Blogging Africa

African leaders in the eye of the storm

Dibussi Tande

2010-03-04, Issue 472

http://pambazuka.org/en/category/blog/62738

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The Chia Report comments on the recent political crises in Nigeria and Niger. He argues that Nigerian President Yar'Adua does not have a right to Privacy when it comes to his health:
“I am all for patient rights and privacy. It is absolutely their prerogative, unless…. There is an exception when you are the Head of State. It is the right of the people to know that the President is fit to govern. If he is not, someone else will step up to the plate even as citizens devote time praying for the sick person to recover. This is the part that African leaders are so lacking in. They have so abused of the goodwill of their people that they know that not a soul of good faith is praying for them. They have become an eyesore.”
With regards to the recent coup in Niger, Chia explains why he is in support of the military:
“Democracy is a work in progress. It is so because one elected official can always undo, by some law, what the previous administration may have thought as completed. Therefore, the work is almost never finished because human endeavor can always be improved. This readily explains the beauty of democratic institutions – that if they are created to serve the society, they outlast our individual mortality and allow for the completion or refining of the work that Mamadou Tandja thought he alone could complete in Niger. No one is indispensable, no not one of us. If it takes the military to remind civilian dictators of this truism in Africa, so be it.”

Jimmy Kainja’s Blog observes the tendency of Africans to deify their Heads of State:
“In Africa elected leaders are still treated the same way as dictators before them; they are masters to be feared and revered: demigods to be praised.

Perhaps African democracies must be allowed time to mature given that it was only in the 1990s that most African countries turned democratic after grueling decades of dictatorship which were preceded by another uncomfortable era: colonialism. This is valid point, and must be acknowledged.

However, the biggest mistake that Africa and Africans can make is to use these past experiences as excuse for the continuing treatment of its leaders or rulers, in this case, as demigods...
Walk in every office, bank, shop or any public building in Malawi and you will be greeted by a flamed picture of the president. It was the case under Hastings Kamuzu Banda's presidency; it was the same during Bakili Muluzi's era, and now it is Mutharika turn.

Malawi is a poor democratic country; its constitution guarantees that there will be a different president every ten years, or five years if the incumbent fails to win their second term; and change is a certainty in the case of death of the president. Now, does Malawi have resources to replace all these presidential faces every time there is a change? How much does it cost? Can the government not use this money for better initiatives? Improve the high poverty and illiteracy rates for example.”

Aloysius Agendia reviews the speech made by President Sarkozy during celebrations marking Gabon’s 50th independence anniversary:
“As stated by Sarkozy, France is now for a relation of total transparency. What kind of transparency with regards to the operation of French companies in the African? For example, the French business politician cum lobbyist, Vincent Bollore, an ally of Sarkozy, practically controls the economy of most Francophone African countries…
What kind of transparency when French banks keep billions of stolen state from Africa? The French government is again squashing court cases brought against some African dictators who have illicit funds and property in the country…
Sarkozy talked of equality and mutual respect. This has never been the case as France continues to show total disrespect for Africans among whom are those who sacrificed their lives to save France during WWII. While Sarközy verbally praised the veterans, French veterans continue to live in total affluence and veneration while African veterans continue to languish in misery. The French men even talked of some Gabonese military men going march-past in France as sign of cooperation.”

Kenyanentrepreneur.com laments about falling educational standards in Kenya:
“There was a time in Kenya when education really was a meritocracy and when it was the ticket for many rural Kenyans into a life of urbanization and “modernity”, but is that still the case today? I think those days ended in the early 1980’s and like everything else when Moi took over, things just started going downhill, including education and including a real system of meritocracy.
When I look at people in my parents’ generation (people who went to places like Makerere or to the University of Nairobi, in the 1960’s, 70’s & some younger ones in the early 80’s) — these people were highly skilled, well trained, they spoke perfect English, wrote well, etc, etc…and I’m sorry, but I think the standards have gone down substantially (look at the writing in the Kenyan newspapers today or even when I get emails from young people in Kenya — they can’t write basic English sentences).
Let’s move on to more serious professions like medicine. Honestly speaking, I would not want to go to a young Kenyan doctor today who was just graduating from the University of Nairobi. I don’t think it’s the same anymore, but there was a time when Kenyan doctors were amongst the best in Africa and could hold their own with other doctors from around the world. I’m not sure if that’s true today.”

Rebecca Wanjiku calls for a new approach when advocating for gender equality the use of ICTs:
“Women don't have to be victims anymore; ten years ago, the story was that women don't have access to this and that, men have the power over this and that, this protocol has not been signed among many other issues.
The growth of mobile in Africa has extinguished many of those myths, women have adopted technology, whether they understand what GSM works or not, they know opportunities in mobile money, they operate call kiosks and some of them charge their phones at a fee...while still at home.
I am always inspired when I go to my village and see how mobiles have opened opportunities, with mobile money, you can sell credit, send money, pay bills at the convenience of your shamba, you just need to be shown how it works.
Women are not victims, we take opportunities when presented, and I think the activism now should be on how to identify these opportunities that women can participate in.”

Scribbles from the Den argues that in spite of their constitutional similarities, a Gabonese-type transition may be unlikely in Cameroon, one of the main reasons being that unlike Gabon, Cameroon does not have an heir apparent or dauphin to President Biya:
“Even though Gabon did not have a constitutional successor to President Bongo, it had been an open secret for at least a decade that Ali-Ben Bongo, the President’s son and the country’s defense minister was Omar’s chosen successor; an heir apparent who had the support not only of the ruling PDG party, of which he was a Vice President, but most importantly, also of the military.
[…]
Unlike Bongo’s Gabon, Cameroon’s constitutional vacuum is accompanied by dangerous political uncertainty with no single individual within government circles standing out as a credible successor to Biya, in spite of the different names being regularly bandied around in official and unofficial circles. Similarly, while any CPDM candidate in a post-Biya election will have an automatic edge over all other candidates thanks to the huge resources at the party’s disposal and to the backing of the military which is also supporting continuity just as in Gabon, there is no one within the CPDM with the clout or network to emerge a credible presidential candidate. Hence, Cameroon’s inevitable guerre the succession, which will instantly etch itself onto the country’s well-known geo-political fault lines, will be worse than anything that we witnessed in Gabon. The result might be a remake of the worse days of the “smoldering years” of the early 1990s with the army playing the determining role by either throwing its lot behind a specific candidate, or why not, taking power for itself…

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* Dibussi Tande, a writer and activist from Cameroon, produces the blog Scribbles from the Den.
* Please send comments to editor@pambazuka.org or comment online at Pambazuka News.

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