Chei! These our Burkinabe brothers

The late Prince Nico Mbarga sang about death that:

“When person die

I di think of myself

The day wey I go die

God help me!”

It goes without saying that when someone dies, some of the people who weep are thinking about themselves – the day they would die.

Many countries that have yearned for change, owing to the long stay in power for decades by one person, should be thinking of themselves, given the ongoing political earthquake in Burkina Faso.

Now, let me close my eyes and throw a stone and let us see on which country on the block of countries that have been ruled by one person for a long uninterrupted period, it will fall. Ha! The stone has fallen on Equatorial Guinea. Now, Equato-Guineans must be contemplating on what metal Burkinabe are made of that they mustered the mettle to maraud Blaise Compaore, who has ruled them for 27 donkey years and chased him out of power. Equatorial Guinea has been ruled by one man, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, since 1979, that is, for 35 long years.

Yes, these our Burkina Faso brothers are really funny. They are so much in haste. They have chased their father out of their home, just because he wanted to manipulate the constitution of that West African country for him to go on for another term in office, come next year, after 27 years in power.

But Burkina Faso is a smaller and younger country, compared with others who are also former French colonies.

Now, let me again close my eyes and cast another stone and see on which country the stone will fall. Hei! It has fallen on the Cameroons.

Well, going by their population of about 16 million, their surface area of 274,200, their highest point of only 747 metres (Tena Koure) and their independence attained on August 5, 1960, Burkina Faso are a younger and smaller brother to the Cameroons, which has a population of 20 million, a surface area of 475,600, a highest point of 4090 metres (Mount Fako) and one part of which attained independence on January 1, 1960 - eight months earlier than the then Upper Volta.

Besides, their two past Presidents, Thomas Sankara and the outgone Blaise Compaoré, went to school here in the Cameroons, at the Military Academy known by its Frech acronym as EMIA in Yaounde.

When they went back, with the military intelligence and tactics they learnt here, they overthrew their President, Maurice Yaméogo, who they accused of being a dictator, who had failed to give the people their due. Real military men – right? They thus proved that our own military men are women (without being chauvinistic or without bias for gender, though).

Sankara became President but was later overthrown and killed in a coup generally suspected to have been masterminded by Compaore. That is how Compaore came to power some 27 years ago. Anyway, that is another story all together.

So far, the Burkinabes have had three Presidents, to wit; Maurice Yaméogo, Thomas Sankara and Blaise Compaore, and might have a fourth in the months ahead, but the Cameroons has had only two since 1960, namely Ahamdou Ahidjo and the incumbent Paul Biya.

So, the Burkinabe have chased away their President who has ruled only for 27 years and is only 63 and still full of vim and vigour, but the Cameroons has a President that has ruled for 32 years - and still counting; and is 82 years old and full of - - - [please, fill in the blank spaces].

The Burkinabe are always ahead of the Cameroons; for instance, though Cameroonians got into the motion picture industry earlier than them, they now organise film festivals whcih we unashamedly attend in Ouagadougou every year.

The constitution of the Cameroons was manipulated in 2009, but Cameroonians put up a timid protest and were silenced. A daredevil like Lapiro de Mbanga who composed a song, Constitution Constipée (constipated constitution) condemning the manipulation, was silenced and banished in prison for three years on trumped-up charges. When the time came for him to be released, he was done so as to muddy the waters. You know the rest.

International legal luminary, Barrister Chief Charles Taku, posits that a people have the right to take up arms against poor leadership. His fellow tribesman, Professor Tazoacha Asonganyi, himself an international elections and democracy observer, once wrote a treatise justifying military coup d’etats - that is when the change the people yearn for cannot come through a democratic avenue, the military can bring salvation to its people.

That is to say, if change cannot come through ballot, it should come through the barrel.

Are We Together?