The Member of Parliament for Garu, Dr. Thomas Anaba, has declared that Burkina Faso’s military leader, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, has performed better than several democratically elected leaders in Africa and must be protected from any attempt to remove him from office.
Speaking on The Big Issue on Channel One TV, Dr. Anaba argued that the continent must close ranks and resist what he described as efforts to destabilise leaders who are serving their countries patriotically.
Dr. Anaba questioned the source of weapons used by terrorist groups operating in Burkina Faso, suggesting that the security crisis may not be purely domestic.
He cautioned that African countries risk facing similar destabilisation if they remain indifferent to developments in Burkina Faso.
Drawing parallels with the stance taken by Arab nations during tensions involving Iran, he called for a united continental front.
“Now that somebody has come and he is not pleasing them, you see terrorists, where are they getting the weapons? Does Burkina Faso manufacture weapons? You can see that the whole issue of terrorism in Burkina, if we pretend not to care, we will also end up losing the same support. Our level of involvement should be like the arabs when it came to Iran.
“All the Arab countries stood up and said no war in Iran, we won’t give you space to fight Iran. We should also stand up as Africans and say we won’t give a chance to people who want to overthrow leaders who are patriotically serving their people.
“Though he was not democratically elected, this guy has proven that he is far better than some democratically elected people in Africa,” he argued.
According to Dr. Anaba, Africa must rally behind Traoré and resist any external or internal effort aimed at ousting him, stressing that leadership effectiveness should not be judged solely on electoral processes.
Burkina Faso attack not due to Ibrahim Traoré ‘glorification’ – Majority slams Minority
