How broken promises fuel young Africans’ admiration for military rulers

Taofeek Oyedokun

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For decades, Africa’s youths were the foot soldiers of democracy, rallying against military juntas and demanding accountable governance. Today, a new paradox is unfolding. The very generation that inherited the fruits of democratic transitions is now chanting in support of military rule.

From Ouagadougou to Kano, Accra to Bamako, a growing number of young Africans are trading faith in the ballot for hope in the barrel of the gun.

“I don’t support violence,” says 25-year-old Olawale, a Lagos-based university student who doesn’t want his full name mentioned. “But what have these so-called democrats done for us? We’re jobless, insecure, and voiceless.”

Olawale’s sentiment is echoed in Afrobarometer’s 2024 report, which found that 53% of Africans across 39 countries are willing to accept a military takeover if elected governments continue to abuse power. In Nigeria, 41% of citizens share that view. It’s a dramatic shift from the optimism of the early 2000s when democracy was sweeping across the continent like a long-awaited rain after years of authoritarian drought.

Democracy’s broken promises

Africa is the youngest continent on Earth, with over 400 million people between the ages of 15 and 35. Yet, for many of them, the democratic experiment has delivered little beyond promises.

“We were told democracy would bring development, freedom, and dignity,” said Olawale, “Instead, we got corruption, police brutality, and rigged elections. Our leaders act like monarchs.”

Efforts to hold leaders accountable through the ballot box have often proven futile. Leaders extend their terms, rig elections, or suppress dissent. In countries like Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, and Uganda, presidents have remained in power for over four decades, longer than most citizens have been alive.

Teodoro Obiang of Equatorial Guinea has ruled for 45 years. Paul Biya of Cameroon is in his 42nd year in power. In Uganda, Yoweri Museveni remains president 38 years after he first took office.

Young Africans have not been silent. Waves of protests, many youth-led, have rocked the continent, demanding better governance, accountability, and reforms. But these movements are often crushed with force.

In Nigeria, the 2020 EndSARS protest ended in bloodshed at the Lekki Toll Gate, an event the government still denies, despite damning reports from human rights organisations. In Kenya, demonstrators protesting a finance bill in 2024 were met with a similar crackdown.

“They kill us when we ask for better governance,” the student said. “And now they expect us to keep voting for them? “We just want leaders who care about us. If civilians won’t do it, maybe the soldiers will.”

This systemic violence has left many young Africans disillusioned and angry. For them, Western-style democracy has become a hollow shell-symbolic election, but no meaningful change.

“Africans in general seem to have always been in love with dictators. So, there is not necessarily a shift per se,” said Simon Samson, a lecturer at Baze University, Abuja.

“It’s just that it is becoming more obvious because of social media and the internet. Older Africans might have forgotten how military regimes trampled on their rights, and younger ones might be too inexperienced to know that dictatorships do not end well.”

The rise of the coupists

Since 2020, West and Central Africa have witnessed a surge in coups:

Mali (2020): Colonel Assimi Goïta ousted President Keïta.

Guinea (2021): Colonel Mamady Doumbouya deposed President Alpha Condé.

Burkina Faso (2022): Captain Ibrahim Traoré seized power in two separate coups.

Niger (2023): President Bazoum was overthrown by his own guards.

Gabon (2023): Ali Bongo was removed after claiming a third term.

The digital Thomas Sankara

Among the new military rulers, none is more idolised than 36-year-old Burkinabè dictator, Ibrahim Traoré. With his revolutionary rhetoric and rejection of France and ECOWAS, Traoré has quickly become the face of a digital movement that blends anti-imperialism, Pan-Africanism, and youth frustration.

“He reminds us of Sankara. Young, bold, and not afraid of the West. We need more leaders like him,” a young Ghanaian said in a viral video on Tiktok.

Traoré has pulled Burkina Faso out of ECOWAS, severed ties with France, and allied with fellow coupists in Niger and Mali under the “Alliance of Sahel States.”

The young tyrant is portrayed as a liberator, a man of the people, a modern-day Sankara, ex-Burkinabè leader killed during a coup in October 1987, fighting colonialism, corruption, and Western exploitation.

Social media is flooded with AI-generated images portraying him as a messiah. Viral posts claim he has abolished taxes, made education free, and begun handing out houses to the poor, all of which have been fact-checked and debunked.

Still, his myth grows.

“In spite of the evidence that Burkina Faso is not any better on [Traoré’s] watch, people are too carried away by the coordinated propaganda to even think for a moment if there is actually anything to celebrate,” Samson, earlier quoted, said. “It seems people are just hungry for a messiah and Traoré fits the bill.”

He ties this growing disillusionment directly to democracy’s failures. “The failure of African nations with the democratic experiment has definitely played a role,” he noted.

“Democratic rule has largely been a ruse, with fraudulently conducted elections, results not reflecting the wishes of the people, and widespread corruption. This has made many despise democracy or at least the version practiced in Africa.”

But he cautions that replacing failed democracies with military rule is not the answer: “What these people fail to grasp is that military rule has not done better in that department.”

Propaganda and power plays

Experts warn that much of this adulation is being fueled by coordinated online campaigns. Some analysts believe Russia is behind the pro-coup propaganda, seeking to expand its influence as Western alliances fray.

“To be sure, not all of the apparent support for Traoré is homegrown, never mind genuine. The role of the Kremlin in propping up Traoré as the arrowhead of a digital onslaught on liberal democracy and associated “Western values” in Africa has been well documented,” the Council on Foreign Relations said in a recent report titled, “The Cult of Traoré”.

Gallup’s 2023 report supports this, showing Russia’s approval ratings rising across Africa, especially in countries where it has a military presence.

In August 2024, several youths in Northern Nigeria were arrested during the #EndBadGovernance protest for hoisting Russian flags and calling for a coup.

The support for leaders like Traoré is rooted in real grievances, but it raises difficult questions.

Can military rule truly deliver justice, prosperity, and progress where democracy has failed? Or is it simply replacing one form of authoritarianism with another?

The rise of digitally-engineered “messiahs” reflects a broader crisis in governance, identity, and hope across the continent. As Africa’s youth search for answers, the continent stands at another crossroads, between democracy’s broken promises and the uncertain promise of the gun.

For now, however, the ballot feels broken. And in its place, the bullet is gaining appeal.

One thing is clear: Africa’s young people are no longer willing to wait quietly. Whether through the ballot, the streets, or social media, their voices are reshaping the future of the continent.

BUSINESSDAY MEDIA LTD