Sierra Leone Telegraph: 29 March 2022:
Democrats – individual leaders and institutions – are becoming increasingly concerned about the pace with which democracy is eroding in West Africa. The attendant effect of the military re-emerging on the political scene has made things even more desperate.
The consensus is that power grab either by the ballot through rogue elections, or by the barrel of the gun, constitutes the same threat and must be dealt with in the same way.
Champions of democracy, peace, security and economic growth are therefore working in overdrive to swiftly address this anathema with enduring solutions.
Few days ago, Wednesday March 23, former President Ernest Bai Koroma participated in a West African Elders Forum Strategy Meeting which assessed the current situation and agreed on a number of actions and recommendations.
Following that meeting, and on March 24 and 25, the statesman was speaking about democracy, good governance and leadership at Tel- Africa and the Center for International Policy respectively.
And then yesterday, Monday March 28, President Koroma participated in yet another discussion organised by the Coalition for Dialogue on Africa (CoDA), this ‘High Level Policy Dialogue’ seeks to interrogate the progress and setbacks of democracy in West Africa since 1990 with the objective to understanding its impact and why this system of government continues to face the challenges it is facing in the Subregion.
CoDA is an African Union Special Initiative which is working on a variety of programmes including curbing illicit financial flows from Africa.
Participants at yesterday’s meeting included Nigeria’s vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, former Presidents of Nigeria – President Olusengun Obassanjo and Goodluck Jonathan, former President of Niger, Mohamudou Issoufou and former President of The Gambia, Madam Fatoumatta Tambajang.
The deliberations were conducted on Chatham House Rules.
To many African leaders the word democracy is seen as a fancy word or a tick box exercise never intended to be honoured in it’s true sense , which is government of the people by the people for the people ,rather an exircise to satisfy Western donors and other international financial institutions like the Workd Bank ,IMF , ADB , that keeps propping up corrupt governments that have no intention of meeting their countries economic and political goals for the good of their peoples.And it is in this no man’s land or catch 22 that whole swaths of African populations across the board found themselves.I think this international financial institutions could do more to promote democracy or demand accountability from governments they support .
This uneasy working alliance between international financial institutions and corrupt governments , with opaque agreements and very little in the way of transperency and accountability has been the main factors that have undermine the ordinary man and woman to able to exercise their democratic rights freely with out being compromised .And it is in this void , we see all sort of political malcontents, and freelance opportunists, like Bio , comes along and sell a lie to the people .That they are the answers to the problems facing the country.Stunted economic growth, lack of housi, energy, education, healthcare, good roads , bridges to no wheree ,evenviromental degradation, the abuse of the rights of individuals, lack of free press , undermining the rule of law , no access to justice, divided communities on ethnic and regional lines ,political parties that are divided within , and most importantly lack of progress .
In vast majority of African countries, is the elected civilian governments that creates the necessary conditions that undermined democracy in Africa.The military has always been used as the whipping boy that is blamed for the lack of democracy.If there is no corruption, there will be no political and social upheavals.The real culprits are the civilian political leadership that are not transparent and accountable.