This past year, the world has witnessed popular support of military takeovers in five African countries, and the unequivocal reaction of the international community condemning the coups d’état. They have also demanding a return to elected governments, opening a debate on Africa’s security-democracy dilemma. Overall, Africans have been celebrating and cherishing the end of quasi-democracy; beyond belief, expressing support to military takeover where the constitutional multi-party civilian regime has become the norm. Nonetheless, the unequivocal reaction of the international community condemning the taking power by force has been met with moral criticism.

Hours after the Burkina Faso coup, United States State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement that the they were deeply concerned about the developments, urging a swift return to civilian rule. In a twitter post, the UN chief Antonio Guterres strongly condemned the takeover of government by the force of arms and called the coup leaders to lay down their arms, and ensure the safety of President Kabore and the protection of the country’s institutions. Subsequently, the High Representative of the European Union, Josep Borrell called for the respect of the conditional order and the release of President Kabore. Reuters reporters saw the Africans burning a French flag after Emmanuel Macron, the French President, condemned the coup. This is a sign of growing frustration about the French military role and the international community’s involvement in Africa.

The critics of the international community consider irrational the reaction of the UN, the EU, and the U.S., not in accordance with practical realities in what Africans are facing daily. Security crisis, displacement, famine, unemployment, and poverty take tolls on millions of people due to the continent’s bad governance and endemic corruption. The Africans’ overwhelming criticisms demonstrate that the voters’ discontent is pretty high, and the dilemma between security and democracy has become a central issue in Africa. In principle, democracy is considered the best form of government because citizens have the right to choose their rulers. If the rulers do not perform as expected, people will not elect them in the next election. Still, in Africa, the reality in most cases is otherwise, as if the voices of ordinary citizens do not count. Citizens have difficulty changing their leaders through ballots; therefore, they don’t have much choice but to welcome the military takeover.

Hence, the preeminent reason for the Africans popular support of military coups can be interpreted as a failure of their elected governments to deliver the basic need, particularly peace and stability. Security deterioration in all parts of Africa is alarming; citizens face devastating attacks from all sorts of related extremist groups, millions of people flee their homes to escape the violence and instability. According to UNHCR, more than 32 million internally displaced persons, refugees, and asylum-seekers live in Africa, representing almost one-third of the world’s refugee population. Speaking on CNN, Dr. Mvemba Disolela, the Director of Africa Programs at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, stated that the international community is quick to react to a military coup, but they don’t respond to the failure of governance across the continent. Dr. Mvemba explained that bad governance is not helping create security, and Africans can’t have peace without security.

In every corner of the continent, citizens are fed-up with pervasive security crises where the number of security crisis is alarming. Of course, citizens have reason to feel that way because their elected governments are not responding rigorously to the treats of insecurity. This despite data from Afrobarometer showing that most citizens prefer democracy to authoritarian regimes. Nevertheless, the support of recent coups are serious concerns that a pattern is emerging. A good number of African’s presidents were elected under what is considered a democratic process with the support of the international community. Still, in reality, their mode of governance is not different from the autocrats. They twist the rules to stay in power beyond their constitutional mandate and become champions of corruption, embezzlement, and human rights abuses. Indeed, this is the sphere where the African expect the international community’s interference.

In short, military rule is not a solution; most Africans prefer democracy to authoritarian regimes, but democracy fails to deliver the basic needs of ordinary citizens. And the international community doesn’t interfere to save democracy in Africa when there are signs of democratic backsliding, even when the humanitarian crisis occurs. It is not enough for the international community to focus and prioritize only free, fair, and inclusive elections as the paramount of democracy; transparency, accountability, and civic participation are required; otherwise, democracy is deemed to continue to fail in Africa.