Imminent threat to democracy in Africa

Anger is an emotion that can be very destructive and that is why the Bible instructs in Ephesians 4:26 that we must not allow the sun to go down on our anger.

In other words, we must not allow it to fester.

There is an evil organisation called Wagner which is an appendage of Putin’s Russia that is using anger to manipulate the youth on the continent to further the geopolitical agenda of Russia and this poses an imminent threat to democracy in Africa.

The coups in the West African sub-region are a direct result of Russia misinformation campaign, directed at the youth of those countries by playing on their emotional keyboards to direct their anger at the former colonial masters.

This creates an enabling environ­ment conducive for the military to stage coups knowing very well that they will be supported by the youth who are in the majority in nations across Africa.

There was a news item on TV yesterday evening about the arrest of some youth who have been recruited by the Wagner group and were organ­ising a demonstration in Takoradi to spread fake news intended to encour­age a coup being staged in Ghana.

The modus operandi of this Wag­ner group is to focus the minds of the youth in the countries they target on frustrations they are going through, in terms of economic challenges as a result of lack of job opportunities among others.

In the Sahel region, they paint France as the country responsible for all their woes and that France was in league with terrorists groups to create chaos in those countries.

These terrorists have been wreak­ing havoc in these countries which therefore inflates the animosity of the youth against France. The agitations arising out of this propaganda then provides a basis for military adventur­ists to take advantage of the situation.

Any observant person who is abreast of world events, should be aware that there is a modern era scramble for Africa. The Chinese is doing it through their so-called belt and road initiative while the Russians are doing it through Wagner ostensibly supporting countries against terrorists’ threats; meanwhile they rather con­duct terrorist acts such as extra-judi­cial killings, rape, amongt others.

The quicker the leaders in Africa realise this threat and deal with it head-on, the better it would be for this continent of ours.

A new approach of governance needs to be adopted which demon­strate to the people that democracy delivers what it is supposed to deliver; jobs, easily accessible health care, rule of law, equity among others.

Africa leaders must prioritise the welfare of their citizens and not the leaders’ parochial selfish interests.

The era where African leaders pilfer their nations resources and de­posit them abroad, seeks to entrench themselves in power, demonstrate autocratic tendencies, should be a thing of the past.

When the youth of Africa, see their leaders implementing initiatives that guarantee their future, their patri­otic instincts would be rekindled and would be committed to the agenda of their leaders and these instabilities across Africa, especially across the Sahel would cease.

A deliberate effort must be made to educate our youth to realise that all the coup d’états that have char­acterised our continent, have not brought any development to the countries in which such events had occurred.

By Laud Kissi-Mensah