Africa and the need for military professionalism

The continent of Africa is characterised by regions that are vulnerable to political instability. One example is the ECOWAS, which is an unstable region with fragile states that are vulnerable to military coups.

In fact, of all the seven military coups as well as attempted ones since 2020, five of these successful as well as three failed, were in the ECOWAS region making it a coup laboratory of Africa. The turn of events is a revelation of a pattern of increasingly politicized militaries on the continent.

According to recent research by the Africa Centre for Strategic Studies, this spate of unconstitutional changes of power upends a two-decade trend of diminishing incidences of military coups in Africa and also risks a return to the era of misgovernance, stagnant development, impunity and instability that characterised Africa’s military governments of the 1960s to 1990s, often referred to as Africa’s “lost decades.” During that era, Africa experienced 82 coups between 1960 and 2000. As a response to this resurgence of military coups, one of the leading security think tanks, Africa Centre for Strategic Studies, hosted senior security officials from about 30 African countries on December 14, 2022 on the sidelines of the US-Africa Leaders Summit in the USA to hold a dialogue aimed at finding a solution to this security threat of military coups.

This dialogue featured prominent experts such as General Mbaye Cissé, the National Security Advisor to the President of Senegal, US Secretary of the Army, Christine Wormuth and Commander of AFRICOM, General Michael Langley. An important assessment made by these experts was that the armed forces in many African countries represent a threat to security because of their lack of military professionalism. They emphasised on the need for African armies to entrench a deep culture of military professionalism as a means to effectively provide security for citizens in a manner that upholds the rule of law and safeguards human rights. According to retired Colonel Emile Ouedraogo military professionalism is a required standard of conduct, which should always be upheld by cadres from the armed forces committed to the values of service to the public, subordination to democratic civilian authority, allegiance to the constitution, political neutrality and respect for the rule of law and human rights. General Cissé lamented the fact that military professionalism is a particular challenge for African militaries because of the legacy of colonialism as the heritage of such a legacy is that security forces’ main mission was repression and the forces were not united, were artificial and were too present in the political arena.

He decries that unfortunately this is an ongoing handicap. As a way of rectifying this anomaly, General Cissé advises that Africa must make a dedicated effort to strengthen and sustain military professionalism. In the same vein, AFRICOM chief General Langley advised during the dialogue that the art of military professionalism does not emerge by chance but is a dedicated outcome. He rightly posited that it is not the result of a single event or temporary push that builds professionalism and then produces benefits indefinitely.

Rather, it must be constantly reinforced, refined, and perpetuated. Military professionalism is a culture that must be institutionalised to reverberate within a force. These sentiments by General Langley and General Cissé are spot on because central to creating a culture of military professionalism is instilling within soldiers, from the lowest rank to the most senior officer, core societal values and principles that the military aspires to represent and values such as integrity, honour, expertise, sacrifice and respect for citizens do not necessarily emerge naturally but must be taught and regularly refreshed. To achieve this, General Cissé underlined the importance of teaching military officers the value of democracy and the role of a military within a democratic society. He averred that these values must be learned and cannot be taken for granted, especially in countries without a strong democratic tradition.

He advocates military leaders to gain experience in democratic societies so that they could deepen their appreciation for the dynamics of civil-military relations. One way to gain such a valuable experience according to General Langley is through Professional Military Education (PME), which is a primary vehicle, through which ethos of military professionalism can be institutionalised. Unlike trainings, which focus on tactical skills and operational proficiencies, PME aims to cultivate leadership, strategic vision and ethical values among a country’s military leaders. General Langley’s experience is that PME is particularly vital for “emphasising democratic values, including upholding the rule of law, especially in conflict.”

He added that likewise, PME is integral for instilling respect for civilian control. The two are complementary as it is the leadership and values gained through PME that enables military officers to be effective advisors to civilian leaders, General Langley clarified.

Most importantly, merit-based recruitment and promotion is another means by which military professionalism can be institutionalised. The pattern of recruiting predominantly from the ethnicity of the president, seen in some African militaries, creates a chain of command more loyal to the president than to the constitution. Ethnically biased armed forces lack the popular trust, legitimacy and competency of a merit-based force, hindering its effectiveness. Selection

to PME institutions, General Cissé underscored, needs to be merit-based with exams that officers must pass for promotion. He stressed that promotion, moreover, cannot be based just on field performance over classroom and ethical considerations. Besides the importance of professional military education espoused by these military experts during the dialogue, an important issue of civil-military relations was emphasised as a central feature of military professionalism. For his part, General Langley stressed that civilian and military leaders both have critical roles in security decision-making, though they are different and complementary.

Democratically elected civilian leaders are responsible for setting a vision, strategy and policy for the security interests of a country. Military leaders are then responsible for implementing that guidance in as effective and professional manner as possible. General Langley explained, “the ultimate decision-makers are civilian leaders, the role of the military is to provide sound advice. Every military should strive to be apolitical so they can be objective with their advice.”

General Cissé buttressed these sentiments that with the absence of clear borders between the political and military arenas, there is usually a high potential for political instability.

This effectively means that there is a need for military leaders to trust civilian leaders when it comes to decision-making under democratic systems. In short, effective civil-military relations are a two-way process that requires regular maintenance. In summation, one can safely argue that security is essential for strengthening democracy and economic development in Africa and with most African conflicts and threats to citizen security emerging from domestic political crises, military professionalism can be an indispensable stabilising factor for a society. General Cissé is right in pointing out that we need African militaries to serve the public and that these militaries need to be autonomous, accountable and respectful of democratic values. If they are not, the continent will not enjoy any stability.