Captain Ibrahim Traoré, interim leader of Burkina Faso, has questioned the effectiveness of democracy as a path to national development, arguing that no country has achieved true development under a democratic system.
At a recent flag-raising ceremony at the Koulouba Palace, Traoré said that it is misleading to think that democracy is essential for progress, noting that there can be no mention of any nation whose development is directly due to democratic governance.
"If we have to say it clearly and forcefully, we are not in a democracy; "We are in a popular and progressive revolution", he declared.
"We must necessarily go through a revolution, and in fact, we are in a revolution. So this question of democracy or freedom of action or expression has no place. As much as you think you are free to speak and act, the other is also free to do so, and that is where we end up with a messy society. "
He added that "it is impossible to name a country that has developed in democracy. Democracy is just the result."
Traoré, 37, came to power following the September 2022 coup that ousted interim president Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba.
He has positioned his administration as a "revolutionary government" distancing himself from Western governance models and emphasizing "self-determined political systems."