Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, has drawn attention to the growing prevalence of coups across the African continent, calling on African leaders to efficiently oversee their economies.
He emphasized that improved economic stewardship can break the cycle of poverty and unemployment, offering hope for young people to remain in Africa and contribute to its development, rather than seeking opportunities abroad.
“We must enhance our economic governance to break free from the cycle of poverty and unemployment, giving our capable youth a reason to stay and contribute to the development of our continent, instead of seeking opportunities elsewhere,” stated Asantehene.
“No African leader can rest easy as long as there are African youth willing to undertake the perilous journey of modern-day migration,” he added.
Speaking at the St. Andrews Africa Summit in Scotland, the Asante monarch stressed that as long as African youth are willing to embark on perilous journeys abroad, no African leader can be content.
His counsel comes in the wake of recent coups in several African nations, including Gabon, Mali, Guinea, Chad, and Niger.
While vehemently condemning coups and rejecting them as viable solutions to Africa’s challenges, he urged African leaders to contemplate these events as signs that something is awry in the democratic experiment.
The Asantehene proposed that these events should prompt a thorough assessment of the democratic structures and constitutional arrangements within African states, reinforcing the need for effective reform and governance.
“I don’t believe this signals a rejection of democracy as a system of governance, but rather, it raises questions about the structures we’ve established within our democratic system, and, I would suggest, it underscores the questions we’ve been asking about the constitutional framework of the African democratic state,” he asserted.