By Emmanuel Nduka
Former President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, has advocated a system of government he termed ‘Afro Democracy’, for African countries, insisting that the Western liberal democracy has never truly worked as a system of government in Africa.
Obasanjo who stated this on Monday while delivering his keynote address at a high-level consultation on ‘Rethinking Western Liberal Democracy for Africa’ in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, said the Western liberal democracy has not worked because it was “forced” on the continent, a system he said, does not take into account the view of the majority of the people.
The former president described Western liberal democracy as a “government of a few people over all the people or population and these few people are representatives of only some of the people and not full representatives of all the people. Invariably, majority of the people are wittingly or unwittingly kept out”.
He therefore recommended a replacement of what he termed, “Afro democracy” in place of Western liberal democracy, adding that African countries have no business operating a system of government which they have no hands in its “definition and design”.
“The weakness and failure of liberal democracy as it is practised stem from its history, content and context and its practice.
“Once you move from all the people to representatives of the people, you start to encounter troubles and problems. For those who define it as rule of majority, should the minority be ignored, neglected and be excluded?
“In short, we have a system of government in which we have no hands to define and design and we continue with it, even when we know that it is not working for us.
“Those who brought it to us are now questioning the rightness of their invention, its deliverability and its relevance today without reform.
“The essence of any system of government is the welfare and well-being of the people: all the people.
“Here, we must interrogate 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.
“We are here to stop being foolish and stupid. Can we look inward and outward to see what in our country, culture, tradition, practice and living over the years that we can learn from, adopt and adapt with practices everywhere for a changed system of government that will service our purpose better and deliver.
“We have to think out of the box and after, act with our new thinking. You are invited here to examine clinically the practice of liberal democracy, identify its shortcomings for our society and bring forth ideas and recommendations that can serve our purpose better, knowing human beings for what we are and going by our experiences and experiences of others.
“We are here to think as leaders of thought in the academia and leaders of thought with some experience in politics,” Obasanjo remarked.
Corroborating the stance of Obasanjo, Chairman of the Nigerian Young Professionals Forum (NYPF), Moses Siloko Siasia, posited that African leaders are yet to understand the true meaning and mystery of the word ‘democracy’.
Siasia who spoke on Saturday at the African Leadership Bootcamp in Asaba, Delta State, organised by Not Too Young To Lead Africa, noted that democracy which is a borrowed form of governance, has not yielded the desired progression result and growth on the African continent. He expressed concern that those (the West) who “we borrowed the culture” from, are yet to invest economically in Africa.
On China’s massive investments in African countries and the ensuing huge debt portfolios of African governments to China, he said, “China that uses money to wet the appetite of African leaders, do they practice democracy? Why can’t we also learn what is working for them?”.
The NYPF boss said African leaders needs to be well “schooled” to understand the dynamics of western democracy.
