AFRICA: THE TIME TO SAVE DEMOCRACY IS NOW

DEMOCRACY IN AFRICA: THE TIME TO SAVE AFRICA IS NOW!
As Abraham Lincoln will have us define democracy; the government of the people, by the people and for the people; we will not only want to imagine a form of government where people are the core of all government policies but we will be imagining a society or nation where people hold the exclusive right to choose their leaders without being cheated, where no one man can sit atop the wishes of the people, where no mandate can be stolen. We will picture an egalitarian and just society where people have freedom of choice and an undeniable freedom of action.
In the African setting however, it seems impossible to define democracy following the ideals of Abraham Lincoln. It will be an hallucination to try defining the form of government in Egypt as democracy neither can we define the governance in Zimbabwe as democracy. These are fine-tuned re-definitions of military rule.
In the year 1997, General Sani Abacha attempted to achieve a landmark chapter in all Political Science textbooks when he almost succeeded in transforming himself from a military ruler to a democratically elected President through a kind of ‘kangaroo’ ballot. His actions would have followed the likes of Mobutu Seseseko of Congo and Muhammar Ghaddafi of Libya. He could have succeeded, but Nigeria somehow got lucky and he died in the course of this monstrous transition.
Sixteen years after, Nigeria is grappling with massive election rigging by all its political parties (whichever of the parties claim innocence is a party of liars as election in Nigeria has become a rigging competition), Zimbabwe is being led by a man who has been President for 33 years and has just been re-elected through another lection for the seventh term (I am sure Zimbabweans are not so gullible), Egypt is struggling with the military’s constant intervention in the course of running a sustainable democracy leading to the ouster of a democratically elected President, Morsi while crisis is all over Congo, Mali and a host of other African nations.
Do we define the scenario in Africa as democracy? Governance where votes cast by people do not count? Governance where people are sometimes even forced to vote for a particular candidate? Governance where there is massive voter coercion, intimidation, killing and maiming? Can we say Africa is practicing democracy? Or will it be fair to say most African leaders are military men in plain clothes? What is wrong with our Africa? Is it greed?
I do not raise questions hoping to get answers from our European allies (most of these European super-powers are deeply interested in the crisis in Africa, as they stand to gain much from the crisis), but I believe, this is an African problem to which we must find an African solution.
We must fiercely but peacefully call our leaders, sons and daughters to order, we must warn against greed, preach against covetousness, discourage power obsession as strongly as we can and we must come together in unity to obtain the best for our dear continent. We owe it to posterity to build an egalitarian society, a society where each person has the right to so associate with whoever he may desire and to whichever ends other than criminal. We must rise to this challenge, old and young, for if Africa’s time will come, we must first come together, forge unity within ourselves, only then can we speak with one accord and claim our right of place in the world.
The time to save Africa is NOW!

ODERINU ADEDAYO T.
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