The so-called coups in Guinea-Bissau and the latest episode in the Republic of Benin share disturbing similarities.

In Guinea-Bissau, the phony coup unfolded after a criminal former president effectively invited the military to intervene to avoid announcing elections and relinquishing power to an opposition figure with a popular mandate.

It was not a seizure of power to restore order, but a manipulation of force to escape democratic progress.

The situation in Benin raises equally troubling questions.

There are strong indications that President @PatriceTalonPR, a deeply shady figure and a close ally of Nigeria’s @officialABAT, may have been aware of the coup plot, allowed it to unfold, and then used it as a political diversion to shift public attention away from his growing unpopularity and to help him clamp down on opposition figures as he’s always done.

In this sense, instability becomes a calculated tool of political survival rather than an unforeseen threat to democracy.

Of course, I am opposed to military rule in all its forms. I am allergic to it. Whether invited, staged, or exploited, coups are never a solution to political failure. The answer to bad civilian leadership is not guns, military jackboots, and camouflage, but accountability, popular struggle, and genuine democracy.

RevolutionNow