Burkinabe Army power seizure raises eyebrows

Tunisia votes for a new president Sunday as the Michael Sata succession battle in Zambia intensifies following the formal announcement of January 20, 2015 as the date for the presidential election.

Among those throwing their hats into the ring is former President Rupiah Banda, 77, who ruled Zambia from 2008 to 2011 before losing out to the late Sata. Banda had taken over power from the late President Levy Mwanawasa, who like Sata died in office.

The former president now wants to gun for the presidency as the candidate for his former party, the Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD), for whose nomination he is jostling with the party’s current leader, Mr Nevers Sekwila Mumba.

Among others in the melee for the Sata succession is the reputedly wealthy Geoffrey Mwamba, a former Defence minister in President Sata’s government who reportedly wants to run on the ticket of the governing Patriotic Front party, which is also being sought by Edgar Lungu, current secretary-general of the party.

Also seeking the party’s ticket is the late Sata’s nephew Miles Sampa, a former deputy Commerce minister. With the cudgels finally out, some internecine fighting seems to be inevitable after Dr Christine Kaseba-Sata, the late Sata’s widow, announced that she will also seek the governing party’s nomination, effectively challenging her own nephew.

MASSIVE BETRAYAL

In the meantime, the charade unfolding in Burkina Faso last week revealed a massive betrayal of the country’s 17 million people.

Predictably, a barely veiled army power grab finally came into full glare following the October 31 ouster of long-term autocrat Blaise Compaoré, who held sway in the country for 27 years.

Alarmingly, the convoluted process of setting up a transitional government seems to have put paid to hopes of the Burkinabe having a new era of democracy, transparency and justice.

Hell-bent to go for a barely concealed power grab immediately after Compaoré’s ouster, the wily military authorities eventually did so with the apparent collusion of a suddenly spineless political class.

The upshot was that just a day after 72-year-old Michel Kafando was on Monday November 18 sworn in as Burkina Faso’s interim civilian president, Lieutenant-Colonel Isaac Zida, the army officer who took power after Compaoré’s fall, was appointed prime minister.

In one fell swoop, the Burkina military became the real power behind the presidency. Even more alarmingly, it was not lost to many that incoming interim president Kafando served Compaoré loyally as a Cabinet minister and senior diplomat for years, while Colonel Zida, 49, was the second in command of Compaoré’s presidential guard.

COSMETIC SHAM

To many observers, the military’s formal handover of power to Mr Kafando on Friday appeared to be a cosmetic sham designed to pull even more wool over a betrayed population’s eyes.

Clearly, the military never intended to retreat from running the impoverished West African nation. Not surprisingly, the looming betrayal was apparent ever since the deposed Compaoré left the scene and Colonel Zida emerged as the military’s choice for the position of the country’s interim leader.

A series of calculated sleight-of-hand manoeuvres by the military then resulted in Mr Kafando’s emergence as the interim president, notwithstanding his past association with Compaoré’s discredited regime.

As matters turned out, Kafando’s appointment as the president was conditional on the subsequent appointment of the 49-year-old Col Zida as the prime minister. Tellingly, the two appointments were reportedly agreed upon between politicians and army leaders.

An unnamed officer last week let the cat out of the bag by intimating that the military “gave the post of president... to civilians”. The result is that Burkina Faso is now stuck with two new leaders tainted with past association with a former autocrat the Burkinabe thought they had heard the last of.

Whether the suspect deal clinched between the military and the political class will hold until the polls slated for November 15 next year is a matter for conjecture.

The latest underhand manoeuvres certainly do not bode well for the country, though, and clearly raise serious queries about how long the people’s patience will last.