Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has a special knack for hogging the headlines. When he is not playing kingmaker, he is openly scolding traditional rulers – demanding respect. At other times, he’s posturing as some intellectual power house.
He was at it again this week, declaring that liberal democracy has failed across Africa because it was imposed by colonialists. To replace the ‘failed system’ he proposed something called ‘Afro democracy’.
All the theorising was at an event held at his Presidential Library in Abeokuta, Ogun State on Monday. The theme was ‘Rethinking Western Liberal Democracy for Africa.’
The central point of his argument was that democracy as a system of government has failed to deliver on the welfare and well-being of all the people of the continent because it wasn’t conceived here. He equally questioned whether it sufficiently addresses representation for not just the majority, but also the minority.
For starters, this novel idea was unveiled at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library Complex. This is not an original Nigerian or African concept. Rather it is something copied from the United States where foundations build such facilities for former leaders at locations of their choice. This shows an idea can’t be all bad just because of its source, otherwise Obasanjo wouldn’t have that grand platform to pontificate from .
There’s something rather suspicious about these proposals given their timing. For one, they come rather late in the day for the man and his continent. From 1976 to 1979, he was a military dictator superintending a transition to democratic rule. In that period he oversaw a Constituent Assembly for writing a new constitution and elections that ushered in the Second Republic. From 1999 to 2007, the Western Democracy he now despises enthroned him as civilian President.
Secondly, to suggest that democracy has failed to deliver a better quality of life across Africa is something of a wild generalisation. Perhaps, the former general should stick to drawing such conclusions about his own country which he was privileged to rule twice – the second time under democratic settings where he had every opportunity to make a difference.
Up till 2014 Obasanjo had no problems with the type of democracy practiced in Nigeria because his stock remained fairly high with those who held the levers of power. But his alienation began with the Goodluck Jonathan administrabreaking free from his suffocating yoke. His exile from the power sanctums would be exacerbated over the next eight with the All Progressives Congress’ (APC) Muhammadu Buhari. Now, he faces a longer exile with President Bola Tinubu at the helm.
Could his increasing irrelevance, as well as his failed bid to make Labour Party’s Peter Obi president, be responsible for this new campaign to junk the system of governance we are only getting used to?
Obasanjo said at the Abeokuta event: “The weakness and failure of liberal democracy as it is practised stem from its history, content, context, and practice.
“Once you move from all the people to representatives of the people, you start to encounter troubles and problems. For those who define it as the rule of the majority, should the minority be ignored, neglected, and excluded?
“In short, we have a system of government in which we have no hands to define and design, and we continue with it even when we know that it is not working for us.
“Those who brought it to us are now questioning the rightness of their invention, its deliverability, and its relevance today without reform.”
Read Also: Democracy not working for Africa because it was forced on it, says Obasanjo
Like anything developed by man, liberal democracy has its flaws and failings. But it’s suitability as a system of governance cannot be judged simply because it didn’t originate here. If our desire is that our people have a better life, then it can be argued that this system is much better than what existed before.
Our history is chock full of empires and kingdoms ruled with iron fists by monarchs. The people in many such places were just serfs and property to be sold into slavery for something as cheap as alcohol. These overlords were accountable to no one. Even the poorest example of democratic rule today provides for day-to-day accountability in governance and ultimately through elections at regular intervals.
Across the continent millions have been delivered from these forms of strongman rule. Today, they have the right to vote leaders of their choice and not have someone lord it over them. Surely our former maximum ruler can’t be proposing we reintroduce some authoritarian flavour into what we have now?
The ‘Afro democracy’ Obasanjo just dreamt up suggests that there is something inherently different about Africans that makes Western democracy ill-suited to them. Whatever it is he doesn’t say. He doesn’t tell us what would be retained or dumped from the original and what would be introduced in the new hybrid. But truth is, only democracy in its purest form can be used to harmoniously manage the ethnically diverse countries in Africa.
So, rather than nitpicking and concluding that our problems are down to the system of governance alone, I would suggest our troubles are caused by the managers of our democracy. Obasanjo, for instance, makes an interesting case study.
A man conveyed into office a second time by the constitution and elections, tried his level best while in power to subvert that same constitution. On his watch minorities in states assemblies – Plateau and Oyo – executed dodgy impeachments of sitting government with the security agencies providing cover and Obasanjo looking the other way. In both instances, the judiciary – armed with the power to check an overreaching Executive – overturned the illegality.
The great advocate of ‘Afro democracy’ was scheming again as the end of his second term drew near. Rather than respect the constitutional limit, he began plotting a third term. It was the Nigerian Senate – empowered under our democratic constitution to rein in a rogue executive – that shot down his illegal maneuver.
After being frustrated, he grudgingly started executing the transition by imposing candidates on his party. He hounded his Vice President Atiku Abubakar out of PDP and imposed Umaru Yar’Adua as candidate. The same individual who should have been statesmanly in ensuring better levels of governance and politicking, gleefully declared that the 2007 general elections were a “do or die affair.”
Democracy is not our problem, rather we have issues with those assigned to manage it. Any system that guarantees voting rights, regular and transparent elections, checks and balances in governance, independent judiciary and free press would ultimately deliver a better quality of life for the people, notwithstanding whether it originated from the North or South Poles.
Any system can be used to deliver improved economic conditions for the people where there is vision. The monarchs of the UAE conjured today’s Dubai out of what used to be a desert in fifty years. Although they were despots, South Korea’s Park Chung Hee and Indonesia’s Suharto transformed their countries. What was Obasanjo’s enduring vision for Nigeria or Africa?
When it comes to governing people, he won’t reinvent the wheel with ‘Afro democracy’?. Our problem in Nigeria and in large parts of Africa is impatience. We keep amending constitutions we have barely had time to implement. After the First Republic we dumped the Westminster model thinking it was the wrong fit. Thirty four years after adopting the American presidential model, we are being seduced for another wild goose chase.
If only Obasanjo’s proposal was driven by altruism it would been worth the time of day. But this just sounds like another attempt to discredit whatever is on the ground because he doesn’t control it. It’s just like his erstwhile deputy Atiku proposing a six-year single presidential term after losing the last elections. All these grand proposals are just about the selfish concerns of those making them. They are not the things bothering the average man in Lagos or Luanda.
