From the United Nations Security Council down to the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States neighbouring Mali there are demands for a return to constitutionality.

The putschists insistence that they have no interest in political power and that they will move the country to democratic elections “within a reasonable time” does not cut it.

ECOWAS states have closed their land and air borders to the landlocked state.

Presidents Muhammadu Issoufou of Niger, Macky All of Senegal, Nana Akufo Addo of Ghana and Alassane Ouattara of Cote d’Ivoire are headed for Mali to impress on the group of colonels who have arrested President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita and his Prime Minister Boubou Cisse that they will be shunned until constitutionality is restored.

The African Union has suspended Mali’s membership in accordance with its policy of red-carding any unconstitutional change of government.

Defence of this principle is paramount at this political moment in time. Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko faces opposition demands to quit after a rigged election and the nominal leader of the free world, President Donald Trump will not commit to acknowledging defeat if he loses the November election in the United States. 

With democracy under attack we are reminded that is an imperfect system. As Winston Churchill told us with stark humour it is better than all the rest. If we embrace it, recognizing the will of people is its very bedrock.

If that has been tampered with there is machinery, albeit frustratingly cumbersome and slow, to deal with it.

But moving in therapy is never the answer.

The post Constitutionality is vital with democracy everywhere under threat appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

This dates backs to precolonial times when it was part of the Malian, Ghanaian  and Songhai empires of West Africa,

Historically, the landlocked, kidney-shaped country that shades South Africa to form the continent’s eighth largest was a key trading post connecting West Africa with the Maghreb.  Its central city of Timbuktu is still celebrated as  an islamic cultural outpost on the fringe of the Muslim world.

In 1892 it became French Sudan in the scramble for Africa and briefly federated with Senegal before independence in 1960. 

First president Modibo Keita turned his back on France and declared Mali a one-party state. Its political space remained closed after a 1968 military coup and did not open until another military coup led to multi-party elections in 1992 that brought Alpha Oumar Konarè to the helm.

It will be fascinating to see what members of the United Nations Security Council make of the latest development in Bamako when they meet today.

Was yesterday’s arrest and detention of President Keita and Prime Minister Boubou Cisse a military coup or were soldiers merely hoping to bring peace by responding to mounting civilian calls for Keita’s departure?

This will become apparent if and when the soldiers make good their undertaking to hand power to a transitional authority leading to fresh elections.

Ironically, his would entail the former French Sudan following the pattern of the latter-day Sudan after last year’s  military-led ousting of Omar Al Bashir.

The questions persist. Will yesterday’s putsch follow the 1992 military coup in boosting democracy inMali?

Or will it be a replay of the 2012 coup by Tuareg separatists in Northern Mali that led to the Islamist insurgency-still tearing at the country’s entrails?

French help was summoned then to assist and the 2013 operation Serval took three months clear out the insurgents.

France increased its military presence in Mali with Operation Barkhane – named for a desert dune blown into a crescent shape – countering Islamist terror in the Sahel.

The 4500 tricolor troops are backed by 13 300 blue-helmeted members of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali known by its French acronym MINUSMA.

There are also 620 troops of the European Union Training Mission (EUTM) and a smaller presence of the European Union Capacity Building mission (EUCB).

Mali’s Sahel neighbors Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad and Mauritania – comprising the so-called G5 – have deployed abut 4000 troops, still shy of the envisaged 5000 pairs of West African boots on the ground.

An unfortunate appellation has been detached to this billion dollar enterprise . It has become known as the deadliest peacekeeping operation on the planet.

This explains the frustration of Malians at their president’s inability to contain the insurgency.

The death toll of well-armed and equipped peacekeepers in Mali is easily eclipsed by the number of civilian victims of the terrorists 

If not restored to power President Keita will have at least have two memorable truisms

The first is:“What choice to I have?” when menaced by soldiers in his resignation broadcast yesterday.

The second is: “Mali is like a dam. If it is broken then Europe and the rest of Africa will be inundated”.

Clearly the EU and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) fully appreciate this.

The post Which historical model will the Mali coup follow? appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

Opponents feared he would heed party supporters’ calls for him to stay on after eight years in office.

Whatever happens in 2023, Muhammadu Buhari will have served more than two terms as Nigeria’s President.

He was the military head of state for two years after seizing power in a 1983 coup d’etat.

Buhari spent several months in Britain these past two years medical treatment.

He says in a New Year’s massage he won’t be seeking any political office after 2023.

Meanwhile he is determined to strengthen the democratic process in Nigeria and in the regional Economic Community of West Africa States where many countries go to the polls next year.   

The post Muhammadu Buhari promises not to extend his term as Nigeria’s President appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

The announcement was made when French President Emmanuel Macron visited the Ivory Coast.

At the Petit Palace in Abidjan, French President Emmanuel Macron and his Ivorean counterpart  Alassane Ouattara – who currently leads the Monetary Union of West Africa – announced that the revamped currency will be launched in 2020.

It will be called the ECO and will give the leaders of the eight West African countries that use it greater control over their currency.

The ECO will remain fixed to the euro and will broaden the possibility for the 15 members of the West African grouping ECOWAS to adopt the currency as well.

The post West African Monetary Union to reform French-backed colonial-era currency appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

The run-off poll scheduled for next Tuesday has been delayed by the Supreme Court while allegations of electoral fraud are investigated.

Attempting to head off the political crisis, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf hosted Guinean President Alpha Conde and Togolese leader Faure Gnassingbe .

Conde is currently serving as Chairman of the African Union, while Gnassingbe chairs the Economic Community of West African States.

