On the other hand, Henk and Rupiya (2001) have pointed to the lack of a legislative
mandate and expertise to monitor defense spending in the average African
state as a major impediment to the quality of the continent’s armies. Furthering this
problem is the danger of attempting to institute stronger oversight, as efforts of
authoritarian leaders to reduce patronage could act as a catalyst for military intervention.
Milton Obote, for example, offered the British Broadcasting Corporation
(BBC) a rather direct explanation after being ousted in Idi Amin’s 1972 coup (Lofchie
1972, 24):