A former President of Sierra Leone, Ernest Bai Koroma, is calling on African leaders to advance the practice of democracy by ensuring that the days of military coups that threaten the security of a country remain a thing of the past.
According to the former President, most African countries have had over fifty years of independence from colonialism. Yet, some have not been able to advance their pace of development due to military coups that make a country unsafe to inhabit.
“We are on average 50–60 years of independence in most of our countries. Yes, the issues of government will still continue, but are we making progress, or are we still spinning on the same point? A few years back, West Africa was the darling of democracy, so much progress was made. The issues of the coups were issues of the past.”
He added that insecurity brewed from coups in a country also discourages private sector investment, thereby stifling development.
“Suddenly that now with us, we have had a series of coups. We now have military regimes, and the security situation is still threatened. And where there is a threat to security within a region, it affects all the countries in the region. It will limit the private sectors intervention coming.”
The former Sierra Leonean President, Ernest Bai Koroma, spoke at a security dialogue held at the Kofi Annan International dubbed “Peace Keeping and Training Centre in Accra.”
