The Prime Minister of Burkina Faso, Paul Kaba Thieba, and his entire cabinet have resigned from office. The government did not provide reasons for the resignation and dissolution of entire cabinet. But President Roch Marc Christian Kabore praised Thieba for the move and thanked him for his service to the country. Kabore said a new government will be set up soon, the BBC reported.
Thieba came to government in January 2016 after nomination by Kabore. Political analysts however posit that the prime minister’s departure may not be unconnected to a recent spate of jihadist attacks and kidnappings in the country. There had been calls from various quarters for him to step down and for his defence apparatus to be pulled down.
In December 2018, two foreign nationals working with an aid group were kidnapped and have not been found till date. Thirty-four-year Canadian, Edith Blais, and 30-year-old Italian, Luca Tachetto, were on their way to work in Togo when they disappeared. Just last week, Kirk Woodman, a Canadian and geologist, kidnapped from a mine camp was found dead.
Woodman’s killers remain unknown, but several terrorist groups affiliated with al-Qaeda are known to be operative in the north of the country where the geologist was abducted. The French embassy in Ouagadougou, the country’s capital was attacked in recent times and another café suffered the same fate. Islamic millitants have held the poor African country hostage for many years now, with several provinces in the north declaring state of emergency since December 31.
The question now is: can Nigeria’s president or governors resign when the masses who voted them into power call for their resignation? Just like former President Goodluck Jonathan said, can elite Nigerian leaders ever know that their political ambitions are not worth the blood of thousands of people that could die in protests and other related crises?
Nigeria as a foremost African country must learn from Burkina Faso, a land-locked poor nation in the Sahel region of Africa.
