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Democracy: A Mocked and Endangered System in Africa
By Lateef Oladeji of Gem Business ventures
Democracy: A Mocked and Endangered
System in Africa Democracy, a system of government that originated from the ancient Greek nation, is simply described as “government of the people, by the people and for the people”. This means that the people are involved in the formation and running of their government. Indeed, all the people of Greece of those days directly took part in the running of their government by being physically present to vote on all matters affecting them. That was then, when the population was small. What we have today is called “representative democracy” whereby people vote their representatives into power to take care of their interests. Because of its fair and human nature, democracy has become the choice of most advanced and progressive parts of the world. In places like the USA, the UK, France, etc., where democracy has been truly entrenched, certain ideals, (which are the true dividends of democracy) are observable as being clearly present, highly respected or conscientiously practised, including:
ü Human rights (freedom and liberty)
ü The rule of law
ü Equality and equity
ü Accountability
ü People’s welfare
ü The way of the majority and the say of the minority
ü Smooth power transition through free and fair elections
ü Justice and fairplay
ü People’s sovereignty
ü Patriotism
ü Economic growth and development. One of the most important inheritances of Africa from the advanced West is democracy. It held the promise for economic and political transformations for the continent, and each country sustained or adopted it in one form or the other after gaining independence. Unfortunately, however, democracy has evolved into “demoncrazy” in virtually every part of Africa, as it is massively mocked and bastardized. Indeed, it has become precariously endangered. The events in Africa in the distant and recent years obviously show that what operates there is not true democracy but the letting loose of a crazy demon (demoncrazy). All the democratic features observable in the advanced and some emerging democracies of the world are stood on their heads in most parts of Africa – rigged elections, sit-tight governments, “misrule of law”, injustice, dictatorship, lack of accountability, corruption, mass poverty, etc. A few people have blamed military incursions into governance in Africa as the source of democracy retardation and destruction there. This argument does not hold much water as the military take-over came into being in the first place due to the failure of the political class to abide by the rules of democracy. Moreover, the politicians have learnt no lessons even after decades of taking power back from the military rulers. “Demoncracy” is, indeed, endemic in Africa, the military incursions notwithstanding. The abuse of democracy in Africa has taken a new turn in recent times, with a new compromise system taking a solid shape, assuming the dimension of a wild fire. It is termed “power sharing”. Power sharing had taken an innocuous and subtle form in the past. Now, it is being re-defined to institutionalize illegitimacy and remove the voice of opposition. Within only a few months, this evil kind of power sharing has affected 2 African countries. It started with Kenya, where the incumbent sit-tight president refused to yield to the vote-voice of the people. He succeeded in having his way. Now is the turn of Zimbabwe to swallow the bitter pill of the satanic power-sharing monster that has now come to lend legitimacy to rejected leadership and misrule. This dangerous trend is capable of polluting and totally destroying the little grace left of democracy in Africa. In fact, one needs no seer to see other countries, especially Nigeria, falling for this arrangement in future, thereby sealing the hopes and aspirations of the people for alternative and better governments. Indeed, the current powerholders in Nigeria are already hinting at turning the country into a one-party state and ruling forever despite people’s loud voice to the contrary.
The demon is terribly crazy in Africa; let somebody tame the demon in the interest of world peace.
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Contributor's Note
I have nothing against power sharing or any compromise formula that averts wars and other calamities. My concern has to do with a blatant abuse by wicked, corrupt and unprogressive sit-tight misrulers of this middle-of-the-road approach to conflict resolution.
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PLEASE VISIT THE CONTRIBUTOR'S WEBSITE
GemHomeBiz
an avenue for social and business links
gbolly54.apsense.com
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This intel was contributed by gembiz
gembiz
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May, 2012
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