Don’t hail coups, I won’t recommend the experience for any generation – Kufuor

Former President John Agyekum Kufuor has advised against any attempt to stage a coup in the country or the sub-region saying “coup is not an experience I will recommend for any generation.

“I wouldn’t advise anybody to hail a coup d’état. It comes from faceless people you don’t know, who haven’t given anything to keep for you or to manage for you, and they may not even be competent enough to do anything. And if they come, they use an opportunity and come to impose themselves on you and destroy your life. Is this what anybody should want?” he quizzed.

Speaking to the VOA, Mr Kufuor noted that coups happen when in some instances the governments have tended to lapse and there is misgovernance one way or the other.

He also said when the government does not take care of their security arrangements or they don’t show appreciation of the geo-politics of the neighborhood then a coup might happen.

Talking about regional bodies such as ECOWAS and AU’s inability to be proactive rather than reactionary in terms of coups in the sub-region, the former Ghanaian leader noted that the sanctions of these regional bodies on coup-makers do not bite and, therefore, not deterrent enough.

He said, “Coups makers think your sanctions will not bite them economically or politically or socially, so, they just carry on in spite of the declaration of these regional groupings and, so, these associations or groupings must begin to think very seriously on how to give the constitutional provisions the bite so when they say don’t do it and you do it they can get you and so you know perhaps it is not profitable to try it.”

In an advice to heads of state on the continent, Mr Kufuor said: “try to live by your oath to the people because it is the underpinning of good governance.

“If you think the period is too short, use the constitutional means to convince the people to amend the constitution or reform the constitution to lengthen tenure a bit but please don’t play smart and on the eve when you should be stepping down, you say there’s a third term. You do that and you push people into feeling they too can take things into their own hands and do what they mustn’t do.”

In the past few months, there has been a coup attempt in Guinea Bissau and a successful one in Burkina Faso.

In Ghana, the Bono Regional chairman of the governing New Patriotic Party (NPP) Kwame Baffoe known popularly as Abronye DC will appear in court today for falsely accusing former President John Dramani Mahama of plotting a coup against the Akufo-Addo-led government.

#FixTheCountry convenor Oliver Barker-Vormawor is also on remand for two weeks charged with treason felony for a Facebook post he made suggesting a coup if the controversial E-levy is passed.

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