THE STATE OF AFRICAN DEMOCRACY: PROSPECTS AND CHALLENGES
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THE STATE OF AFRICAN DEMOCRACY: PROSPECTS AND CHALLENGES
CHAPITRE ONE
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
In our historical and contemporary experience, Africa politics has various distinct elements, including colonialism, nationalism, independence, military control, transition to democracy, and consolidation of democracy.
Colonial dominance of African countries began officially with the rush for Africa at the British conference 184/1885, when Africa was partitioned among various zones of influence by colonising states. Britain, France, Portugal, Belgium,
and Germany are all represented. Various types of colonies assimilation and association were utilised during this period in the French colonies indirect rule was managed by Lord Lugard a British colonial strategy Belgium and Portugal used distinct types.
Africa was conquered and placed in a submissive position in the mainstream of political activities during this time period. This led to discontent and a struggle for self-rule and independence by African nationalists, who, in the words of Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah, “seek ye first political independence, and all other things shall be added unto you.”
Colonial policies marginalised educated elites in Anglophone West Africa. In the Gold Coast, the Aborigines Rights Protection Society was created to represent the interests of the undeageans. In the early nineteenth century,
the National Council of British West Africa (N.C.B.W.A) was formed. All of these conflicts resulted in numerous African states gaining political independence in the 1950s and 1960s.
Ghana was the first country in Sub-Saharan Africa to win political independence in 1957, followed by Guinea in 1958 and Nigeria in 1960. Between 1957 and 1963, 32 African countries obtained political independence, with the most recent being South Africa in 1994-Liberia, Egypt, and Ethiopia.
Nothing changed after independence, according to professor Soj Ojo, who described the situation as “frustration of unforeseen hope of independence.” The situation in Africa was a Neo-Colonial contradiction grounded on a shaky foundation and disarticulated structure inflicted by Neo-Colonialism and imperialism reign produced by internal collaborators and indeageneous Bureaucratic bourgeois.
Our political elites lacked the necessary knowledge of good governance and leadership, which resulted in corruption, Absolutism, aliases of public offices, Tribalism, aesthetic conflict, and political regrettable stories of Africa, beginning in 1952 when King Farouk of Egypt was overthrown,
there was a small gap until January 1963 when a group of soldiers assassinated Congo-Brazzaville was toppled by the military in 1963 (August) Beni Nigeria in January 1966 and Ghana in February 1966, respectively.
The increasing militarization of the continent’s polities resulted in various types of instability and the use of civil war as a means of settling political disputes. Reality teaches us that the only way to escape this insecurity and instability is to accept the wave of democracy,
which is viewed as a rocket carrying a warhead to its goal, namely the development of African countries. We must embrace democracy while rejecting authoritarianism and military authority.
Prof. George Nzongola was optimistic about the future of African democracy. He stated, and I paraphrase.
“Since 1988, the people of Africa has raisen to replace one party and military dictatorship will Multy Party democracy from October 1985 in the street of Algeirs, this new social movement for democracy has manifested it self all over the continent than going the rule of Political game and bringing about meaningful reform in the institution in the post colonial State”
He was not alone in his confidence; other African Scholas have also spoken of Africa’s “sarging tide of democracy.”
South Africa’s democratic transition in 1994 bolstered this seemingly irreversible march, which was recognised as a key characteristic of the African Renaissance (Mbeki, 1991).
Over the last few decades, Africa has seen firsthand the difficulties of establishing long-term and representative democratic institutions based on popular will. From one point of view, several African countries have successfully transitioned from military dictatorship to democracy.
On the other hand, the incapacity of some African states to transition from military to democratic rule is cause for great concern. In some cases, incumbent presidents refuse to hand over power to their successors; however,
against this backdrop, some substantive members of countries, including regional powers such as South Africa and Nigeria, have succeeded in holding legitimate elections and moving a heard to address issues of democratic consolidation.
On the other side, recent decades have seen tragic examples of state failure in countries such as Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
We can categorise countries in the new Millennium into three groups based on our experience: those undertaking genuine transformation, those adopting the form but not the substance of democracy, and those that have not experienced any significant democratisation process.
The looming question is why has one state performed better than the other. What democratic model is effective in Africa? African leaders, have you converted democracy into good governance?
Has democracy resulted in social, economic, and political progress?
How effective is democracy in tackling Africa’s development crises?
Lucia Dye highlighted four crises: legitimacy crises, identity crises, distributing crises, and participatory crises; has democracy “delivered the good”?
The Analyses of the State of African Democracy include what I refer to as the “three wheres”–an answer to the following question.
In retrospect, where are we coming from?
In actuality, where are we now?
Where will we go in the future?
This indicates that the process of democratisation in Africa is continuing and defies facile generalisation. The truth is far more complex and diverse.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The following puzzles will serve as our guiding concepts in this research.
(a) While most African states find it relatively easy to democratise, one of the great issues of the twenty-first century is how to consolidate Africa’s democracy.
