West Africa has come to terms with self perpetuating rule and has decided to embrace the practice of term limit in executive governance.Blaise Campaore survived politically when he embraced a term limit. He was ousted when he tried to betray his promise and extend his term. A transitional arrangement was put in place. The Presidential guard tried to exploit the exclusion of certain members of the former ruling party in the Presidential elections to stage a coup.
Apparently, like most autocratic regimes weapons are always centralised in Presidential palaces. Unfortunately for them weapons do not fire themselves. Hence when the army sided with the people to prevent Campoare from extending his term limit he had to leave.
In the same vein when the Presidential Guards utilised their superior fire power to take over, ECOWAS intervened to correct the political exclusion of certain groups from the transition and the army took the side of the population to ask the transitional government to be restored and the presidential guard to be disarmed.
Isolated from the population and the army, the superior fire power of the presidential guards could have been relevant only if they chose to be suicide bombers. Hence they preferred to disarm and seek amnesty.
The army is now qualified to be called a Republican army whose only role is to defend the Republic and the sovereign people. The end of the era of self perpetuating rule is fast approaching and all wise leaders should prepare for life after the presidency rather than being obsessed with being president for life.
