Strongmen politics and unconstitutional changes of government in West Africa

Recent unconstitutional changes of government (UCG) in Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali, and Niger have made West Africa the region with the highest number of successful coups and counter-coups in Africa. While these coups have been relatively bloodless, the coups undermine the progress made toward democratization in West African countries. With the help of datasets from the Varieties of Democracy (V-DEM) and the Mo Ibrahim Index of African Governance (IIAG), the study examines the resurgence of UCG in these countries. First, I argue that the UCG reflect the influence of strongman politics that tilt overall governance toward electoral autocracy and closed autocracy in these countries. Next, I highlighted three governance pillars from the IIAG: economic opportunity foundations, security and the rule of law, and the participation, rights, and inclusion of citizens to demonstrate how these conditions in the four West African countries create an environment where UCG are politically rationalised and, in effect, auto-legalised coups and counter-coups. Therefore, whether in the ECOWAS or not, West African countries need to legislate against UCG in their constitutions and also aim to adhere to protocols on democracy to reduce the likelihood of future coups.