By: Precious Miracle Kargbo (Intern)
Brigadier General Sahr Kanu Esq of the Republic of Sierra Leone Armed Forces (RSLAF) has said the mandate of the Military is to ensure a peaceful and neutral environment and that military coups are naturally unstable.
Brigadier General SJ Kanu ESQ made this statement during the one day training of RSLAF on Thursday 24th August 2023 at the Officer Mess, Wilberforce in Freetown. .
General Kanu asserts that all military coups have a timescale and barely last a year, thereby making military Coups very unstable and baseless, because the same constitution that they claim to protect will be the first thing to suspend when these disgruntled Military officers take power.
Furthermore, Brigadier General Kanu Esq continues that the major pre- requisite of a coup de ta is to control all part of the armed forces, the police, other elements and the entire government. Unlike a revolution which works for a social, economic, and political reform, showing a clear nexus between the two terms coups and revolutions which is sometimes misunderstood by actors in prevalent coups.
“The Ultimate objective of a military coup is to have a government that is entirely in its control and with some other civilian associates; a coup is a change in power from the top that merely rely in abrupt replacement of leading government officials and functionaries”.
He confirms, thus leading to unlawful arrest and detention of these civilians ,but on most occasions when the military venture into government for reforms through coups they become more corrupt than civilians who they overthrow.
He noted that a coup does not further a nation’s fundamental, social and economic policies; rather they alter them in all strides. It is for merely compensating themselves and their counterparts that they engage in these coup activities.
General Kanu also notes significant histories of modern coups were those in which Napoleon overthrow the directory on the 9th November 1789, since then coups became a frequent occurrence in the 19th and 20th centuries and in Africa after independence in 1960. The first country to gain independence in West-Africa was Ghana in 1957, Dr Kwame Nkrumah and its government which was later greeted by its first military coup in less than ten (10) years and followed in Egypt in 1963 and so later speeded through West-Africa.
He reminded the audience that there are three set of waves of coups in which from the above is the first, the AFRC coup in Sierra Leone in 1997 as the second and what we are now witnessing in the west Africa region particularly in Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger is the third wave of military coups in the sub region. He urges the RSLAF not to be careless about this occurrence in the sub regions, because when military coups come to play it will lead to chaos, economic decline, hardship and in some cases to civil war like in Nigeria.
Meanwhile, the civilian arm of government should not be neglected when it comes to discussing the issue of coup, as in most cases these coups are naturally supported by civilians. Every other Military coup have succeeded by the support of civilians who will come together to ferment the conspiracy through their financial support, but encourages and warns civilian authority to desist from this act and remain loyal to the interest of the state, General Kanu said.
Conclusively, the General expresses his disappointment at some officers of the RSLAF who are on interrogation on the suspicion of an alleged coup and later admonished all military officers to respect the rule of law, as military officers should maintain the constitutional obligation to remain to any ruling government.