FACTS ON DEMOCRACY

Democracy is seen as the “power of the people” or “a form of government that depends on the will of the people,” Democracy is derived from  the Greek words “demos,” which means “people,” and “Kratos,” which means “power.”

Democracy is a famous word also attributed to Abraham Lincon after his Gettysburg Address where he said “that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”

Whether the ancient definition of the Greekians or the modern definition of democracy. all the definitions entail that man must be free to choose and that government is established out of the will of the people and to fulfil the will of the people. Indeed this means that democracy entails equality, rule of law, and the fundamental human right of making choices and a government is responsible to the people who had submitted part of their will towards making society a better place.

 AFRICA

The history of democracy in Africa is always attributed to the colonial masters, however, this assertion is wrong. Democracy was already in existence in some parts of Africa even before the colonisation of the continent. For instance, the Igbo pre-colonial society in Nigeria operated on what was known as a non-centralised system of government which gave room for rights and general contribution toward moving their society forward.

Also, the Other tribes in Africa that have a connection to the practices of democracy before colonialism also include the Ankole Tribe of Uganda and even the Yoruba traditional monarchical system has attributes related to democracy that doesn’t allow abuse of power or dictatorship, also giving room for check and balance.

Since the independence of African countries, the issue of democracy has been under question. As the colonial masters during their different years of control of the African society used their different treaties and policies to merge tribes, giving them different names that they are still called to date.

This fusion done during colonial rule has continuously brought disasters to modern African society. As the traditional democracy of different tribes in Africa collapsed, the European modern political structure of democracy is now being practised by Africans.

WHY DEMOCRACY IS FAILING IN AFRICA

A fundamental principle of the United Nations, African Union, Amnesty International and several other organisations is democracy. These organisations support democracy by advancing human rights, development, peace and security. The United Nation and these other organisations help civil society in strengthening democratic institutions and accountability encourages good governance, supervises elections, ensures self-determination in former colonies, and aids in the development of new constitutions in post-conflict countries.

For instance, the United Nations alone has created all these departments for democracy. “The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Democracy Fund (UNDEF), the Department of Peace Operations (DPO), the Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs (DPPA), the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR)”, and the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women), among others, are among the United Nations organisations that carry out activities in support of democracy.

However, despite all these organisations in African society, democracy is still failing and this is due to several facts. Which includes:

  PRESIDENCY

One of the problems of African democracy lies within African leadership. Some leadership positions in Africa are ruled by dictators. Some of these leaders have been leading their countries immediately after their independence. The right to vote of their citizens has always been crushed by poverty strategies that allow them to bribe the majority or those in public positions that can do their bidding. For instance, some president has been ruling their countries for years and silencing opposition with any strategy possible. Some of these countries are

• Equatorial Guinea

Teodoro Obiang Nguema who is the president of Equatorial Guinea is the longest-serving president in Africa and the second in the world. Teodoro Obiang Nguema took over the country through a coup at the age of 37 in 1979 after overthrowing his uncle, Francisco Macías Nguema. The man has cut off all forms of opposition even after the country moved from military rule to civilian rule in 1982,  he created a political party in 1987 called the Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea (PDGE).

The party has been the dominant party and sole legal party since then. However, the Constitution allows the people to vote every seven years for the presidential seat. Teodoro Obiang Nguema who is still the president has been ruling for 43 years cutting over any form of opposition with several human waves of abuse and the use of subordinates at the senate level. This means that the people can’t vote for the leader of their choice as they are been crippled by the president’s power structure.

• Uganda

   Yoweri Kaguta Museveni Tibuhaburwa president of Uganda who was once referred to as one of the new generations of African leaders when he took over power in 1986 after participating in a coup de tat that led to the overthrown of Milton Obote and Idi Amin has now become one of the major key players in the decline of democracy in Africa with his longevity on the presidential sit and abuse of power. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni Tibuhaburwa has now been the president of Uganda for 36year using a different method of intimidation to cut off the people’s voting power.

