Democracy's Discontent and the Resurgence of Coups in West Africa: Implications for Africa

Abstract

The resurgence of military coups in African politics poses a challenge for democracy and it highlights the fragility of democratization in Africa. Going by the recent coup waves, democracy appears to be in a very fragile state in Africa. Africa for a very long time has enjoyed relative stability in its democratization process. However, this long period of stability is being challenged again as there have already been five successful overthrows of democratically elected governments in Chad, Mali, Guinea, Sudan, Burkina Faso, and Niger between 2021 and 2023 in addition to the unsuccessful attacks. It is equally worth noting that the recent coup waves in Africa have been dominated by West African states: Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Guinea. Unlike in the past when citizens greeted attacks on democratically elected governments with discontent and disapproval, the recent coups have for so many reasons been met with support and acceptance by citizens through celebrations on the streets and supportive messages on social media. This paper therefore seeks to examine democracy’s discontent and the resurgence of coups in West Africa to identify its implications for Africa. The study relied essentially on qualitative data predicated on secondary data. The paper adopted populism as its framework of analysis. The paper revealed that the popular support for the recent coup waves stems from citizens' dissatisfaction with the performance of democracy and democratic leadership. The study recommended, amongst other things, that democratic institutions should be reformed and strengthened, good governance should be promoted by African leaders, and maximum attention should be paid to the welfare and concerns of the military to strengthen professionalism.