Democracy prospers in other continents, but Africa is yet to enjoy the dividends of democratisation. What could be the cause of the failure of Democracy in our land?
According to the 2009 African Governance Report (AGR II), put together by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), it seems that many of the democracies in Africa are suffering from authoritarian hangover.
Many African countries adopted the system of democracy because it enjoys global endorsement as the best form of government and panacea for development. But it is a truism that development in Africa remains impeded. This is because many African leaders are ignorant, negligent of the philosophical principles upon which democracy was formed. Democracy has failed in Africa simply because African leaderships lack the moral courage to live up to its expectations. Characterised by greed, ignorance and negligence, many African leaders do not practice democracy in the light of the foundational principles upon which democracy was formed. John Locke and other pro-democracy philosophers had based the ideals of democracy on the principles of discipline, tolerance, truth, nobility, restraint, justice, selflessness, self control and equity.These principles have helped Europe and America develop rapidly.
African leaders lack the moral courage to live up to expectation; hence, they easily drift from the path of democracy to satisfy their own whims and caprices, ending up practicing pseudo democracy.
What other reasons could be the cause of the failure of democracy in Africa?
Why are African leaders practising another version of democracy?
According to the 2009 African Governance Report (AGR II), put together by the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), it seems that many of the democracies in Africa are suffering from authoritarian hangover.
Many African countries adopted the system of democracy because it enjoys global endorsement as the best form of government and panacea for development. But it is a truism that development in Africa remains impeded. This is because many African leaders are ignorant, negligent of the philosophical principles upon which democracy was formed. Democracy has failed in Africa simply because African leaderships lack the moral courage to live up to its expectations. Characterised by greed, ignorance and negligence, many African leaders do not practice democracy in the light of the foundational principles upon which democracy was formed. John Locke and other pro-democracy philosophers had based the ideals of democracy on the principles of discipline, tolerance, truth, nobility, restraint, justice, selflessness, self control and equity.These principles have helped Europe and America develop rapidly.
African leaders lack the moral courage to live up to expectation; hence, they easily drift from the path of democracy to satisfy their own whims and caprices, ending up practicing pseudo democracy.
What other reasons could be the cause of the failure of democracy in Africa?
Why are African leaders practising another version of democracy?
It has failed because we the voting populace do not hold our so called leaders whom we put in the helms accountable. Before we vote them into office, they present to us a mediocre developmental plan which has no chance of seeing the light of day and yet we do not scrutinize to bone simply because we condone mediocrity.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, the african politician knowing very well how gullible and sensitive to ethnicity, have divided us along those lines making us to vote along same instead of along developmental lines.
I agree with you Kwabla... Rather than vote for development, many African voters vote for ethnicity and tribal connection. This has impeded the development of many African nations.
ReplyDeleteAgain, I loved it when you stressed that "we condone mediocrity". Indeed this is one of the major reasons why the best individuals don't win elections in our land.
Lack of visionary leaders.African leaders are self centered, they think about their well being not caring about their subjects . This is a great challenge and i believe as young leaders, we're able to bring a new dawn to the face of African and bring about change in terms of freedom of our people and in political arenas.
ReplyDeleteDemocracy is surpose to be standing for its people, systems to develop individuals away from negative media should have been implemented along time ago, however Africa still suffer huge infrastructure problems to compete with other continents. Why people in our countries are shown the cruelties that life offers out there by media, the real stuff we need to learn is only available on the world wide web. The infrastructure I refer to is not only about beautiful buildings in cities, its about free internet for all our people even in remote lived areas. Wifi is the easiest to implement anywhere. It should be freely available communities so that we can break the spell of negative media and switch the switch to what our people should learn and know. How to be independent from current unreliable governments. To be dependent on the self with the use of the web as a possitive media to learn the use of the imagination along with actionable mobility that can make democracy transparent via technology. Lets help our people in Africa.
ReplyDeleteDemocracy failed in African countries because there is no purpose for which we democratized our system of governance. More so, lack of direction and vision. It is also important to note that individually, there is sense of responsibility towards other citizens of ours.
ReplyDeleteAfrica and the world are more theoretical than practical when it comes to Democracy. More so, the general populace should champion Democracy for our leaders to take it seriously. However, Democracy is relative and differs with country depending on its history and the people.
ReplyDeleteTeresa Abila, I agree with you. Africa simply needs visionary leaders. This has been the bane of our underdevelopment. Self aggrandisement of leaderships at the expense of the citizenry has led us to this pathetic condition. But there's hope for Africa as WE ARE THE FUTURE LEADERS. For now, let's keep developing ourselves.
ReplyDeleteConrad van Staden, you've said it all as per technology. Africans need to have access to the internet for learning, and for many other things. We were able to easily connect diverse African leaders because of the internet. And the media plays a major role here. Technology is highly pertinent for our learning and for proper documentations.
Gbenga Odelade, you nailed it... Lack of direction and vision. Did we adopt democracy because the West operates the system? We need democracy... But our progenitors lack the proper knowledge of it; and we will MAKE THINGS RIGHT.
ReplyDeleteSensewell Chingwaramusee, you've wrote well... The general populace must champion democracy is our leaders are to take it seriously. Whilst this is true, I'd like to state that the principles of democracy are the same everywhere. We are underdeveloped - even though we practise the same democracy as the West - because our leaders feel they can invent their own kind of democracy. This is why Mugabe has refused to leave power even at 91. WE must change these things...