Presidents for life aren’t such a bad thing?

Conventional wisdom in the West has it that national leaders should step down after one or two terms. But the African democracies that are currently thriving – such as Zambia, Malawi, Tanzania, Ghana, Kenya and Senegal – all started out with presidents who ruled for at least 18 years. These long-serving leaders bequeathed “peaceful transitions” leading to stable democracies. But those African countries with leaders who did “the right thing” and transferred power within a few years to a democratically elected government, often met with disaster. Former Ugandan president Yusuf Lule, for example, was voted out in 1979, and the result was a series of military coups and civil war. Sierra Leone, Somalia and Liberia had similar experiences. Traumatised by colonialism, African nations seem to need the stability of a single ruler before multi-party democracy can take root. Long-serving leaders and democracy “are not mutually contradictory – one seems to lay a foundation for the other”. (Andrew M. Mwenda, The Independent, Kampala)

The reason the post-independence rulers ruled for so long was that they were regarded as “fathers of their countries”, and this gave them the status to overide powerful tribal interests. African commentators still go on about the trauma of colonialism, but “winner take all” tribalism is much worse, and chronically corrupt as well. Despite the colonial trick of favouring small tribes in government, colonial power did offer a peaceful interlude, with some economic development, before the country resumed its tribal bickering with the colonialists gone. The effectiveness of the “fathers of the country” was a blip in the history of the continent. Corruption and coups are its natural state.

One Comment

  1. I’m doing a module on African history and politics right now, so hopefully my comments will be somewhat accurate:

    The premise that what works for the West won’t necessarily work in Africa is certainly a good one. Ideas of democracy, human rights and the rule of law are all Western ideas, with few historical roots in Africa. That doesn’t mean that African states shouldn’t aspire to eventually adopt those ideas, it simply means that they may have to be moderated in their implementation. In European history, we see the danger of societies adopting systems too advanced for them at the time; the collapse of the Weimar Republic was partly due to the fact that proportional representation and frequent elections resulted in weak governments, contrary to the Prussian tradition of a strong executive. At least in the short term, a compromise between Western-style liberal democracy and the ‘strong-man’ model of leadership in most African ethnic groups may have to be adopted, however unpalatable to Western tastes this may be.

    Having said that, there ought to be a clear distinction seen between the ease of policy implementation and the effectiveness of the policies themselves. Just because a policy was enacted without much opposition doesn’t mean that it was the right thing to do. For instance, after apartheid, the ANC, being the ‘fathers of the country,’ implemented a program of affirmative action- the so-called black ‘economic empowerment’ system. Due to the fact that whites are vastly outnumbered by blacks, the program was not met with much resistance and is implemented effectively. But it has failed to close the racial disparities in economic wellbeing. It has also created resentment amongst whites who quite rightly say they are discriminated against.

    Going forward, I think it will be a very long time before the majority, or even a small minority of African countries adopt Western-style democracy. This is because every structure of civil society is seen differently compared with Europe: religion, the role of the family, human rights and responsibilities, notions of nationality and ethnicity, the role of children, gender roles, sexuality etc… But given the failures of Western democracy to respond adequately to terrorism, climate change, migration, economic crisis, and other such issues, maybe this isn’t such a bad thing. It may seen hopelessly utopian now, but I genuinely believe Africa will teach Europe lessons in good governance in the decades to come, especially given that their economies are booming, whereas ours are in relative decline.

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