KAgame and African-styled Democracy

The Rwandan leader is in the league of Africa’s irritant dictators,argues AYODELE OKUNFOLAMI

For the past 24 years, Rwandans have known no other president than Paul Kagame. He had been the de facto leader since 1994 when he served as vice president and Minister of Defence before kicking out President Pasteur Bizimungu, and his authoritarian rule will continue for at least five years after winning another landslide election victory. Kagame had won 99.15% of the votes. That result itself is a red flag. It echoes Rwanda’s political landscape where elections are just pageantries where Kagame wins. He had won

with 98.79% in 2017 and in similar percentages in previous elections.

Because under Kagame, landlocked Rwanda has been experiencing guarded, political stability, economic growth and declining poverty levels, the supposed dividends of democracy that is lacking in many African countries, there are calls from different quarters for Africa to craft an indigenous democracy that suites its peculiarities. I have heard former President Olusegun Obasanjo in recent months calling Africa’s adoption of Western liberal democracies a mistake and so canvasses for a democratic model that encompasses the African culture and traditions. I disagree with this notion.

Let me answer Baba. Really and truly, he remains a highly respected African statesman and former president that should be listened to. However, his third term ambition and presiding over the worst elections in Nigeria’s history gives him no moral right to lecture on democratic solutions. Ironically, Nigeria was at its best under him when he embraced western economic prescriptions. So why cherry picking? Why align our economics, religion, medicine, sports, entertainment and other values, institutions and products after the West but disagree with their democracy?

If this doesn’t digress, what exactly are World Bank and IMF recommending for African economies that is unfavorable? What is detrimental in someone telling you to reduce your budget deficit? They are simply telling you to minimize your debts. Is anything wrong in redirecting subsidies from politically popular areas like petrol and pilgrimages to highly economic returns like agriculture and education? When they say you should devalue your naira, they are only telling you to patronize made-in-Nigeria goods. When they say you should privatise inefficient state-owned enterprises, is it not a way of raising needed capital, reducing cost and bureaucracy of governance for increased profitability? Moreover, you cannot blame the doctor or antimalarials if you don’t have the discipline to take the drugs as prescribed, diet appropriately or clean up the mosquito-infested environment that caused the disease in the first place. Like the human body, economies are complex so that medicine that is good for the heart may be injurious to the kidney. So, while trying to lower inflation with higher interest rates, you should be careful not to discourage investment. Are these not the expansive macroeconomic policies that Obasanjo applied in his democratic administration that Nigeria witnessed its highest growth rates in history?

So, if Africans are not seeing any benefit in western liberal democracy, the problem in my opinion is not the system but the practitioners and the solution doesn’t lie in tweaking it to indulge our undisciplined elite or shift grounds to accommodate a melancholic citizenry awaiting a benevolent dictator or accidental messiah.

First, we should perish the idea that democracy is Western. It is not. It is universal. Like formal education cradled in the Middle East, which the Western world is leading today doesn’t make education western. Democracy was conceived in ancient Greece, spread into the Europe, and now propagated by America. Besides, democracy is both elastic and adaptive in nature in that it adjusts to the culture of the people it finds itself. So that Britian may be parliamentary, America presidential while France is a combination of both and there are various variants across the globe, however the fundamentals of free speech, citizen participation, accountability, political tolerance, equality, multiparty participation, human rights, periodic free and fair elections are not compromised no matter the geography. And democracy has found a way to adapt itself to the people of Africa so looking for afro democracy is fruitless. It exists. By gaining independence, we simply say we can govern ourselves our own way. The problem we have is the discipline to abide by the constitution we wrote by ourselves and for ourselves.

Even if we call democracy western and choose to reject it, what alternatives are we proposing? Are we as well looking for alternatives to going cap in hand asking for aids from western donors or vaccines from them or is it only their democracy and economic remedies we are attempting to reinvent? Besides, democracy remains an experiment whose success depends on inputting the right parameters. Also, it is an abstract concept that even the most democratic of nations still aspire to attain.

Unfortunately, the likes of Kagame are poor examples of what an African democracy should be, and I advise we should not be carried away but instead be more circumspect. At a watch party as results were announced, Kagame claimed it was the uniqueness of his political party, Rwanda Patriotic Front, and the Rwandan electorate. Really?! How can a country that still bleeds from the infamous Tutsi-Hutu animosity that led to an unforgettable genocide consistently give its votes to someone on one divide without asking for a balance in power? That is unrealistic. As advanced as America is, their votes still reflect their racial, religious and gender differences and one fractious Rwanda will vote 99% for somebody? Give me a break. Elections that consistently see less than 1% of the electorate voting against you are nothing short of a sham. Even God Almighty had a third of heaven “vote” against Him when the devil rebelled. Mr Kagame, there is nothing unique

about Rwanda, the elections that have been returning you have all been fraudulent. Period.

An election which barred key opposition parties from participating for flimsy reasons of not garnering enough signatures is not democratic and this is where Africa keeps missing it. We are so starved of good governance that we approach democracy by how we elect our leaders, so we tamper with our individual constitutions like Rwanda and electoral processes without embodying the spirit of democracy. It is the other way round. Democracy is not about wanting

 young people willing to protest to listen to the president, it is about the president listening to the people. Democracy is the rule of the people not leaders constantly tweaking how we vote or changing who we vote for.

Rwanda may be doing well economically relative to sub-Saharan countries but that is only the tip of the spear. Firstly, that is an exception, and no one builds a doctrine out of exceptions. Secondly, what we don’t see is that Rwanda is irredeemably indebted to the tune of 76% of its GDP so like its continental peers, she is at the mercy of the West whose liberal democracy they are frowning at. Hence, Rwanda sportswashes by hosting NBA matches for Africa and volunteers to accommodate illegal immigrants ejected from the UK. Kagame has learnt this art to turn away the eyes of the media from all the human right abuses. And since one cannot separate the economy from the ideology of the government, it is just a matter of time before the bubble bursts on Rwanda. Weeks before, Ruto was the toast of the West, today, he is isolated like a COVID patient struggling to breathe life into his presidency.

Rwandans should not be envied; they should be pitied. The likes of Kagame are littered around the continent. Kagame seems to have started well like others, he would soon become like his mentor from the trenches, Yoweri Museveni, who is now an irritant to the Ugandans he has been ruling since 1986. That is the democracy Africa is showcasing to the world. The democracy of Paul Biya, Teodoro Obiang and other museum pieces that gunned their way into power and have placed their boots on their citizens’ necks. A democracy where the political elite enrich themselves with the resources of the land and impoverish its citizens. That is African-styled democracy. We have already experienced it, and we can say it is flawed.

If Africans look inwards, we will find out democracy is not alien. Our traditional kings, whom we regard as deities, have councils of elders to whom they take counsel. It is not different from the executive-legislature democracy that we have imbibed, our problem is both the thrones and the councils have chosen to be unaccountable to the people they are supposed to serve. But as Barack Obama told Christiane Amanpour, “Democracy will win if we fight for it. It is not self-executing. It depends on the engagement of citizens and active mobilization of the people in the belief of self-governance, rule of law, independent judiciary, free press.” No country gets democracy right. What makes nations admirable is that they deliberately and consistently strengthen the various arms of government, opposition parties, impeachments, recalls, media, civil societies, trade unions, protests and other democratic instruments. For the optimum use of our cars, we follow the makers manual. Similarly, for us to make the most of democracy, it is the application of more democracy, not less of it nor surrendering to an adulterated form.

 Okunfolami writes from

Festac, Lagos