Fragile democracies like that of Ali Bongo of Gabon which are based on patronage and intimidation as well as coups d'état as we now have in Guinea, Burkina Faso and Niger are making the continent vulnerable again to external domination. Those who are in power under fragile and coup administration usually cannot earn the respect of the international community.

Consequently they are treated like appendages, who may have to seek support from those who may want to use them as proxies in their fight against other powers. This was how it was during the cold war when African leaders failed to unite to have an independent voice, but were seen as stooges of the West or East. Today a continent of 1.5 billion people is so divided that mercenaries of one group or another could destablise countries that have been independent for over fifty years to the point that they will rely on foreign troops for their own defence rather than their own forces or an African standby force.

Today the military regimes in West Africa are claiming that the Russian-Ukraine war is now spilling to their own countries. This is exactly what happened in Syria where anti Assad forces were being financed by foreign forces who later classified them as jihadist forces and thus reduced their support only to have Iran and Russia to come to Assad's support. Syria's development has been arrested, its territorial integrity is not respected and the country is becoming a no person's land where endless war rages without a cause.

It is the might of people not the might of guns that must ensure the true liberation of the sovereign people of Africa. The battle now is the battle of the mind and might of the ballot. Those who disregard these two powerful instruments and expect that liberty and development could be attained by the rule of the bullet are simply building castles in the air, which will become evident when they attain their goal.