Former President Olusegun Obasanjo declares that western democracy has failed to function as a desirable system of government in Africa
During a conference held recently at the Olusegun Obasanjo presidential library in Abeokuta, the capital of Ogun State, former President Olusegun Obasanjo posited that western democracy has failed to function as a desirable system of government in Africa. He adduced this to be because, rather than being an intrinsic, home grown system, western type democracy is a colonial imposition. He then surmised that, “Africa has no business adopting a system that it played no part in designing”.
At the conference whose theme was “Rethinking Western Liberal Democracy for Africa” The former president defined Western liberal democracy as a “government of a few people over all the people or population” that neglects the views of the majority. This governance system was designed without taking African history and multicultural complexities into account, he added. The conference itself was held following the spate of military “take over’ in a number of states in west and central Africa.
The resurgent political instabilities being experienced in many African states is adduced to the failures of democratic leaders to perform. This in turn is fueling military coups. In the last three years, eight coups have occurred in West and Central Africa, the most recent being in the former French colonies of Niger and Gabon.
“We have a system of government in which we have no hands in defining and designing, and we continue with it, even when we know that it is not working for us,” Obasanjo said, In the place of the obviously failed colonial imposition, Obasanjo proposed what he called “Afro-centered democracy “, a system which he said should be” tailored to the needs of the continent . Digging in, President Obasanjo questioned how well the liberal system has even performed in its home domains, “We must interrogate the performance of democracy in the West – where it originated from – and with us the inheritors of what we are left with by our colonial powers,” he insisted.
Obasanjo first served as the military head of state of Africa’s most populous nation from 1976–1979 before becoming president of the civilian administration from 1999–2007. Nigeria transitioned from military rule in 1999. But after seven general elections spanning 25 years of “democracy”, the longest period the country has experienced uninterrupted democratic government, since its independence from Britain in 1960, the appraisals of many is that the system has failed to meet its touted values. More damning is when the “get rid of” appraisal is coming from non other than Olusegun Obasanjo, a man who undoubtedly, is the biggest beneficiary of the “dividends” of Nigeria’s democracy.