Guinea’s Military Leader Asks UN to Stop Lecturing Africa
Guinea’s Junta leader, Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, has said the western model of democracy does not work in Africa, as he defended the use of military intervention.
He told the UN General Assembly in New York that the continent was suffering from a “model of governance that has been imposed on us” and which was “having trouble adapting to our reality”.
According to him, it is time to stop lecturing Africans and treating them with condescension like children.
Colonel Doumbouya took power in a coup in 2021, ousting president Alpha Condé.
Guinea is among a number of countries in Western and Central Africa that have seen coups in recent years including Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Gabon.
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Abandoning his typical uniform and beret for more traditional African attire – a white boubou and hat – he defended himself saying he wasn’t just another soldier “who wants to twist the neck of democracy” and “impose his dictatorship”.
“A putschist isn’t just someone who takes up arms, who overthrows a regime,” he said.
“The real putschists, the most numerous, who are not the subject of any condemnation, it is also those who scheme, who use deception, who cheat in order to manipulate the texts of the Constitution in order to maintain themselves in power externally,” he said referring to situations in various countries.
Saving country from ‘complete chaos’. He said he had taken action in Guinea “to save our country from complete chaos.”
At the time of the coup, Guinea had experienced months of protests against then-president Alpha Conde’s changes to the constitution and re-election for a third term.
He called on Africa’s young and old to break with the old world order, while defending non-alignment.
“Paternalised Africa, the old Africa, is over,” he said.
“It’s time to take our rights back, to give us our place. But above all, it is time to stop lecturing us, to stop looking down on us, and to stop treating us like children,” he said.