(b) Most African countries have failed to convert democracy into good governance, which has become a standard of worldwide best practices among developed countries.
(c) Most African countries continue to struggle to hold free and fair elections, which are essential for transitioning from civilian rule to concrete democracy.
(d) African leaders acknowledged democracy but rejected its principles, culture, and values.
(e) Most African states have failed to provide the dividend of democracy to their inhabitants. This is a big topic in the twenty-first century.
(f) Why has the African Union been unable to demonstrate and express commitment and resolve to Libya’s desire and hunger for democracy?
1.3 AIM OF THE STUDY
The following goals are intended to be met by this work:
(a) Assess the current state of African democracy and its prospects for the future.
(a) To investigate some of the issues confronting Africa’s democratic experiment as they relate to the behaviour of some African leaders towards their citizens.
(c) It also investigates how South Africa, the best country in Africa to achieve political independence, managed to take the lead in terms of democratic consolidation and performance in Africa.
(d) The study sketched out what has to be done to keep and sustain democracy in Africa in light of the challenges of development in the twenty-first century.
1.4 THEORY OF THE FRAMEWORK
In this paper, we shall use system theory as our analytical framework. The system theory is based on biological and technical principles. It emphasises the working mechanism of a goal attainment setup.
In political science, system theory is connected with David Easton, who used it to describe how political systems work and interact. According to Easton,
the political system occurs alongside other systems such as the biological, social, and psychological systems. However, the political system is where authoritative binding decisions are made.
The following are some fundamental principles linked with the Eastonial Model: INPUTS, CONVERSION, OUTPUT, AND FEEDBACK.
Another crucial reason for system theory is the existence of structures that fulfil some function or “Roles.” Each structure must be isolated or diffracted in some way. The political system performs two primary functions: INPUT and OUTPUT.
Interest Articulation, Interest Aggregation, Political Recruitment, Political Socialisation, and Political Communication are some of the input functions. The output functions are rule creation, rule implementation, and rule adjudication.
All of these are necessary components of a democratic process that entails the integration of multiple interests into decision making and decision implementation in order to achieve system goals.
1.5 HIPPOTHESES
The following assumption underpins this work.
(a) There is a link between free and fair elections and democratic consolidation.
(b) African democracy is built on shaky ground due to a lack of democratic culture, which is typically associated with democratic practices.
(c) The proclivity of some African leaders towards democracy has been a source of conflict and instability in various African countries.
(d) There is a link between democracy and both political stability and political instability.
(e) There is a connection between democracy and national economic performance.
1.5 LIMITATIONS/SCOPE OF THE STUDY
There is so much material on the state of African democracy, its prospects, and challenges that it cannot be adequately analysed in a few words. As a result, we will limit our scope of study to two African countries, South Africa and Nigeria, in terms of good governance, election management, and development.
1.7 DEFINITION OF TERMS
To enhance our understanding, the following notions will be operationalized throughout the task.
DEMOCRACY: The origins of democracy may be traced back to the Greek City State of Athens, which dates back to 555 BCE.
Direct democracy and indirect democracy (reprehensive democracy) are the two types of democracy.
Direct democracy entails the direct parturition of all adults who have been determined to be capable of making logical decisions. While indirect democracy is a representative form that is adopted in the majority of modern states.
Various scholars have defined democracy, for example, Abraham Lincoln characterised it as government for the people, by the people, and for the people. Appadorai (1975) defines democracy as a type of government in which the ruling authority of the state is legally placed in the chamber of a community as a whole rather than one particular class or classes.
DEMOCRATIC CULTURE: This refers to the most desirable and accepted way of life in modern times. They are the values that guide the democratic process, and they include free and fair elections,
fundamental human rights, brotherhood, the supremacy of the rule of law, representative government, tolerance of competing viewpoints, rationality, and openness.
DEMOCRACY IN TRANSITION AND CONSOLIDATED DEMOCRACY
There are distinctions between transition to democracy and established democracy. The transition to democracy emphasises the end of authoritarian rule. It entails overthrowing an autocratic regime and instituting a democratic regime.
GOOD MANAGEMENT:
The term “good governance” proudly embraces all aspects of how a country is governed. Several aspects of good governance are governed. Participatory, consensus-oriented, accountability, transparency, responsive effective, efficient, equitable, inductive, and rule of law are all characteristics of good governance.
Wanyene (1987:80) defines election as a method of making a choice that is fair to all. A free and fair election gives a true platform for conflict settlement and transformation outside of the battlefield, without killing.
CONFLICT: In a relationship, conflict denotes disharmony, antagonism, or animosity. For comes as a result of conflict between the objective pursued and the means utilised to achieve it. It is one of the cash products of interest in a relationship. Conflict causes political instability in a country.
1.8 THE METHODOLOGY
We relied on secondary sources in this investigation, which included a review of textbooks, internet material, articles, journal and news items, and so on.
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