COERCION AM) MILITARY INTERVENTION IN AFRICAN POLITICS

Abstract

Since the years of independence, Africa has experienced more than 200 military coups, counting both successful and failed coup attempts, The political and economic conditions prevailing in different African countries and the foreign influences at work during different periods (post¬ independence, Cold War, and post-Cold War eras) have all played a part in fueling conflicts and coups in the region. The destabilizing factors have been many and varied, depending on the national context: warring factions seeking to gain power in the aftermath of independence; established and stable stales burdened by poor quality of governance and by corrupt officials; autocratic regimes repressing any form of opposition but with sociopolitical discontent and instability. Pervasive and persistently low levels of economic growth, associated with high levels of poverty, arc symptomatic of the social grievances that may precipitate military coups in African countries (Nwankwo, 1996).