Author(s) :

Matthew GIMBA, Umar ISA BABA, Madifilo JACKSON MALANTSO, Abubakar MUSA MOHHAMMED.

Volume/Issue :

Abstract :

The West African sub-region is the most burdened by Military coups in Africa. This is a negation, especially within the context of the Lome convention of 2000 prohibiting military government in the sub-region. However, the resurgence of Coups shows that democracy which swept Africa during the third wave of the democratization process has fail to bring with it the much needed socio-economic development, peace and stability with serious implications on democracy and democratic consolidations. This paper therefore examines democratic deficits and resurgence of military coups in West Africa, implications for democratic consolidation. In building the body of the work, the paper employed descriptive method collating information from relevant secondary materials. The theoretical framework adopted for this paper is the State fragility theory. Findings reveal that several factors are responsible for military coups in West Africa some of which are the fragility of the state, weak state institutions, legitimacy issues, poverty and hardships. Other findings are that democracy can only be consolidated through strong state institutions, robust policies that will promote development. Also, democracy was not able to fulfil citizens expectations of development, what ensued rather was heightened insecurity, Banditry, jihadism, youth unemployment which became a recipe for military coups in West Africa. Part of the recommendations is that there is the need to mitigate state fragility through Mitigate the resurgence of coups by tackling poverty and economic hardship: Long-term stability requires addressing the socio-economic conditions that can fuel political instability and create opportunities for military intervention. KEYWORDS: Coup, Democracy, Democratic Consolidation, Military, Resurgence. West Africa

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