Only Politics

Democracy has taken few steps backwards in Africa. The glorious years were in the 1990s when many nations on the continent went democratic. But in the last few years there seems to be a regression. Kenya, Zimbabwe and Nigeria come to mind. The biggest shock was the post election Lou-Kikuyu clashes in Kenya that tore apart the democratic credentials of the country. It was only on US ‘insistence’ that Kibaki agreed to share power with Odinga. The less said about Zimbabwe, the better. Mugabe’s terror tactics forced the MDC candidate to drop out of the presidential race. In Nigeria, Umaru Yar’Adua won the presidency following the April 2007 elections, which were condemned by local and foreign observers, who alleged widespread vote-rigging. The success stories are few, Ghana and Sierra Leone. Why is it so? Why is democracy in a deflating stage in the continent? The international community has, in the recent years not paid enough attention to Africa. The west is only involved in Darfur. Otherwise its focus has shifted to Iraq and the Middle East. As a result many dictators have become emboldened. If Mugabe’s transgressions had been nipped in the bud years ago, he would not have turned into the monster he is today. Most African leaders have some skeletons in their cupboards. So they prefer to stay quiet when some one like Mugabe goes berserk. Also, except for Mandela, the continent is not throwing up good leaders. And nobody’s listens to or tries to emulate him. Post 9/11 the US has looked the other way when democracy was being murdered, only because cracking down on Al Qaeda became its sole concern. For instance it took a softer approach in dealing with Ethiopia’s crackdown in 2005. A year later, Ethiopia, with U.S. support, entered neighboring Somalia to crush a fledgling Islamic regime that U.S. officials said was linked to Al Qaeda. The ‘China factor’ has derailed the democracy train in Africa. China is offering investments, arms and other goodies to African nations, with no questions asked. It cares little about the democratic credentials of it’s leaders as long it is rolled out the red carpet. China is emboldening those who want to follow a centralized non-democratic model. Poverty is turning out to be the biggest hindrance to democracy in Africa. When people are starving who cares about freedom and democracy? Votes are sold for some food and money. Finally, the continent is taking a lot of time to shake off the colonial mindset of its leaders. Peter Oloo Aringo, a former Kenyan lawmaker who works as a consultant to strengthen democratic institutions puts it succinctly. "Most of the leaders today are part of the independence generation. They are trying to imitate the people they succeeded during the colonial period and those people held all the power to themselves." According to him, the next generation of African leaders will be more democratic-minded.