Nigeria, Jan. 14 -- Burkina Faso's military leader, Ibrahim Traore, was the centre of attention at the inauguration ceremony of Ghana's President John Mahama on 7 January. From a pistol conspicuously attached to his waist, to his entourage of heavily armed guards, and the resounding ovation he received when he was introduced, the oddity of it all was not lost on many people.

Wasn't it a paradox that the man who toppled a constitutional order in his country was being received as a hero at an occasion to celebrate the increasing resilience of liberal democracy in Ghana? And what was the subtext of inviting him at all to the occasion, given that together with his fellow coup leaders in Niger and Mali, they have haemorrhaged the Economic Com...