Blaise Campaore, Why Add A Tummy Upset To Our Excruciating Ebola Toothache?

“Shall the will of the people prevail at least for once in Burkina Faso? This was my first tweet when news broke of a protest in Burkina Faso over attempts by then President Blaise Campaore to amend article 37 the country's constitution in order to entrench himself in power; and as I heard later from a Burkinabe friend, Blaise could have perpetuated himself in power for the next 15-years in addition to his already 27 years.

This year alone, the West Africa region has thrived with bated breath as we have barely managed the huge security challenge posed by Boko haram in big brother Nigeria with all the nightmares it comes with;

In Guinea, drug trafficking spanning over a decade has further worsened the instability of the country; Only in 2012, the once stable and peaceful Mali was in turmoil leading to significant deterioration of media and general human rights conditions in the country; and as if our security woes are not enough, we have the globally declared health emergency – Ebola to deal with.

Then instead of (Campaore) doing the honourable thing and stepping down honorably when your tenure is over in 2015, you quickly run to amend the constitution to elongate your tenure for what reason? But for timely interventions I wonder what would have become of Burkina Faso now.

Why add a tummy upset to the region's excruciating toothache of Ebola which has already claimed about 5000 lives with frantic efforts being made to contain the outbreak?Sometimes I don't get it with especially African leaders; is it the overly entrenched power sweet mentality; or the thinking that they are the only wise and chosen ones to rule the people or sheer greed; or perhaps the thing about power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely?

Indeed, the West Africa region has a history of colonialism, military regimes, civil wars, coup d'etats, electoral violence coupled with the culture of silence, imposed under colonialism and then by post-colonial military dictatorships and autocratic one-party states. But shouldn't history provide lessons and a guide for the future? For how long will our chequered political system, with several years of repressive and corrupt civilian and military regimes continue to be setbacks to our democratization and development process?

According to a West Africa Network for Peace Building (WANEP) Policy brief on Transitions and Tensions in West Africa: Building on the Strength and Bridging the Gap in the ECOWAS Protocol on Democracy and Good Governance issued on November 4, 2014 one major catalyst for disputes during transitional processes across West Africa is the “review and amendments” of constitution. A situation where leaders entrench themselves in power – some for nearly three decades – through manipulation of the constitution and have created opposing camps among the populace where citizens are often manipulated to support their endeavours at the detriment of the national interest.

Talk of Senegal, Niger, Benin, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone etc. Today as I reflect on the ECOWAS chair's visit to Burkina Faso and the emergency ECOWAS leaders meeting in Accra, I have a split head; while I am tempted to commend the regional body for its commitment to getting Burkina Faso back to normalcy, the question begging the urgent answer is “why does the regional body mostly wait only to be reactionary after lives are lost and properties are destroyed?

If there were any lessons learnt, the Arab Spring of 2010 to 2012 showed that protests of this nature don't just happen; they cast their shadows in rallies, sit-in, strikes etc and the critical feature of such protests is that they are mostly very organized. In Burkina Faso mention is made of the 2011 Burkinabe protests – a series of popular protests that called for the resignation of Compaoré, democratic reforms, higher wages for troops and public servants and economic freedom. Where was ECOWAS, when the October 2014 protest cast its shadow back in 2011?

The ECOWAS protocol on Democracy and Good Governance adopted in Darkar, Senegal in 2001 aims at dealing with issues of elections and accession to power, decentralization of power and participatory democracy, poverty alleviation, human rights and education among others.

Although member states comply with the provision of the Protocol which stipulates that “No substantial modification shall be made to the electoral laws in the last six (6) months before the elections, except with the consent of a majority of Political actors”, WANEP notes that some presidents have capitalized on this and made glaring attempt to tamper with their constitutions in a bid to perpetuate themselves in office – obvious blatant disregard for the Protocol.

But whatever it is, the point must the made that citizens have rights and they have a voice. In every governance form or model, there are leaders and the governed; as powerful as the leaders may be with structures and systems to support and immune them; there comes a time that their power crumbles in the face of mass protests from discontented citizens.

As said in my Akan language “it is only the testicles of the fool that is trampled upon twice”. Leaders, governments and duty bearers must begin to appreciate the fact that freedom of expression is a fundamental human rights of every individual which must be respected no matter what; a critical indicator of governance and democracy is also the ability of leaders to tolerate dissenting views be it by a strong critical and vibrant media or individuals or civil society.

It should interest our leaders to also know that with the effective use of internet-based technology and social media to organize, communicate, and raise awareness in the face of state attempts at repression and internet censorship, such mass protests may not always need the physical presence of citizens to occur. As the world shrinks further into a single unit there also exists a global community out there watching.

Indeed, not all African states can replicate Burkina Faso's readiness for change in such record time; Hopefully however, our leaders in the region would draw a lesson from what happened in Burkina Faso as there continue to emerge pressures at home from restless unemployed youth, discontent over inequality and democratization demands, magnified by expanding social media.

What happened in Burkina Faso may not unleash a wave of revolution across Africa but it is certainly a manifestation of pressures that other countries will likely face as this may embolden citizens elsewhere.