As I write this on Sunday, the results of Nigeria’s parliamentary election held on Saturday are streaming in. There is excitement in the newsroom the same way it is felt in all nooks and crannies of Nigeria. Change is here. That appears to be the message Nigerians are sending to the world. For the first time since Nigeria returned to democracy in 1999, people are beginning to feel that democracy is taking root. But it may be early to say. Only time will tell.
But as I write and feel the joyous mood of colleagues in the newsroom, I cannot easily recollect at which point I became interested in Uganda. As a young person, I had learnt that General Yakubu Gowon was overthrown on July 29, 1975 as Nigeria’s head of state when he had gone to attend a summit of the defunct Organisation of African Unity (OAU). I also was told that Nwalimu Julius Nyerere unleashed Tanzanian troops on Idi Amin and chased him out of power in Uganda when Idi Amin became impossible. Amin was to later seek refuge in Saudi Arabia, where he died a few years ago. On Idi Amin’s exit, Milton Obote was returned to power. Somehow that image of Uganda got stuck in my subconscious.
In the 1980s there was much debate about Africa’s future. There were sit-tight leaders. The agitation against apartheid reached a crescendo while the late Moshood Abiola was campaigning for reparations to Africa and Africans in the Diaspora. It was at this time that Yoweri Museveni came on the scene in Uganda.
It was also at this time that Arthur Nwankwo, best known as the publisher of Fourth Dimension Publishers, wrote a seminal book, ‘Africa dictators: The logic of tyranny and lessons from history’. But looking at Uganda, Zimbabwe and Libya today, can one say that the lessons of history have been learnt by dictators in Africa?
As democracy gains ground in Nigeria and in many parts of Africa, it is important to draw attention to the low points of the continent. These are those countries whose leaders have decided to hold their people hostage for several years. I was a about entering university in 1986 when Yoweri Museveni on the platform of the National Resistance Movement (NRM) fought a rebel war from the bush and dislodged General Tito Okello from power. The idea was that his intervention was going to be an interim one while he would return the country to democratic rule. It’s been 25 years on, Museveni has no plans of leaving office neither has he taken any steps to groom a successor.
Robert Mugabe was an impressive freedom fighter, whose Zimbabwean African National Union (ZANU-PF) along with the late Joshua Nkomo’s Zimbabwean African People’s Union (ZAPU-PF), gave the white supremacists tough time. He won the country’s independence election in 1980 largely because he is from the majority Shona ethnic group. Nkomo, regarded as the father of the nation, hailed from the minority Matabeleland.
At independence in 1980, Zimbabwe had parliamentary democracy patterned after the British model. He was prime minister while Canaan Banana was ceremonial president but Mugabe abolished the Westminster model and assumed position of executive president. Since 1980, that is 31 years ago, Zimbabweans have known no other ruler except Mugabe. To make matters worse, he has not made any attempt to prepare the grounds for a successor.
Ivory Coast was boiling until yesterday when Laurent Gbagbo, the recalcitrant defeated president who never wanted to relinquish power was captured. The root of the crisis in that country is traceable to the failure of Felix Houpheut-Boigny, Ivory Coast’s post-independence leader to groom a successor. After he became a life president, he forgot that he was a mortal who would one day leave office.
Under him, Ivory Cost did well as a country. It became the toast of the Western world. The country’s GDP was one of the highest in Africa. The infrastructure was working. The economy was stable. But today all that is in the past. The social situation in Abidjan has deteriorated very badly.
The major task for Alhassan Quattara, who actually won the November 28, 2010 election run-off election now that Gbagbo is out of the way is to win the peace after winning the battle. He has to begin a process of national reconciliation in the country in order to achieve a lasting peace in the country.
Libya is also boiling because for 42 years, Muammar Ghaddafi has been in power without any plan to relinquish power. He empowered his children and other family members. For several years, Ghaddafi sold the world a dummy that his people were in love with him. But the wind of change blowing across the Middle East has brought to the fore the deceit he has fed the world all these years, the lies that brought him sympathy. He no longer enjoys anybody’s sympathy.
It has become apparent that the international coalition fighting to help the Libyan rebels has become wary of intervention in Libya. The rebel group is amorphous, has no clearly defined leadership, no political structure. The rebels can longer be trusted. The talk now is for transition that will see Ghaddafi leave power and hand over to one of his sons who will then implement a transition programme that will usher in democracy.
In all these, the African Union is helpless. But it doesn’t have to wait for any situation to get out of hand before it makes effort to intervene in a country and encourage African leaders who have not done so to embrace democracy. Today Libya and Ivory Coast are boiling. Attention has shifted from Zimbabwe since Mugabe reached accommodation with the opposition group in that country. Nobody is talking about Uganda, where Museveni has emasculated dissenting voices. When that country begins to boil, Africa will begin to run to the international community for help.
Museveni should be encouraged to embrace democracy and leave power when the ovation is loudest. There is no logic in tyranny but democracy holds a lot of promise for all those who embrace it.
