On the Return of Coups to Sub-Saharan Africa
The brutal realism is that in the end, we all must summon the courage to embrace the truth because it is in plain sight with the recent military interventions in sub-Saharan Africa.
Unless we delude ourselves it is now obvious that Western style democracy is inherently unsuitable for Africans and the sooner we accept that the better it will be for all of us.
The other sordid fact is that the same West is happy with the status-quo because it serves their principal goal of perpetual exploitation of the continent in its present state of endless crisis and disorganisation.
That is precisely why they shamelessly use their multilateral means of state coercion such as the United Nations, World Bank, and the IMF for the perpetuation of puppet regimes and systems in the Third World that our contrary to their own cherished values of good governance, even when the so-called victims of the same interventions openly celebrate the ouster of their corrupt and despotic leaders in the streets.
In all these, what we fail to realise is that Africans can still have their “democracy” without copying the Western or American model like Nigeria did hook, line and sinker at monumental cost in governance.
As a matter of fact, even the traditional systems we inherited from our ancestors had elements of democracy within them to ensure effective consensus building.
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We only dismiss them as feudal in pathetic ignorance to spite our faces. Why have the British not fully dispensed with their own monarchy if I dare to ponder?
For centuries, our Emirs and Chiefs consulted widely among their constituents before taking critical decisions at times of war and peace! They did not just rush to war. They had embedded War Councils!
The later point is critical because the sole and most fundamental distinction between autocracy/dictatorship and democracy is the absence or paucity of consultation between leaders/government and the people they govern.
In that respect; is it not abundantly evident that the traditional institutions we inherited from our ancestors met that singular threshold? Why did they have the Waziris, Galadimas and the rest – all of who represented multiple facets of the society and also offered valuable advice to our Kings in the decision-making process?
All we had to do was to modernise the same systems like the Asians did but we failed to do so even when Africa remains the cradle of civilization. And the difference, as it is often said, is clear.
In this unforgiven world, the most damaging injury nations can inflict upon themselves is when their people lack individual and collective self esteem.
That is precisely what is playing out in many African countries, and indeed other parts of the developing world today.
I hope I’ve not bored you.
– Muhammad Al-Ghazali
