Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Niger coup and Northern Nigeria

Oh. Sorry. It's a guardian article, not Al jazeera . My mistake. Still a great article

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From: Harrow, Kenneth <harrow@msu.edu>
Sent: Sunday, August 27, 2023 6:09:52 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Niger coup and Northern Nigeria

 

The al jazeera article is pretty great. It de-romanticizes the coup, and gives real motives to the army for supporting it.

When the army grew in egypt, it took over the major sources of revenues, enriching themselves, and opposing democratic reforms. The same happened in burundi, and the army leaders acquired land. The same story in zimbabwe with the mines in the drc that they were paid for stopping kagame's invasion.

When the army takes over, they will spout rhetoric about stopping corruption and opposing western imperialism or anything else; but when the mist lifts, what do we see, who has now become the owners of the land, the mines, the money? 

So, to stop this, any ruler who must depend upon the army to rule realizes this, and tries to buy them off.

I write this as an amateur observer, having read about the cases i cited. There were some exceptions, to be sure. But all too often, any prolonger leadership results in this dependency on the army, who have to be paid off for their loyalty.

Ken

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From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of cornelius...@gmail.com <corneliushamelberg@gmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, August 27, 2023 4:59:57 PM
To: USA Africa Dialogue Series <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Re: Niger coup and Northern Nigeria

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/aug/23/niger-observers-link-coup-to-president-mohamed-bazoum-support-of-eu-migration-policies-people-smuggling

On Saturday, 19 August 2023 at 04:17:48 UTC+2 Gloria Emeagwali wrote:

https://www.semafor.com/article/08/16/2023/niger-coup-nigerias-north-pushes-back-at-west-africas-ecowas

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