‘One coup too many’ in Round 4?
I found the Joy FM programme “Newsfile’s” discussion of the Niger crisis on Saturday, August 19, interesting.
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Moderated by host Samson Lardy Ayenini, the high-calibre panel included Prof. Kwesi Aning, Col Festus Aboagye (Rtd), Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Kojo Oppong-Nkrumah and Dr Abdel-Fatau Musa of Ghana, Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security at the ECOWAS HQ, Abuja.
The host also spoke by zoom with the president of the Ghanaian Association in Niger, Seydou Aboudou, and media consultant in Niger, Ibrahima Boubacar Salou.
As I replayed their discussions that night, my mind went into two gears.
Unlike many who drive automatic vehicles, I still drive a manual stick-shift vehicle, hence, my reference to gears.
While in first gear, my mind went to a story in the Jerusalem Post of Israel on August 9, 2023, second gear took me to an article I wrote in March 2021.
What are these stories?
First gear
The Jerusalem Post article on August 9 was titled, “Large Israeli snake dies after trying to eat a porcupine.”
It stated that “the one-way direction of the porcupine's quills did not allow the snake to spit out the porcupine, said reptile ecologist Aviad Bar.
A nature drama unfolded in Shoham this week when several dog owners noticed a large black snake lying near the town’s local dog park.
The snake was found motionless with an equally motionless porcupine stuck in its mouth.
From an analysis of the situation, it can be assumed that the snake tried to devour the porcupine “and as soon as it decided to abandon its unusual meal, it realised the magnitude of its mistake”.
Second gear
In second gear, my mind went back to my article of March 2021 titled “Beware the Ides of March!”
It stated: “As I autographed a copy of my book, Retirement Musings for the young Major, I asked for a confirmation of the date.”
“Today is March 15, 2021 sir,” he said.
“Wow! Beware the ides of March!”
I exclaimed instinctively, leaving the Major in wonderment about what I meant!
Julius Caesar is a Shakespearean tragedy we loved quoting from in school.
Based on the life of the Roman General/Statesman Julius Caesar, some of the quotes were:
● “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.
I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.
The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones…” (Mark Anthony in his eulogy of Caesar).
● “Et tu Brute?” (And you too Brutus?) (Caesar after his closest friend Brutus stabbed him)
● “Beware the ides of March” (soothsayer/Caesar’s wife).
● “Rubicon crossed.”
“The die is cast” (alea iacta est) (Caesar daring the Roman Senate).
Ides of March
Monday, March 15, 2021 was ‘the Ides of March’ on the Roman calendar.
It was the day in 44 BC when Julius Caesar was stabbed 23 times to death by a group of senators led by his bosom-friend Brutus.
Roman history states that he was earlier warned by a soothsayer not to go out on the Ides of March (March 15, 44 BC), a warning reinforced by his wife.
‘Beware the Ides of March’ subsequently became synonymous with being warned but displaying pig-headed obstinacy going against advice and paying with one’s life as happened to Caesar.
Caesar
Starting his military career as a teenager, Caesar rose to become a general.
Considered a threat by Pompey, the ‘Head of State,’/equivalent of the Roman Republic, Caesar was sent out of the Republic to Gaul in Northern Italy to fight.
Rome and Gaul were separated by the shallow River Rubicon.
After Caesar successfully completed his Gallic campaigns, Pompey ordered him to demobilise his army before returning to Rome.
Caesar refused and subsequently crossed the Rubicon, declaring “alea iacta est” (the die is cast), his final act of throwing down the gauntlet at Pompey!”
Analysis
When asked if ECOWAS planned waging war against a sovereign state Niger as was threatened with a seven-day ultimatum initially to reinstate President Bazoum who has been overthrown in a coup, the ECOWAS Commissioner said the military operation would be a “nuanced” one against the junta/coupists, and not against Niger, should it happen.
In a rebuttal to the semantic ambiguity of a “nuanced attack,” Ibrahima Boubacar Salou in Niger, said any military attack on Niger would be seen as an attack on the sovereignty of Niger!
Seydou Aboudou, the president of the Ghana Association in Niger, added that an attack on Niger by ECOWAS would jeopardise the lives of Ghanaians and other foreigners, as all land borders have been closed in addition to a no-fly zone over Niger’s air space!
Indeed, citizens of the attacking armies of ECOWAS would become instant targets.
In the Jerusalem Post article, the large snake went in to swallow a little porcupine, an easy prey in its estimation, and ended up dying!
Julius Caesar ignored the warning, “Beware the Ides of March” in 44 BC and ended up dying!”
After Guinea, Mali and Burkina Faso, how come the sudden awakening that Niger’s coup is “one too many” when Constitutional coupists in Ivory Coast, dynasties/dictators elsewhere, and the Senegalese president who recently banned the opposition party, are still deemed democratic rulers in ECOWAS’ eyes?
What was supposed to be a “Special military operation” lasting only a few weeks has become a quagmire and 18 months later continues with heavy casualties in the Russia-Ukraine war and dire consequences for the whole world.
Nobody endorses coups!
For ECOWAS leaders, good governance obviates coups, and therefore, the need for war to reinstate a deposed colleague!
Doesn’t Matthew 7:3-5 advise us to remove the log in our eyes before removing the speck in a neighbour’s eye?
Didn’t Shakespeare say, “discretion is the better part of valour?”
Leadership, lead!
Fellow Ghanaians, wake up!
The writer is former CEO, African Peace Support Trainers Association, Kenya & Council Chairman, Family Health University College, Ghana.
E-mail: [email protected]