African democracy: experiences and lessons
“If we sacrifice liberty in the name of security, we risk
losing both..”
Barack Obama
This is exactly what happened and still happening in many democratic
experiments in Africa. Since the early 1990s, there have been major
transformations in the political systems in many African countries. These
transformations led, for example, to end apartheid in South Africa, and to fall
several civilian and military dictatorships. All of this paved the way to
establish governance systems based on the rule of law, and the introduction of
democratic reforms. However, many countries on the continent are still
struggling to deepen democracy, and to deal effectively with attempts to
manipulate and jump on these reforms by governments to tighten their control
and ensure that they remain in power for longer periods. Mostly under the
pretext of achieving security.
Ways of transmission in Africa
Although the nature and circumstances are different from one African
country to another, two basic patterns have been identified in the patterns of
transition to democracy in Africa. Transformation occurs from above when rulers
respond to an imminent or actual crisis by initiating democratic reforms, and it
occurs from below when there is increasing popular pressure from people to move
toward a more democratic society. Some argue that transitions from the top are
more likely to deliver democracy, because they tend to be more specific in
terms of their time frame, procedural steps, and overall strategy; While
transitions from below suffer from a great deal of uncertainty. While others -and
we are with them- tend to believe that in many cases the two modes of
transmission are combined; Some cases of regime changing included negotiations
-explicit or implicit, overt or secret- between the government and opposition
groups, and other transitions began as one type and then became another type,
especially if the government was not sure how far it wanted to go with reform.
Whatever method is adopted for transmission; The problem here remains whether
the removed dictators will be replaced by democratic regimes, or by other
alternative dictatorships.
The continent witnessed four models that were used to remove dictators
from office and move towards democracy: These are: national conferences,
popular revolutions, military coups, or the formation of pacts. National
conferences emerged in the early nineties, especially in Francophone countries,
as means of representation, accountability, and consensus formation. It was
held as a result of citizen and elite pressure for public dialogue on the
democratic transition process in countries such as Benin, Mali, Gabon, Congo,
Nigeria and Zambia. In addition, opposition groups in Cameroon, the Central
African Republic, Guinea and Ivory Coast have called for national conferences
in their countries. In some cases, it succeeded in informally reducing or
eliminating the powers of rulers, as in Benin and Togo. These experiences have
shown that these conferences can be viewed as opportunities to define
transition issues, establish accountability, and mobilize a broad segment of
the popular masses. But it did not establish effective democracies. Then
popular revolutions emerged, as in the case of Ethiopia, Burkina Faso, and
North Africa, as well as military coups, as in Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad,
Guinea, Niger, and Gabon, and the formation of agreements such as the Lancaster
House Agreement, the Democratic South African Agreement (CODESA), and
negotiations in Angola and Mozambique.
Africa between elections and coups
By the 1980s; The continent went from fewer than five elections in the
1950s to more than 37 uncontested elections
settled for a single candidate. This was a time for more inclusive and
competitive representation, and citizens began to demand more representation.
The transition from uncontested to competitive elections was not peaceful, with
numerous military interventions across the continent; The decade 1980-1989
witnessed the largest number of military coups in African history. By the end
of the 1990s, many countries had suffered the cost of coups, the rejection of
military coups and opposition parties were increasing across the continent. By
the 1990s; Competitive elections expanded dramatically from fewer than 20 in
the 1980s to 72 in the 1990s as African countries introduced term limits,
reduced presidential terms from seven years to five years or less, and adopted
new constitutions. This trend consolidated at the end of the last decade and
the concept of competitive multi-party elections became common.
While free and regular elections may be considered a constraint on
government tyranny, they remain insufficient to guarantee and guard freedom.
While elections can help African countries consolidate and deepen democracy,
they can also pave the way for majority control at the expense of the minority.
For example, authoritarian regimes in countries such as Cameroon, the Republic
of the Congo, and Equatorial Guinea have used elections to legitimize their
leaders and remain in power indefinitely. While presidents in some countries,
such as Kenya, Liberia, and Ghana, committed to two-term limits; Others used
legislatures subject to the president to change their constitutions to allow
them to remain in power longer, in some cases indefinitely. These changes created
conditions that made it difficult for the opposition to participate
competitively in elections. Among the presidents who changed their country's
constitutions to abolish the two-term limit, for example, are Gnassingbe
Eyadema (Togo), Yoweri Museveni (Uganda), Idriss Deby (Chad), Paul Biya
(Cameroon), Paul Kagame (Rwanda), and the late Pierre Nkurunziza (Burundi). And
Abdel Fattah El-Sisi (Egypt). The constitution in those countries was changed
to abolish the presidential term and/or age limits, and allow the current
president to extend his term by circumventing the constitution, which some
considered a constitutional coup. It is worth noting that relatively weak
institutions and the absence of a democratic culture have facilitated the
ability of incumbents to manipulate constitutions in these countries, and these
constitutional reversals weaken the role of elections as a tool for
establishing democracy. Worse still, in some countries such as: Cameroon or
Gambia; This circumvention of constitutions has contributed significantly to
the escalation of violent reactions by marginalized ethnic and cultural groups.
