{UAH} Pojim/WBK: Incompetent coup belies the courage of the people - Comment
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Incompetent coup belies the courage of the people
In Summary
Depressing headlines belie a country that in some unlikely respects is ahead of the other EAC, and indeed a few other African nations.
With Pierre Nkurunziza's messy bid to run for a third term that opponents said was illegal, and what seemed like a hurried coup to oust him as he parleyed with other East African leaders in Dar es Salaam over the crisis, Burundi bounced back as the classic caricature failed state tormented by greedy strongmen.
It is a picture fuelled further by the fact that Burundi remains the most beleaguered nation in the East African Community.
- It has a $2.7 billion economy, but then that is not even 50 per cent of the market valuation of Kenya's mobile phone giant Safaricom, which is a regional record of Ksh630 billion ($6.5 billion at current exchange rates).
However, the depressing headlines belie a country that in some unlikely respects is ahead of the other EAC, and indeed a few other African nations.
It was far ahead of the rest in issuing e-passports, although its digital industry is rickety.
As The EastAfrican has reported in the past two years, it is the most improved EAC country in the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business Index, although Rwanda remained a lap ahead overall.
You wouldn't think it, but Burundi is Africa's seventh-biggest coffee exporter, and its beans are good enough for it to have Starbucks among its buyers.
Below the earth, counting the bounty given to it by nature, it holds 6 per cent of the world's nickel reserves.
So beyond the gifts of nature, Burundians have actually made something for themselves with their hands.
In 2007, after the African Union passed a resolution authorising peacekeeping troops for Somalia, only Uganda was mad enough and had the death wish to send troops to Mogadishu.
Mogadishu was in Al Shabaab's hands, and they basically landed a planeload of soldiers at the airport, jumped out, fought and made their cookies. Their second troop carrier was shot at and crash-landed on the edge of the airport. Fortunately no soldiers were killed.
Into that hell, a few weeks later Burundi too sent its troops. A canny punter would have put it bottom of the list to join the Amisom fray.
In many ways then, events in Burundi are like a horror movie. The monsters and evil men trying to suck the blood of a worthy and long-suffering people, and the people courageously fighting back and refusing to die.
With Nkurunziza's third-term power grab, they took to the streets to protest. Over 17 were killed, and 70,000 have had to flee as refugees, again, to neighbouring countries.
A week ago, it seemed Nkurunziza had prevailed. Then on Wednesday, General Godefroid Niyombare announced his coup. Those who had been despairing about foiling Nkurunziza, poured on to the streets to celebrate with the soldiers.
As Thursday ended, it started to look like pro-Nkurunziza forces had overcome the coup makers. Few people came out to the streets to dance as the soldiers fought it out.
The coup had become another quintessential Burundi affair. Niyombare had carried out his plot in the same way the man he was seeking to topple had ruled — incompetently.
And the Burundians were again left looking inside themselves for salvation.
Charles Onyango-Obbo is editor of Mail & Guardian Africa. Twitter: @cobbo3
http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/Incompetent-coup-belies-the-courage-of-the-people/-/434750/2718894/-/kv8byyz/-/index.html
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