D.K. Osei, a former Ghanaian diplomat who served in the Ghana Embassy in Guinea under the Rawlings government, said the coup in Guinea came as no surprise.
Mr. Osei said that he informed ousted Guinea President Alpha Condé about this possibility two months ago.
“I have always had the view that given the nature of the attempts made [by Condé] to change the constitution… it would not have surprised me that this would happen.”
“In fact, discussions have been held about this eventually and two months ago when I was in Conakry, I spoke to the President about the possibility of this happening,” Mr. Osei said
The former ambassador said that he and President Condé had long been friends and that he is “deeply concerned” about the country’s future.
He also expressed concern over a significant change in then-President Condé’s beliefs.
“Alpha was one of the most democratic presidents that I have ever known; one of the most committed pan Africanists that I have met in my life.”
Mr. Osei said that he addressed the subject of constitutional amendments with Mr. Condé, who is now 83 years old.
“One of the things he said to me was that since I had never stood for an election, I could not give him a lecture on democracy.”
Mr. Osei said, “His answers were extremely un-Alpha-like.”
Mr. Condé was able to run for a contentious third term in 2019 thanks to a constitutional reform in Guinea.
Prior to 2010, when he was first elected, he was a long-time opposition leader.
One of the causes for the military takeover has been identified as a constitutional amendment.
On Sunday evening, after gunfire in Guinea’s capital, a group of soldiers declared the dissolution of the constitution, the closing of borders, and a countrywide curfew on state television.
The troops, headed by a Special Forces Colonel named Mamady Doumbouya, claimed that provincial governors had been replaced by military commanders and that Mr. Condé had been detained.
The United Nations, African Union, and ECOWAS have all denounced the coup and urged a restoration to civilian government.
The coup in Guinea was the fourth in West Africa in the past year, after two military takeovers in Mali and a failed coup in Niger.
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