"Changing the Rules During the Match": Doumbouya Takes Aim at Africa's Real Putschists

The Outsider's take

Constitutions are frequently amended because they provide the simplest legal avenue for maintaining power in many countries. This also lends a veneer of legitimacy to the changes, avoiding the negative connotations of a coup or open repression.

During the UN General Assembly in September 2023, Guinean leader Mamadi Doumbouya, then a colonel and head of the junta, delivered a scathing critique of African leaders who alter constitutions to secure their continued power. He clarified that a putschist isn’t merely someone who takes up arms to overthrow a regime. Rather, he identified “the real putschists, the most numerous,” as those who “scheme, use trickery and cheat to manipulate the constitution’s texts” to maintain power indefinitely. He labelled them “those in white collars who change the rules of the game during the match” and asserted they face “no condemnation.”

Doumbouya attributed the wave of transitions across the continent to broken promises, “the lulling of the people” and constitutional tampering. He himself had seized power in September 2021 by overthrowing Alpha Condé, who had secured a third term by amending the constitution.

Speaking at the 81st session on 23 September 2026, he revisited his previous address, affirming his “speech of truth” delivered three years earlier and his unwavering support for it. However, he stated he was now approaching the matter not with condemnation but with a desire to share. He unveiled Guinea’s new constitution, an electoral cycle funded entirely by the Guinean treasury, and the Simandou mining project. Furthermore, he advocated for African countries to adopt governance models that align with their unique circumstances. Doumbouya himself went on to win the December 2025 presidential election by a landslide.