Some coups in Africa are justifiable; President Kagame
Rwandan President Paul Kagame says some military coups in Africa can be justified under certain conditions
Rwandan President Paul Kagame says some military coups in Africa can be justified under certain conditions, distinguishing takeovers aimed at correcting governance failures and those driven by personal ambition.
Speaking on Thursday, Kagame said most coups emerge from long-standing problems that leaders fail to address, creating pressure that eventually erupts. “There are good coups and bad coups,” he said.
He described “bad coups” as those driven by reckless officers who take power simply because they command guns. “Good coups,” as he described them, emerge in situations where citizens and soldiers alike conclude that their leaders have gone too far—lying, stealing, repressing, and manipulating elections.
“If somebody, a group of people, say no, enough is enough. These guys have been telling us lies, they’ve been doing this, they’re enriching themselves, cheating us. You can’t have it anymore, it’s stinking. And they go for whatever form they do it, I think I am okay with it. I know it will be misunderstood, but I am happy to take the risk. I’m okay with that,” said Kagame.
He cautioned, however, that even these “good coups” are only defensible if they bring real change. “If you come and do the very things you overthrew people for, or do worse, then why did you carry out the coup?”
Kagame cited recent events in Madagascar and Guinea-Bissau as examples that underline his argument that coups rarely occur where governance is healthy.
“When I heard about the coup in Guinea-Bissau, I thought somebody was guiding a coup against himself,” he said. “But assuming it happened… and that in Madagascar it happened, it means I have been vindicated.”
He added that in most cases, a coup signals an underlying issue that those in power failed to resolve.“Once there is a coup, maybe 90 per cent of the time, it means in that place there has been a problem,” he said.
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Kagame also issued one of his strongest critiques yet of political developments in the Democratic Republic of Congo, sharply questioning the legitimacy of the country’s electoral process. He referred to “a man in our neighbourhood who raises the whole world and causes all kinds of troubles,” before turning to the manner in which he came to power and stayed there.
Kagame said Congo’s recent elections were “a smokescreen,” adding bluntly: “Elections did not happen.”
For Kagame, accountability is also central to understanding the coups occurring across the continent.
He urged African leaders to confront their governance failures and security problems directly, warning that avoiding hard truths only fuels unrest. “
“There’s nothing Africa doesn’t have. All these things and areas where we fall short, I can only be surprised and say why? Why do we keep falling short on everything, including the provision of security for our people? When we have the people, we have the resources, we have the knowledge,” he said.
Further, he dismissed long-standing accusations that Rwanda plunders Congo’s minerals, saying such claims ignore Europe’s own history.
“They looted the minerals better than anybody in history,” he said, adding that Rwanda is targeted because European audiences “will listen more to these accusations.”
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