In West Africa, power is on the streets

The recent case of an attempted coup in Guinea Bissau may have seemingly confirmed the point that in West Africa today, power may be returning to the streets.

After many hours of confusion and silence, President Umaro Embalo of Guinea Bissau has finally confirmed that there was indeed an attempted coup in his country that involved armed men laying siege to the presidential palace and attempting to bring down his government.

Coming on the heels of coup events that had taken place in Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso, within the same region in the past two years, there is strong concern that something fundamental has presently been disrupted in terms of power processes and relations in the sub-region. The thing to do then is to fix this challenge, one observer has noted.

To do this would require looking into the details of where the crisis is coming from. In a number of instances it is not unconnected to disagreements among political players. There are also issues with the alleged poor treatment of security operatives in a sub-region that is caught up in the throes of multiple conflicts that have necessitated widespread security deployments.

ECOWAS Commission head, Jean Claude Brou