Summary:
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The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has asked the rest of the world to make it clear to coup plotters that their methods have never worked and will never work to solve Africa’s political, economic, and security problems.
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Denounce all coups the President stressed that everyone must condemn the resurgence of coups in Africa in all of their manifestations and forms because it gravely jeopardizes “our joint bid to rid the continent of the menace of instability and unconstitutional changes in government, as currently defined by the frameworks enshrined in the Lomé Declaration, the African Charter on Democracy, Elections, and Governance and other key regional and continental instruments.
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“Since domestic factors mostly lead to unconstitutional changes, President Akufo-Addo said it is essential not to ignore the global impact.
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According to him, some foreign organizations view coups in African nations as a way to further their regional aspirations.
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The President emphasized that defaulting Member States are denounced and suspended from participating in the activities of continental and regional entities.
The President of the Republic, Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo, has asked the rest of the world to make it clear to coup plotters that their methods have never worked and will never work to solve Africa’s political, economic, and security problems.
President Akufo-Addo says, “Statements criticizing coups without taking action to match would, however, do little or nothing, as we have seen in recent years.” To solve this problem, everyone needs to agree on what to do, come up with an excellent way to stop it from happening again, take bold action, and take equally essential steps to prevent it from happening again.
The President said that “there are those who still hanker after authoritarian, personal rule because they claim Africa is underdeveloped and democracy is cumbersome, and we need to get things done in a hurry” while delivering the keynote address at a side event organized by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) outside of the Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany, on Friday, February 17, 2024.
He said that Africa had more coups d’état than any other continent. He backed up his claim with the 2019 Annual Risk of Coup Report.
President Akufo-Addo used Ghana as an example to show how unstable politics were in many of the early years of the country’s independence. Ghana became known for attempting every political experiment imaginable.
“Our first military coup led to the overthrow of the First Republic, a one-party state, and the toppling of the Second and Third Republics, democratically run governments.” On January 13, 1972, my father, the President of the Second Republic, was ousted, making him roughly 51 years old. He said that Kutu Acheampong’s coup was why his time in government was over.
The president said, “The instability caused the economy to collapse and resulted in a mass migration of citizens and professionals from the nation.” We probably still haven’t fully gotten over how often we thought leaving the country would solve our problems.
Still, he said that Ghana had had political stability under a multi-party constitution for thirty (30) years of our fourth republic. This was the longest period of stable constitutional rule in our country’s history, which had been very unstable.
The president told the crowd that Ghanaian society now has a separation of powers, which has helped make the government more accountable. Effective public services are now attainable.
“Three times during this time, power has been passed from one major political party to another through the ballot box. Each time, peace and stability were kept and the state’s foundations were not put at risk.” During this time, the people of Ghana have shown how much they care about democracy, respect for individual freedoms, human rights, and the rule of law. “It has also helped our economy grow more or less steadily and given us a lot more confidence,” he said.
Denounce all coups
The President said that everyone must condemn the resurgence of coups in Africa in all of their forms because it seriously threatens “our collective bid to rid the continent of the menace of instability and unconstitutional changes in government, as currently defined by the frameworks set out in the Lomé Declaration, the African Charter on Democracy, Elections, and Governance, and other key regional and continental instruments.”
President Akufo-Addo said that it is essential not to ignore the global impact because most unconstitutional changes are caused by things that happen at home.
Foreign economic interests, potential geopolitical advantages, and involvement in promoting unconstitutional changes—often favouring oppressive governments—are contributing causes. He said that some foreign groups see coups in African countries as a way to get what they want in the region.
“Because of this, they do all kinds of operations to spread false information to discredit democratically elected governments and start protests against those in power,” he said.
The President emphasized that the Member States that don’t pay their bills are shamed and stopped from participating in the work of continental and regional entities. Individual coup plotters face sanctions for implementing existing continental and regional treaties and conventions.
Yet the truth is that these sanctions haven’t been used consistently. We are quick to punish people who lead military coups, but citizens who, for example, change constitutions to stay in power and achieve similar goals are not punished, even though they are breaking the law. “To effectively catch such breaches, the current structures must be tightened,” he continued.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of the Presidency, Republic of Ghana.
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Analysis by: Advocacy Unified Network
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