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Former Pres Kufuor cautions against coup d’états

Former President John Agyekum Kufuor has postulated that the experiences of military takeovers cannot be recommended for any generation to embrace.

“I will advise against any attempt to stage a coup d’état in the country or the sub-region so coup d’états are not an experience I will recommend for any generation and I will not advise anybody to hail a coup d’état.

“It comes from faceless people you do not know, who have not 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 takeover, they use it as an opportunity and come to impose themselves on you and destroy your life and is this what anybody should want?” former President Kufuor quizzed.

According to him, coup d’états thrived when some governments tend to lapse and there was bad governance one way or the other and when governments do not take care of their security arrangements or they do not show appreciation of the geo-politics of the neighbourhood then coup d’états might happen and sanctions by the sub-regional blocs do not bite.

“Sanctions of regional bodies like Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and African Union (AU) on coup-makers does not bite and are not deterrent enough so coups makers think their sanctions will not bite them economically or politically or socially, they just carry on in spite of the declaration of these regional groupings.

“These associations or groupings or blocs must begin to think very seriously on how to give the constitutional provisions the bite so when they say do not stage coup d’états and you stage it they must sanction the coup plotter severely and they know perhaps it is not profitable to try it,” former President Kufuor pointed out.

The former president urged African Heads of State to try to live by their oath to the people because it was the underpinning of good governance, rule of law, democratic dispensation and use constitutional means to convince the citizenry to amend the constitution or reform the constitution to lengthen tenure a bit to avoid being smarter than them.

“If you think the period is too short, use constitutional means to convince the people to amend the constitution or reform the constitution to lengthen the tenure a bit but please do not play smart and on the eve when you should be stepping down, you say there is a third term and when you do that and you push people into feeling they too can take issues into their own hands and do what they must not do,” former President Kufuor bemoaned. –peacefmonline.com

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