They met with George Weah and Joseph Boakai , who are in the run-off contest to succeed Johnson Sirleaf as president.

It turns out that Boakai has also backed the claims of electoral fraud in the October 10 poll where he was beaten by Weah.

The Supreme Court has summoned Liberia’s electoral commission to explain any irregularities

The post Liberia’s regional partners try to mediate election run-off imbroglio appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

The turn out for National Assembly poll is lower than than that for the presidential election.

ends into

Nine political parties have fielded a record number of 239 registered candidates campaigning for 48 seats.

Gambia has more than 800 000 registered voters.

Five MPs will be appointed by President Adama Barrow to make up the 53-seat parliament.

The election is the  first major political challenge to Barrow who needs a  majority in the National Assembly to conduct host of legal and constitutional reforms.

He’s leading a coalition of seven parties.

The election’s  being monitored by dozens observers from the African Union, European Union and officials of the regional economic bloc, ECOWAS.

The post Gambians voting in parliamentary election appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

The bloodless and belated departure of Yayha Jammeh after he lost an election in Gambia is an undoubted African success story.

Even the light-fingered denouement – with Jammeh taking $11 million from the state coffers into exile with him – has not taken the icing off the cake.

That decorative delicacy was provided by the intervention of neighbours of this thin silver of a country that has just experienced its first democratic change of government.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) made it immediately clear to Jammeh that it would not tolerate his staying in power when he contested the fairness of the December 1 election he lost, by his own admission, to Adama Barrow.

It made a number of unsuccessful demarches on Jammeh, urging him to step down before the victor’s scheduled inauguration date of January 19.

Jammeh declined offers of asylum in Senegal, Morocco, Mauritania and Guinea.

He hoped to wait around for the supreme court to consider his arguments about the unfairness of the election.

The court reminded him that he sacked half the judges last year and said they would be able to consider the matter before May.

ECOWAS decided to play hard ball. The grouping sought approval by the United Nations Security Council to use force, if necessary, to move Jammeh.

Senegal, which surrounds Gambia on three sides, and Ghana, moved troops to the border to show the region’s seriousness.

If Jammeh  had any doubt of this, the ECOWAS forces crossed the frontier and deployed in the capital Banjul.

They gave Jammeh a deadline of noon last Friday to either go or be forcibly removed.

The defeated president successfully requested an extension of this deadline while he spoke to Presidents Mohamed Ould Abdelaziz of Mauritania and Alpha Conde of Guinea.

He’s been abandoned by key members of his cabinet and finally by his military commander.

The game was up for this man who took power in a bloodless coup 22 years ago.

Eventually Jammeh loaded a string of luxury cars onto a Chadian cargo plane.

Then, seen off by a small group of hardliner, he boarded a plane with President Conde and headed for Guinea.

Gambian, who could not believe their good fortune had been demonstrating their delight at Jammeh’s imminent departure for day.

They cheered ECOWAS troops patrolling the capital.

Barrow, who was inaugurated at the Gambian embassy in Senegal, says he will go home within the next week once his security can be assured.

He has his work cut out tracing the $11 million that Jammeh looted from the public purse.

He also has to get back the tourists who are vital to Gambia’s economy.

Alone with more than 46 000 Gambians, the tourists quit  the country when military action to move Jammeh looked likely.

So, chalk one up to ECOWAS’s unlinking determination to see that democracy triumphed.

Consider too the benefits of other African regional groups showing the same courage and application against the hard-to-move leaders who have cynically disregarded their constitutional limitations on power.

The post Jammeh’s departure from Gambia is an African success story appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

President Jammeh initially accepted defeat, but then changed his mind and is now refusing to step down.

Gambian security forces took over the headquarters of the electoral commission shortly President Yayha Jammeh’s about turn.

Alieu Momar Njai’s son won’t confirm his father has left the country.

He says he hopes and prays his father is in safe hands.

Jammeh, who has ruled The Gambia for 22 years, has begun a crackdown to back his decision to deny property developer Adama Barrow the victory he achieved on December 1.

Three private radio stations have been taken off air since Sunday.

The West African regional bloc Ecowas, which has been leading diplomatic efforts to move Jammeh, has threatened sanctions and military action if he does not step down.

The post Head of Gambia’s electoral body goes into hiding appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

Authorities in Banjul has shot down a radio station critical of the man who took power in a coup 22 years ago and has refused to accept defeat in elections last month.

Gambian intelligence  authorities gave no reason for closing Teranda FM that’s been critical of President Yayha Jammeh.

This is the first sigh of a crackdown on the media by the man who conceded defeat days after the election and then thought better of it.

Neighboring countries  in the Economic Community  of West African states have threatened to send troops if Jammeh refuses to step down when the election winner Adama Barrow is inaugurated later this month.

The post Gambia closes radio station critical of President Yayha Jammeh appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

The  ECOWAS bloc of west African states is be said to unhappy with the choice of candidates offered to succeed outgoing AU commission chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma.

ends intro

There are three candidates contesting for the chair of  the AU Commission.

Former Uganda vice president Specioza Wandira Kazibwe, Botswana’s Foreign Minister Pelonomi Venson Moitoi, and Equatorial Guinea’s Foreign Minister Agapito Mba Mokuy all have their hats in the ring.

AU legal counsel Vincent Nmehielle says no more names are entering the list before today’s election.

The winner has to get the support of two thirds of member states.

If no-one achieves this majority, the weaker contender falls away and a run-off is  held.

If a two thirds majority is still not obtained, an interim chairperson appointed.

The post Voting will take place for new AU Commission Chair appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.