When President Biden was asked if the President of China was a dictator, his answer was yes, and guess what reason he gave for saying yes? Apparently, according to Biden, any country that doesn’t practice its form of government -democracy- is a dictatorship. Can you imagine that air of superiority? China is run by a dictator yet, they have the biggest economy in the world, even larger than the USA even though Google would tell you otherwise. Democracy is often projected as the best form of government in today’s world and any country that doesn’t practice it is criticized by the West, and in Africa, this has been what has been practiced for decades after independence but what has the continent got to show for it? Nothing but corruption, low level of development, insecurity, civil war, and political instability. We see Presidents who ought to step down after their term, going again and again and again for another term with ease because they tweaked the Constitution to allow them to do so. We see the African masses getting leaders who they did not vote for because the candidate rigged the election. That’s the democracy in Africa and yet every time an election is successfully carried out, the West applauds another success story to their call for democracy
regardless of whether or not the winner was the people’s choice.
It is said that it is insane to do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result, and the fact is that Democracy is not working in Africa. It has failed and will continue to do so, therefore isn’t it time for Africans to go back to their roots? Before we continue with this video, we want to let you know that there is an interesting proposal of what kind of political system will be good for Africa at the end of the video and we would love to hear what you think about it so make sure you watch till the end.
When Independence came in 1960 bringing an end to around 75 years of colonial rule by Britain, France, and Belgium, the newly created African nation-states practiced a one-party system of government where only a single political party ran the government. There was nothing like the multi-party system that is practiced in most African countries currently. This system however was regarded as an authoritarian regime by the West who expected the African newly formed state to easily slip into the democratic form of government despite the fact that the foundation they laid during the colonial period was an authoritarian government.
However, African revolutionaries such as Julius Nyerere of Tanzania maintained that the one-party system was suitable for African countries because it was akin to the African traditional societies. Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana even said that the multi-party system was divisive and hence unfit for the newly independent African states which needed a unified energy and enthusiasm so as to move forward. But then the problem was this single-party system easily slipped into an authoritative regime that marginalized smaller tribes. This was the state of African countries until the end of the Cold War which brought an end to communism. Following the end of the Soviet Union, the West began questioning the competence of these African autocrats, pointing out their economic failures.
Dragged down by global economic shocks and domestic policy failures, from the 1970s, Africa was falling behind the rest of the world in terms of development. But, what were they expecting when the continent just came out from more than half a century of colonization? But that’s not
the issue for today. Now, the West decided to help the continent by extending the aid of the IMF and World Bank, an aid we now know is part of the major cause of Africa’s current developmental state. Not knowing any better, African leaders accepted the aid which required that in exchange for financial assistance from the World Bank and IMF, African countries must implement a policy reform called the Structural Adjustment Programme. This program we can boldly say is the cause of Africa’s development because it required African countries to devalue their currency, encourage privatization by allowing foreign corporations to establish their companies in their countries, and reduce government spending. You can watch our video on “The Biggest Scam of the Century: How the World Bank and IMF destroyed Africa to learn more about this.
Now, aside from implementing the SAP program in exchange for financial aid, another important condition for the aid was for African countries to adopt the Western form of democracy which is the multi-party system. Can you see how the West has imposed its principles and ideas on the African continents in every aspect including culture, economics, and politics? Africa truly needs a deep overhaul for it to be truly free. So,that became the start of democracy in Africa, although occasionally some countries slipped into military rule in the following decades. But, from that time till today, the West has continued to push for democracy in Africa using it as a condition for African countries to get aid. However, the evidence over the past decades has shown that the West idea of democracy has not worked in Africa. The economic, political, and developmental situation in the continent is worse off than it was when the continent was still practicing the one-party system. Western Democracy in Africa has bred corruption, vote buying, and election malpractice.
