Former President John Agyekum Kufuor has cautioned against any form of public endorsement of coup d’états in Ghana and Africa as a whole.
He says the forceful overthrow of governments results in dire situations for countries where such incidents occur.
“It is not an experience I will recommend to any generation. I wouldn’t advise anybody to hail a coup d’tetat. It comes from faceless people you do not know. They may not even be competent enough to do anything and if they come, they come to impose themselves on you and destroy your life,” he said in an interview with Voice of America.
Mr. Kufuor, who led Ghana as president from 2000 to 2008, also charged African governments to guard against circumstances that will lay the foundation for any such illegal overthrow of their governments.
He said in instances where African governments want to extend their stay in office, they should explore the constitutional processes for that and get the citizens’ support for such an action rather than forcefully staying on since such an instance will only give impetus to coup plotters.
“Try to live by the oath to people, it is the underpinning of good governance. If you think that the period is too short, use the constitutional means to convince the people to amend the constitution or reform the constitution to lengthen the tenure, but don’t play smart and when you have to step down, don’t say the people have decided and there is a third term. In a way, you push people into feeling they too can take things into their own hands by doing things they shouldn’t do,” Kufuor added.
The former president’s comment comes at a time when Africa has seen more than ten coups and attempted coups in the last decade with a number of them featuring in the West African subregion.
In Ghana, some persons are facing charges of treason over some actions they took and comments they made.
The convener of the #FixTheCountry movement, Oliver Barker-Vormawor for instance, is standing trial for treason felony for making statements allegedly aimed at pushing for an illegal overthrow of the government.
