instance, they serve no significant purpose. But under rare conditions, they become essential. As of today, there are seven governments on the African continent that deserve to be toppled because there are no scintilla of checks and balances left…the governing process has been corrupted and weakened to the point where the judiciary and the law-making bodies seem fused into the presidency.

It is basically a one-man show in those seven countries and with a high degree of political and economic excesses. Their leaders also show signs of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and or other mental disorders. At this point, therefore, a military coup d'état is about the only solution left. And in Nigeria, many do not want to admit that they cannot fight corruption using old approaches and tools.

The courts, police, and bodies like the EFCC are corrupted and or paralyzed and are therefore profoundly ineffective. It is either Nigeria legalize corruption or employ the Chinese Method. The entire system – economic, political, social, cultural, religious, etc., – is so weakened and debased and rendered nonsensical by corruption and corrupting acts that the country is not only stagnant but also showing signs of excruciating deterioration.

Things are so bad in Nigeria that less than ten percent of the elected, selected, and appointed can say "I am clean, I am not corrupt" and be vindicated by the "courts and the gods."

Sabella O. Abidde

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Professor of Political Science

Department of History and Political Science

Alabama State University

915 South Jackson Street

Montgomery, Alabama 36104

Office: G.W Trenholm Hall 203

Office: 334-604-8038 I Cell Phone: 334-538-8628

Series Editor: https://rowman.com/Action/SERIES/_/LEXAGD/African-Governance-and-Development

Publications: https://rowman.com/Action/Search/_/Sabella%20Abidde

https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030566494

https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783030566418

African Scholars and Intellectuals in North American Academies

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