Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Africa: Why we must fight for strong institutions:




Strong and independent institutions are the cornerstone of any democracy. Aspiring democracies in Africa must therefore endeavor to nurture a culture of institutionalism by investing and jealously defending strong and credible institutions and steering free from personality cults and deceptive charismatic autocrats. 

The era of African strongmen and despots seem to be in the sunset, but this may not be happening as fast as we would like. A new marque of leaders adept at using charisma, personality cults and tribal arithmetic to water down institutions is on the steep ascent. Even though strong democratic frameworks may already exist; there has been limited political will by the leadership to realize full implementation.

 The last decade or so has seen many African countries commendably transition towards multiparty democracy and open up democratic space, however the excursion towards institution building has not been as fast. 

Many African countries have threatened to roll back these gains by the subtle emergence charismatic and manipulative leaders who have used their popularity and personality to weaken institutions and undermine opposition in a bid to avoid any dissenting voices or infelicity with their regimes. Unfortunately; in many cases they have had a generous following of misguided supporters or tribesmen; who they have used to gain legitimacy, sustenance and a soft landing.
L’État cest moi…I am the state:

These are the famous words of a French monarch Louis XIV of France and these words in the simplest translation mean, “The state is me” or “I am the state”.
By saying this, the monarch was making himself the absolute personification of France as the supreme decision maker with nobody to challenge his sovereign authority. He was implying that he was everything in France. He was every institution: the legislature, the judiciary, the enforcement and the sovereign executive. 

This is precisely the Kind of thinking that the French sort to disband with the French revolution that subsequently deposed the monarchy and instituted “The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen”. 

There is almost a direct correlation between autocratic rule and revolutions or coup d’états. And there are stark examples in Africa. There is need therefore for Africa to rise above autocratic and tyrannical rule and continue the march towards the building of strong and independent institutions; if it is to catch up with the rest of the world.

Among the institutions most affected are the election bodies, the judiciary, the opposition, Civil rights groups, the police and the media. It is rare to find free, fair and credible electoral bodies in Africa.
How can you lose an election that you have organized? How can you lose an election which you have single handedly selected the commissioners who then owe allegiance to you and know they can’t bite the hand that feeds them?

And even if your opponents are dissatisfied with the election process and the outcomes, where do they go next to seek redress? To the same judiciary which you have single handedly picked your stooges and cronies?

And suppose your opponents decide to seek their democratic rights by marching in the streets to protest the compromised institutions; you will be waiting for them with the police who owe allegiance to you and are there to do your bidding.

Many African countries are awash with complains of intimidation of the opposition. In any multiparty democracy, the opposition must be free to carry out its mandate which remains crucial in the preservation of democracy. Any government must be closely watched and kept on toes and reminded of its mandate to the people.

The opposition, the media and civil rights movements must therefore be given democratic space to act as a watchdog for the people. Any government that is oversensitive to criticism and dissenting views and seeks to manipulate, obfuscate or intimidate these institutions which are valuable for the conservancy of democracy should be considered an enemy of the people.

It has been a long and painful march towards Africa’s democratic transition. Africa must therefore stand its ground and resist without temerity any regimes that seek to derail or rollback our painfully acquired freedoms and rights. We must not accept to be ethnically or otherwise bifurcated by leaders who seek not what is best for us but rather what is best for them. We must defend our liberties and continue to build strong institutions for posterity.

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