By Thomas Fessy, BBC
West Africa correspondent
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Blaise
Compaore sparked public anger after he tried to extend his 27-year rule/AFP
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There was just one more year to go
before change could finally come, through the next presidential election.
After 27 years of Blaise Compaore, the
people of Burkina Faso were set to wait patiently until November 2015.
But Mr. Compaore's attempt to force a
constitutional change sparked near unanimous outrage.
"It's as if he was disconnected
from reality or not acknowledging what was going on," Rinaldo Depagne,
director of ICG's West Africa programme, said.
"With nearly a million people in
the streets [in a country of 17 million], any sensible politician would have
withdrawn their proposed bill."
But he didn't.
Country
on edge
Frustration and anger had been growing
over the past few years in Burkina Faso and there had been multiple warnings
that the society was on the edge of a social-political crisis.
Violent protests erupted in 2011
throughout the country.
First
out were the students, following the death of one of their number in police
custody.
Shopkeepers,
traders, magistrates, lawyers, peasants and finally the rank-and-file soldiers
followed.
But
they didn't form a mass movement and this is what "saved Blaise
Compaore", according to Mr. Depagne, who lived in Burkina Faso for a
number of years.
The
opposition parties were not able to build a political platform to offer an
alternative based on the people's discontent at high prices, low wages and Mr.
Compaore's undivided rule.
Yet,
these upheavals lasted several months in the first half of 2011.
There
hadn't been such major demonstrations since the murder of the investigative
journalist Norbert Zongo at the end of 1998.
Mr
Zongo was investigating the killing of the driver of Francois Compaore, the
then-president's younger brother and special adviser.
He
had himself warned his readership that he may end up being killed after he
received a series of death threats.
His murder - which the government
initially claimed was an accident - sparked unprecedented demonstrations.
To many, the Zongo case was a turning
point during Mr. Compaore's regime. The opposition was too divided to overthrow
the system but "it created confidence among citizens about their own
rights," Mr. Depagne said.
Symbolic
statue
There was an overwhelming presence of
youth in this week's protests. Half of the country's population is believed to
be under 18 and flocking to cities where unemployment fuels frustration.
Despite the economic growth, Burkina
Faso remains at the very bottom of the United Nations' Human Development Index,
making it one of the world's poorest countries.
The landlocked nation is heavily
dependent on international aid, especially since one of its major financial
partners, Col Muammar Gaddafi, was killed during the Libyan uprising in 2011.
Repeated promises of change haven't
been fulfilled during Mr. Compaore's rule, allowing public distrust to grow.
Yet,
Mr. Compaore imposed himself as an indispensable regional mediator and had
become the strongest ally to France and the US in the region.
He
showed capacity to resolve crises - despite his own history of backing rebels
and fuelling civil wars in the West African neighbourhood - and more
importantly, he used his networks to help Western powers battling Islamist
militancy in the Sahel.
Hours
before Mr. Compaore resigned, a letter he had received earlier this month from
French President Francois Hollande - who has now welcomed his resignation -
emerged in the media to reveal that France was ready to support him in finding
a job within the international community at the end of his mandate, if he
withdrew his proposed bill on presidential term limits.
But
this wasn't enough. And there was one particular scene during this popular
unrest earlier in the week that could have had Mr. Compaore worried.
Angered
youth took down a statue of him in Bobo Dioulasso, the country's second largest
city.
Quite
symbolically, the statue was erected in the mid-1990s next to that of Col
Gaddafi, who had just visited the country.
Even
though that signal was probably the strongest yet, Mr. Compaore still thought
he could get his bill passed in parliament two days later.
Instead,
he precipitated his own downfall.
Source: http://www.bbc.com
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