According to the dictionary, Democracy is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people. So, this means it’s the citizens who should choose who leads them right? But that’s not what we see in Africa. In Africa, the leaders intimidate and bribe to get voters to vote in their favor or they even threaten to punish those who vote for the opposite party. They bribe or threaten the leaders of the body responsible for carrying out the election so that they can work it in their favor. Some of them even deliberately send thugs to election centers to disrupt the election process. The fact is most of the leaders who end up as leaders of African nations were not chosen by the African people. They were imposed on them. The elections are never free and fair. The 2023 general election held in Nigeria is a perfect example of this. If you asked the majority of Nigerians who they wanted and voted for President they would say, Peter Obi from the Labour Party but who eventually became President, Bola Tinubu, the candidate with so much money and influence to bribe whoever he needed to win.
In Africa, democracy has been such that once a Presidential candidate wins an election, he becomes all-powerful. They can remove and appoint anyone they like even if the person is not competent for the job. It’s one of the reasons why development has stalled in the continent. In addition, democracy has allowed an elected leader to use power and the state machinery to advance the economic interests of his ethnic group and exclude all others. This is the reason why virtually all civil wars in Africa started.
The interesting thing is the West has observed all this that has been happening and yet for them, as long as a nation conducts an election and there is a winner, then they are practicing democracy. This means democracy is all about elections. Whether or not there is development it doesn’t matter. This means the West has an ulterior motive for why they are pushing for democracy in Africa. We believe that the reason is that it will be much easier for them to influence and make the leaders puppet than if it were to be any other form of government, such as the one practiced by China.
The fact is while democracy has its merits and has worked for other Western and European countries, it has not worked in Africa and is not suitable because Africa is a traditional society that believes in the collective and community. This is opposite the Western society whose basic unit is the individual. Before the advent of colonialism, Africa had strong institutions that outlived even the strongest of men. Such strong institutions could be found in the Oyo Empire, the Ashanti Empire, Hausa/Fulani Empire, Bini Kingdom, and the Ghana Empire. In fact, even today, in certain cultures and regions where the pre-colonial traditional institutions have been preserved, there are strong institutions that no strong man can overpower yet, for example, the Bini Kingdom. If you observed these traditional political systems you would note that Africa practiced its own kind of democracy that suited the respective cultures and traditions and Africans flourished under them.
For example, the Ashanti Empire was a federal republic, the Igbo political system was a republican democracy, and the Oromo people of Ethiopia practiced an indigenous democratic system that allowed the people to elect their leaders through a Gada voting system. This means that the problem started when Europe divided the continent into colonies and then lumped different ethnic groups with different traditions and political institutions together to form one nation. The West then expects that these different ethnic groups try and live together under one person that would be chosen from only one ethnic group. Why wouldn’t democracy fail? Imagine Nigeria with its 250 ethnic groups and different religions is expected to be democratic. It can’t.
Since democracy is not working in Africa it’s time for Africa to look for an alternative, something called a traditional democracy that is based on the traditional system of governance. This kind of democracy according to Ghanaian economist, George Ayittey is a democracy that takes decisions by consensus rather than by majority vote which is the Western kind of democracy that excludes the minority. The advantage of this traditional democracy is that it takes the minority into account but the demerit is that it can take an awfully long time to reach a consensus the larger the number of people involved. George stated that decision by consensus was how traditional African societies made decisions and that the fact that they didn’t do so through voting doesn’t mean they are inferior like the West thinks.
If the West truly wanted Africa to have a successful democracy, they should have built the political system based on the existing traditional system of government. George Ayittey gave an interesting proposal of how a democracy built based on the African traditional system would have been. Here it is.
He said let each ethnic group choose their leaders and place them in a National Assembly. Next, let each province or state choose their leaders and place them in a National Council. Then from this National Council, the President will be chosen which will reduce the huge expenditures on election campaigning that comes with Western-style democracy because these resources can be better put to development in poor African countries.Next, let the president and National Council take their decisions by consensus. If there is a deadlock, refer the issue to the National Assembly.
What do you think? Do you think this would work in Africa? Let us know in the comment section below. Also don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share this video so more people can see it.