Francesca Essien

Keywords: Coups, democracy, governance, resurgence, military

Abstract

This paper explores the resurgence of military coup in West Africa. The quest for good governance, stability and peace remains the primary focus of every government across the globe. However, the poor state of security, economy, weak and fragile institutions leading to a series of killings of the citizens have fueled military excuses to stage a come-back in some of the African countries such as Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali among others. While many scholars have alluded to some of the implications of the military coups across African states, this study interrogates the driving force behind the military coups. To achieve this, the study relied on secondary sources of data. The study’s findings revealed that deviations from democratic norms, wholesale adoption of foreign democracy and unbridle boldness of altering the constitution for tenure elongation and insecurity of the citizenry water the ground for such military grandstanding. The paper concludes that until good governance which is the barometer of measuring democratic dividend is upheld and policy pathways re-calibrated to address rising insecurity threats, military coups would always be considered as alternative and continue to receive overwhelming support of the citizens.

Author Biography

Francesca Essien

Centre for Strategic Research and Studies, National Defence College, Abuja

Email- [email protected]

ORCiD Number -00900056341

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