The recent dissolution of a hundred civil society associations has caused a great deal of fuss, when it should not have caused so much uproar given the uselessness of most of them on the one hand, and the "shift" observed in their initial role on the other, which has made some of them "veritable machines of destruction" of our young States in relation to their shadow masters according to the interests of the moment.
Inheriting the Western perception of the State, Africans have modeled their approach to development on that of their former master. Since the signing, under the auspices of the UN, of the two covenants intended to give legal force to the rights recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (economic, social and cultural rights on the one hand, and political and civil rights on the other), the defense of these rights has acquired a prominent place in international relations, leading to a proliferation of associative movements working in this field in our young States, to the point that civil society had become the second "executive" in our States.
An “executive” that will gradually transform into a decision-making center, then a pressure center, ultimately “besieging” the Republic and, worse, serving as a mouthpiece for causes and masters more interested in exploiting our countries than in defending so-called human rights.
An intermediary or mediating force between the State and the people, it eventually abandoned this role to enter the political arena.
Initially impartial arbiters, our civil society actors have been infected by the virus of politics, consequently losing all credibility and any ability to rise above partisan interests.
Distrust and a break were inevitable with the executive branch, which suspected her of attempted "parricide." These associations, often formed haphazardly, have the audacity to claim the authority of proconsuls of the Republic. At this rate, republican legality and legitimacy risked losing their symbolic meaning and attributes, becoming mere empty shells.
Hello to the power of the street and the weakening of the foundations of the Republic.
A return to orthodoxy was necessary in this instance, and the tidying up carried out in Ouagadougou as well as in Niamey must be understood in this sense.
In Burkina Faso in particular, this civil society has influenced political life, notably in January 1966 and during the major strikes of December 17 and 18, 1975, which halted General Sangoulé Lamizana's one-party project. These are opportunistic hypocrites supported by donors who pay little heed to their daily actions and who confuse independence from the government with opposition to that same government.
Authentic revolutionary culture is not bothered by these "social-populist" stances, especially since the awakening of citizens' consciousness allows them to "read" through this game of deception.
So yes, these dissolutions are legitimate and legal because they are the appropriate response to the vicissitudes that some leaders of this civil society have made it experience by wanting to distort its role.
Revolutionary rigor will therefore be applied here as everywhere else.
Boubakar SY
