‘Military rule is no longer acceptable in Africa’

►The Nigerian Ambassador to Burkina Faso, Mr David Bala on Wednesday said the political crisis in that country was a proof that military rule was no longer acceptable in Africa.

►Bala stated this in an interview with newsmen on the side line of talks in Ouagadougou, the country’s capital aimed at a speedy resolution of the crisis.

The talks were led by President John Mahama of Ghana, joined by Presidents Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria and Macky Sall of Senegal.

The three leaders are members of a mediation team raised by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on the crisis.

Bala also noted that the popular revolt that forced former President Blaise Campaore to resign on Friday was a warning to African leaders not to underestimate the power of the people.

“The lesson here is that we should not underestimate the power of the people because what happened in Burkina Faso took even the opposition by surprise.

“Nobody was fully prepared that the president was going almost immediately.

“The whole idea was to stop him from amending the constitution which would have allowed him to stand for election again next year.

“But when the crisis started he had to resign because of the pressure and massive demonstrations that took place in this country.’’

The military took over power after massive protests in the capital that forced former President Blaise Compaore to resign on Friday.

Opposition leaders and activists held further protests on Sunday demanding immediate handover of power by the military to a civilian transition government.

Rising from meetings with opposition leaders and activists on Tuesday, the interim military Head of State, Col. Isaac Zida, was quoted as saying that he would comply with the demand.

The African Union (AU) on Monday condemned the army for “acting unconstitutionally by taking over power”.

It gave the military a two-week deadline to relinquish power to a civilian transition rule of face sanctions.