The African Union has firmly cautioned against military coups, emphasizing the need to preserve peace and democracy to facilitate development.
Ahead of the 2nd AU Reflection Forum on Unconstitutional Changes of Government set for March 18, 2024, Bankole Adeoye, the African Union’s Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace, and Security, highlighted the importance of upholding peace and democracy widely across the continent to drive essential development initiatives.
“Over the past ten years, the African Union has continued through our leaders to champion democracy, constitutionalism, the rule of law, as well as sustainable development, but the multiplicity of challenges remains terrorism, violent extremism, transnational organised crime and poverty and to address this, we must all frontally and robustly defend democracy.
“It is necessary to restate that democracy, with its shortcomings, remains the best form of governance and we have always asked why. It is inclusive and we all have a role to play in safeguarding democracy and all of us in Africa must rally for democracy.”
Commissioner Adeoye referred to the 2022 Accra Declaration, endorsed by African heads of state, which is committed to safeguarding democracy and reinstating constitutional governance in nations led by military regimes. He emphasized that military takeovers will face zero tolerance as per the declaration.
“The new trend posed by military rulers to return our continent to its past will not be tolerated and accepted and that is why the African Union in March 2022, decided to come to Accra to rally all actors to defend and uphold democracy. So in 2022, we came up with the Accra Declaration, which was endorsed by our heads of state.”
STORY BY ; PORTIA AKU SHIKA GAFAH
