Over the years, military coups have been used to test the growing agitation for election-based democratic governance in Africa. Democratically elected regimes in Africa are usually ousted from office by the military based on spurious claims of corruption, poor economic and security management, electoral fraud and inept leadership. This article argues that the grievance surrounding Captain Traore and Nguema coups, which deposed Henri-Paul Damiba and Ali Bongo, was intertwined with their individual ambitions and greed to run for president of their respective countries, by first consolidating their military power, while extending the transition timeline. The study appropriated the explanatory variables of greed and grievance theory. Being a qualitative study, data were generated essentially from secondary sources.
Okafor et al. (2026) studied this question.