 

The ability of these presidents to stay in power for years despite their country’s continuous falling into poverty shows how the presidential sit in Africa now looks more like a monarchical sit as the people voting power to choose a leader keeps getting controlled. Other presidents who have been reigning for a long time in Africa also include.

• Denis Sassou

  is the current president of the Republic of Congo and has been in the presidential position since 1979 making him another one of the oldest leaders in Africa who keeps contenting for the presidential seat. However, since the second Congo civil war, he has been able to solidify his position and silently cut off the opposition. (Congo is now split into two which is the Republic of Congo and the other one known as the Democratic Republic of Congo).

• Paul Biya – the current president of Cameroon has been in the position since 1982.

• President Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea is the only president that has ruled the people of He has ruled for  29 years.

The ability of these presidents to establish a constitution that allows them to contest elections for years without a stopping time for their terms is gradually crippling democracy in Africa.

ABUSE OF HUMAN RIGHTS

    The abuse of human rights in African countries is another issue that is gradually shoving democracy into the grave. When it comes to human rights in African society, democracy is blind and can only see if you are rich, powerful or luckily the social media power comes to your aid.  There are several human right cases of abuse in Africa daily that goes undetected and even when detected with valuable evidence it becomes a dragging and postponing event by the court till the case die off. Shocking human rights abuses can be seen in these African countries and these issues keep making democracy in Africa a failure. Among the African countries with several cases of  human rights abuses are:

• NIGERIA

    The End Sars protest that led to the displacement and death of several people in Lagos Nigeria is one of the open abuses of human rights in Nigeria. At first, the Nigerian federal government disputed its involvement in the killings of several people at the protest ground. However, with multiple video evidence and analysis by various international and local journalists. The Nigerian government later agreed that the military was there but didn’t attack the people even with glaring evidence. Months later panels were set up, the people won in the battle of words however no one was held responsible for the killings.

The hoarding of covid -19 palliatives by the different state governments during the lockdown is another case of human rights abuse in Nigeria. The holding of palliative led to several people starving and even some resulting in people doing the unthinkable. At last, when several people discovered where the palliatives of their states were hidden this led to a wave of people breaking into the warehouse where these food items were stored. However, the disorganized way of getting the foodstuff resulted in the death of many people. Other human rights abuses in Nigeria include police harassment.

• UGANDA

The control of the right to freedom of expression is one of the tactics being used by the Uganda Government continuously on its people. Uganda’s human rights abuses increased to a high level during the 2021 Presidential election. For instance, On January 9, 2021, the government made Facebook deactivate dozens of accounts claiming it was associated with the ICT ministry of Uganda and the ministry exploited “false and duplicate accounts” to increase its support before the elections.

The government ordered the executive director of the Uganda Communications Commission to order telecoms providers to “immediately suspend any access and use” of social media and online messaging platforms on January 12.

 

 

President Museveni had accused Facebook and others of meddling in the voting process. Announcing the suspension, service providers including Airtel and MTN Uganda texted their subscribers. The internet was shut off by the government the same day for five days. This aided  Museveni in winning the election of 2021.

• RWANDA

Rwanda one of the fastest-growing African countries has also been accused of several fundamental right waves of abuse which includes a lack of freedom of expression. Rwanda’s human rights abuse was so much that Amenstry International wrote a letter in June 2022 to the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) against Rwanda’s human rights abuses. The letter also was to make the organisation address the human rights abuses in Rwanda during their meeting that was meant to take place on the 20th of June 2022.

Other factors

There are still several factors that continue to contribute to why democracy is a failure in Africa. The other factors include Corruption, Inequality, lack of rule of law and punishment for the poor why the rich criminals are above the law.

These inconsistencies that call into doubt the legitimacy of democracy in Africa have been made easier by the internet, and at the same time, the internet and other news channels have been used to hide propaganda and spread false information in African society.

Democracy in Africa will continue to be a failure as long as justice, equality, and the rule of law are not upheld.