No more leaders

I’m really amazed at what we Africans call Democracy. To elect a leader for a number of years seems enough to us. We expect that elected leader to be nice and cater for our problems and issues. When he doesn’t, the most courageous of us get in the street and make noise. The martyrs are then turned into post-mortem heroes. Sometimes, putchists organise a military coup and we are back to step one, that is fight for our democratic rights to choose another politician as leader. I know that the new generation of African leaders means well. Yet we cannot keep on repeating the same errors. This generation of leaders has the duty to create an environment that will foster a sane political debate between the people and the political class. The debate must be direct and crucial issues must be brought directly to the people through referendums. This debate must translate into clear control processes and institutions run by citizens and backed by constitutions. These institutions, run by citizens for citizens and not for politicians I must precise, will set the political agenda and control “in real time” the actions of political representants, not leaders. Africa have had enough leaders already. We need representants now.

Hindering Borders

In his post,  entitled  ‘Le boulet des frontieres’, which I translate to “Hindering Borders”, Edgard Yapo, a journalist from Ivory Coast, argues that colonial inherited borders, eventhough arbitrary, have a negative impact on the African Solidarity. Those borders are existing solely as the reminder of the exogenous and still actual interests of not so long gone “masters”. What are other African states doing to help the brothers of Niger in their bitter adventure with French Areva? (see an article on forbes.com)
The African “un-solidarity” is directly linked to those borders of shame. I agree with him. We think of different yet complementary solutions to this African problem. Here are my commentaries on Yapo’s enlightening views.

Letter to Edgard on African Democracy.

  Edgard advocates in one of his articles ( Le boulet des frontieres ) the birth of a truly independent African civil society.

This would allow the creation of a real African solidarity according to him. Fragilized African States would then rely on the civil society in their struggle for sovereignty in the face of continuous imperialism harassment. I agree with him that a strong civil society is key to such a revival of African States. Yet such a strengthening of the civil society cannot happen if the institutional framework does not permit a better control of governmental action by the people. Edgard in his response to my commentary showed the extent of his knowledge on the question and explained how Education, by producing better trained and knowlegeable Africans, can really help in the coming of that real civil society.

For my part I think that creation of a strong civil society in Africa can be sought for in many different ways. I still believe that a strong civil society which does not have the right tools to express itself is bound to failure. What I mean is the enabling tools for such a movement are to be found and written inside the constitution of the state in which the civil society operates. The « Street » is not an institution. To gather one thousand or a million schooled and smart people in the street does not change anything to the political orientation of a country if the political leaders just choose to be blind or deaf.

I’m sorry to say this but the real battle has to be waged on the constitutional ground. It is in the constitutions of the different African countries that mechanisms have to be set that allow the people to directly set the political agenda. African constitutions have to be rewritten such that the people can, by their own volition, get the politicians to truly represent and fight for their needs. And no, I do not believe that the right to choose a leader is by itself the definition of democracy. It is the ability for the people to control, at any time, their destiny that we can call Democracy. This ability has to be ascertained by constitutions (thus the fundamental law) in the form of institutions or explicitly defined political and democratic processes controlled by the people. Education would be a curse if the people cannot act upon their knowledge. I’m for a move towards direct democracy for the African people.