Notes on the stages of transformation
There were a group of observations on these periods that African
countries went through. Firstly; While many countries have moved from
single-party to peaceful, competitive elections, there remains significant
dominance of incumbents over election results, and this suggests that the
competitive process is not mature enough to deliver the results that these
countries aim to achieve. Secondly; The countries that experienced the
greatest leadership changes were those in which the competitive process was
circumvented, as in Nigeria, Comoros, Libya, Benin, Ghana and Somalia. These
countries witnessed many transfers of power, most of which were due to military
coups. Nigeria leads the group with more than 16 transitions and 6 coups,
followed by other countries such as the Comoros with 5 coups and more than 12
leadership transitions. There are countries like Ghana and Nigeria that have
gone from coups to competitive elections and have never backed down, but rather
continue to improve the competitive process. Thirdly; Countries that
launched competitive transitions shortly after independence -such as Mauritius,
Zambia, and Botswana- successfully maintained momentum and did not experience
coups or other disruptions of power. Whereas countries like Liberia where the
same leader was re-elected ended up having coups before stabilizing again and
returning to competitive electoral processes. And fourthly; There had
been indications that citizens in countries where no truly competitive process
has taken root; They would be fertile ground for popular uprisings, instability
and terrorism. Which actually happened later.
It can be said that there are some experiences that can be learned from
some African countries on their path towards democratic transition. Such as..
Nigeria: Important steps to strengthen democracy
During the 1980s and 1990s, Nigerian military governments used
democratization strategies that were familiar to the region's array of juntas
at the time, such as suppressing dissent and repeatedly postponing elections.
Moreover, Nigeria's abundant oil reserves have provided its leaders with
greater comfort in the face of international pressure for democratization, an
advantage that other leaders in Mali, Guinea, and Burkina Faso lack. Civil
society activism helped achieve a successful transition to civilian rule, and
since 1999, it has had more modest successes in democratization, making Nigeria
a regional role model. Reforms instituted by former President Olusegun
Obasanjo, such as the retirement of all soldiers who had previously held
political office, further distanced the military from politics. Nigerian
officials are also working to develop a culture of power-sharing between
parties, regions and levels of government, and one result has been regional
security initiatives, which reduce reliance on national forces and allow the
state to respond to violence more flexibly. This is not to say that Nigeria's
political landscape is perfect; But at least the instability resulting from
five coups and decades of military rule has been overcome. Nigeria's democratic
institutions are distinguished by their ability to withstand attacks by
militants. Despite the federal government's inability to stamp out the
decade-long insurgency by Boko Haram, Nigerian democracy has endured, in stark
contrast to Mali and Burkina Faso.
Gambia and Ghana: Making concessions with patience may be the path to
democracy
Both countries realized that if an army man found himself faced with two
choices: either clinging to power or imprisonment and perhaps death, he would
be desperate to remain in his position, a risk that should be avoided whenever
possible. In Gambia; Yahya Jammeh was prepared to step down from power after
losing the presidential elections in December 2016, but when the winning
opposition candidate, Adama Barrow, announced that Jammeh would be tried, the
latter’s position hardened and he declared a state of emergency under the
pretext of irregularities that marred the electoral process and tried to
pressure Parliament to extend his rule for three months. International pressure
and regional mediation eventually led to a peaceful handover of power. Jammeh
originally came to power after a coup in July 1994, and such a situation cannot
be dealt with through policies of revenge, which the opposition hastened to
talk about canceling Gambia’s withdrawal from the International Criminal Court,
refusing to grant the former president immunity from prosecution, and even
threatening to seize his assets. . Concessions were made at first; However,
this did not prevent the victims of Yahya Jammeh's regime from asserting their
right to bring him and his main accomplices to justice later, as they formed a
coalition seeking to strengthen the voice of the victims in the transition
process, and help the Gambian government recover Jammeh's assets. In Ghana,
John Kufuor, leader of the New Patriotic Party, refused to boycott the 1992 elections,
the first election that the country witnessed following the adoption of the new
constitution, out of his conviction of the necessity of his party’s future
participation in the 1996 elections, despite his prior knowledge of the
possibility of its loss. But Kufuor's subsequent victory in the 2000 elections
led to a peaceful transfer of power through the ballot box. Kufuor was
convinced that power could not be wrested from the grip of Jerry Rawlings, who
led two successful coups during his 20 years in power, without a policy of
patience.
Conclusion; In the end, it becomes clear to us that all
experiences of democratic transition in Africa are similar, with all their
obstacles and successes. In the end, all of these countries share roughly the
same political, social, and economic conditions as well as historical
experiences. Even the countries of North Africa, which some are trying to
separate from the countries of sub-Saharan Africa; Under the pretext of
different circumstances and experiences; However, in the end, they belong to
the same continent and suffer from the same conditions and challenges. In order
to strengthen and consolidate democracy in Africa, real reforms are needed. The
specificity of each country is taken into account, taking into account what we
concluded by presenting some experiences. On the one hand, the state’s
possession of its capabilities is one of the most important pillars of these
reforms. On the other hand, the removal of military institutions from politics.
On the third hand, strengthening civil society so that it can hold governments
accountable and influence the future of democracy on the continent. On the
fourth hand, adopting long-term policies with little tolerance. -Temporary- for
some rights may be useful sometimes; As Nelson Mandela said: “Power is not just
what we say and do, but what is not said or done, what we willingly leave
behind, and what we ignore.”..
Sobol Magazine
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