President Akufo-Addo has said the phenomenon of coup d’etats did not advance the cause of the African continent but crippled the progress it had anticipated to achieve.

Addressing a delegation of the newly-elected leadership of the Pan African Youth Union at Jubilee House on Thursday, the President charged colleague leaders to take decisive steps to address the trend of coups witnessed in the Region.

He added that leaders must endeavour to insist on good governance that is capable of promoting and defending the interest of Africa.

According to him, the security issues confronting the African continent can only be dealt with through the promotion of democratic responsibility.

“We have to insist on good governance, we have to insist on democratic responsibility on our continent. We have seen eras of coups and military interventions on our continent and in our various nations.”

“They didn’t bring us the progress we should have had and so [we should] preach the lessons of virtues of democratic engagements,” he said.

A surge in military takeover

It would be recalled that Guinea was thrown into political unrest in May 2021.

Before then Mali experienced a coup d’état in August 2020. Col Assimi Goïta, the leader of Mali’s junta, was officially sworn in as the country’s interim President and promised “credible, fair and transparent elections”.

Following these developments, ECOWAS convened a series of meetings to restore political stability in the two nations.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), had earlier maintained the existing sanctions it imposed on Mali, over the failure of the transitional authorities to oversee a smooth political transition.

Additional sanctions included: “Withdrawal of all ECOWAS Ambassadors in Mali; closure of land and air borders between ECOWAS countries and Mali; suspension of all commercial and financial transactions between ECOWAS Member States and Mali, with the exception of the following products: essential consumer goods; pharmaceutical products; medical supplies and equipment, including materials for the control of COVID-19; petroleum products and electricity.

“There was also a freeze on assets of the Republic of Mali in ECOWAS Central Banks; freeze of assets of the Malian State and the State Enterprises and Parastatals in Commercial Banks; suspension of Mali from all financial assistance and transactions from all financial institutions."