Amidst coups, conflicts and other factors that derail the democratic process, elections in Africa have been capturing worldwide attention for two reasons. First, the process has become complex in most of the countries. There are challenges emanating from preparation of a fool proof list of electorates, conduct of elections in a transparent manner, allegations of rigging, contestants declaring results before the constitutionally mandated bodies do; to name a few, questioning the credibility of the system. Most abhorrent trend has been violation of constitutional norms set for a number of terms for the head of state to suit the interest of the incumbent, ostensibly holding referendums; an invidious process to stay in power.
If the first set of electoral experiences is nonchalantly negative, the silver line is that there are visible signs of unflinching faith in democracy in an increasing number of common people. Despite the economic backwardness, characterised by low indices of human development matrices, most of the countries in the continent shun dictatorship, rule of military junta, and yarn for smooth transition of power and rule of law since they fear that disruption of democratic process has consequences beyond economic and social realms that can lead to civilizational breakdown.
Secondly, many political scientists believe that the continent is a catchment area for experimenting with democracy. Fragile economies, colonial baggage most of the countries still carry and centuries old discrimination which manifest in one form or the other make the region unique. Here, countries had started with rudiments of democracy and any progress from the ultimate base level, will be counted as a positive one.
Africans unflinching faith in the democratic institutions should be inferred and not measured by the current acrimonious developments in some countries. Violence, coups, manipulations by the vested interests to continue holding mantle of power, sacrileges let loose by some vested interests etc have to be construed as trajectories before the roots of democracy get entrenched in the ground. A region not very long ago divided on tribal loyalties, these developments signify a lot. Also, the less played up fact is that some economies like South Africa, Kenya, Mauritius and some of the North African economies are now reckoned as middle-income countries. It is also true that in some of these countries democracy is more vibrant and resilient.
What was Africa decades ago and now can be a trailblazing experience to gauge how democratic values have permeated. That incremental faith in democracy and desire to build institutions that nurture “peoples’ will” should be the motivating factor for sketching the future of democracy at a macro level. Reportage of coups, conflicts, turbulence and electoral rigging are at best negative deviations of the democratic process. Democracy is taking shape in the continent of 1.3 billion people in its pace and velocity to unveil the demographic dividend of this young continent.
Yet, there are recent instances that show how democracy is taking root in some countries. Peaceful elections in Senegal, where the ruling party came back to power with a very narrow margin, smooth elections in Kenya, where keen contests were noticed between two rival political parties, prospect of peaceful elections in Angola, Nigeria, South Africa ( ANC leader’s election) and other countries of varying hues and sizes are shining examples of the success of democratic experiments; of course not to lose sights of the Zambian election, where the opposition came into power.
Undeniably, there were pain points that should not be cast aside. There were efforts in different parts of the continent to perpetuate powers by unconstitutional means, usurpation of powers by military juntas in the sub-Saharan region and other invidious attempts to thwart power from the elected government. They should be condemned at the highest decibel. Yet, there are organized efforts from multilateral organizations like the UN, African Union, regional organizations like ECOWAS to press out such unsavoury developments. Should these organizations think of a different strategy to punish the delinquents other than the much criticised tool of sanctions? There is merit in such arguments since as flagged by www.trendnafrica.com, sanctions fall on the common man. Most often, dictators use this as a ploy to convince the citizens that they are singled out for perpetrating hardships.
To create an ecosystem for building democracy and nurturing institutions, prime importance should be given to education. Development is key to sustaining and building on democratic institutions. Given that most of the small democracies in the region are terribly short of funds for taking up development activities, additional resources have to be generated. Should we not follow what the UN Secretary General vehemently argued: a tax on mining companies including oil majors, who have been hugely benefiting from the recent spiral in prices of fossil fuel. Similarly, such taxes should be imposed on primary goods like Coco, Avocado, Coffee, tea, gold, silver, rare earth etc. which are being brought by multinational corporations in large quantities for processing them outside the region and selling final products at fabulously higher prices. www. Trendsnafrica.com feels that such levies are positive, equitable and fair.
Equally significant is active involvement of Africa focussed multilateral organizations like AU, AfDB, AfCFTA etc for promoting democracy in the region. There is a criticism that these organizations mostly come into operation when there is a breach of democracy and not for nurturing it. No other agency can do that as much they can.
