Re: One of Those Third-World African Dictatorships

It was not an exceptionally brilliant column, but it was readable and sometimes even revealing. Writing under the caption “Another day, another political scandal” in the May 18, 2013 edition of the Ottawa Sun, journalist Anthony Furey catalogued a few unfortunate scandals involving some top politicians in the country, and asked: “what the heck is going on with our politicians? Which ones can we trust? Why the constant scandals ?” From the controversial living expenses claims by Senator Mike Duffy to Toronto Mayor Rob Ford’s crack cocaine smoking allegations, and even to the dolling out of $90,000 by the Prime Minister’s Chief of Staff, Nigel Wright, to Duffy, the political sphere in Canada is understandably topsy-turvy. The events culminated in the resignation of the Chief of Staff while the PM was away in Peru for trade talks.

I love Canada; it is home to many of us who left home in search for another home. And frankly, the sojourn has not been disappointing, even if the gains have not been particularly noteworthy. So, you expect your new neighbours to treat you and your origins with some respect, however chequered and corrupt your history might be. Yet, overwhelmed by the political scandals in a country that now belongs to all of us, Furey seeks to find solace in a needless comparison, by asking: “Is Canada one of those third-world African dictatorships?” He goes on to dignify his own question with an answer: “No. At least[,] not to our knowledge. Simply put, this isn’t the way it’s supposed to be.”

Well, to Furey’s discomfiture, dictatorship is not supposed to be the preferred political reality in Africa or any part of the world. There are, however, traces of subtle dictatorship in any government, particularly in advanced democracies where a selected group speak for all of us–willy-nilly. That is why we feel so betrayed when our elected officials let us down. And Furey has more than a good reason to call for “genuine outrage from the public and anyone in the political sphere who believes in what they’re doing.” True, Robert Mugabe has held on for too long, and I would not contest any harsh description of him as a despot, a political dinosaur, an autocrat or a silly septuagenarian. True, Paul Biya has been at the helm in Cameroon for too long, and is messing up his good country. True, Ghadaffi ruled Libya for way too long and had become a tower of fear and intimidation over his people. Kill him in 14th Century Babylonian tit-for-tat style?

It is also true that Margaret Thatcher would have held on much longer in Britain if she had not lost her Tory leadership. Tony Blair (my favourite PM, even after Iraq) won three democratic elections and was in charge for some 10 years. Stephen Harper was elected in 2006. If he wins the next election against Trudeau, he would have done a good number of years as PM. Yet, an African president who finishes two four year terms has already been in power for too long. And sadly, even though most democratic African countries lament that a total of eight years is not enough for any government to prosecute their agenda, we are so scared to amend our constitutions to extend the term from four to five years. We descended on Nigeria’s Baba Obasanjo when he was alleged to have made a suggestion for a third term. We are so eager to add to our democratic credentials by imperfectly transplanting governance models that we don’t seem well prepared for. While these models are the best on the market, we should not jettison values we hold dear just to look good in the eyes of observers. Africans should be bold enough to kick away popular prescriptions and institute measures that directly speak to their problems and aspirations as a people. That, in fact, is what democracy is all about.

We are presently contesting the results of our last elections in court, making the business of governance uncomfortable and scaring investors away. We have comforted ourselves that it is the right thing to do, because the alternative would be butchering one another with machetes and sticks. We have also managed to convince one another that the novel court process will strengthen our democracy and help expose systematic problems in our general and parliamentary elections. So, while we play to the cameras (literally stuck to our TV’s and radios everyday) other countries have been quick to compute the cost of such a protracted court process and moved on with serious governance. There was serious fraud in the last elections in Canada, too. Supporters of the incumbent got access to the voting information of identified opposition voters, and fed them with false polling station addresses, fraudulently disenfranchising a mass of people. How did Canada deal with this? With urgent dispatch, a judge ruled that the fraud was not weighty enough to overturn the results in those constituencies. Promptly, life is back to business.

Deservingly, we have received some commendations from some advanced democracies, notably the United States, who thinks we are doing a great job with our democracy. Do we need these shoulder patting gestures to know we are doing the right thing? When it is not a patronising handshake, it is subtle or even direct slap in the face, like Anthony Furey has done. The semantics of Furey’s description is as bad as the pragmatics of it. Let’s pick and analyse the individual words and phrases in the pejorative submission: The phrase ‘one of those’ is offensive and insulting. A member of the British royal family publicly apologised when she described a certain race as ‘those people’. It suggests there are too many to count or miscount; an irrelevant mass whose reference is only necessary because it serves as a foil to a certain ideal. Even when they fail to honour their own promises, nobody ever talks about ‘one of those’ G8 member countries. Every one of those third-world African countries is a sovereign entity with a president and a heritage.

Africa belongs in the third world. Not one country on the continent is on the ‘cusp’ of development, a category reserved for India, Brazil and a few emerging economies. Resources abound but the people have not been able to turn them to their advantage. The reasons are now all too familiar: corruption, mismanagement, cronyism and illiteracy. These are not peculiar to Africa. Furey is upset to write about official graft and sleaze in Canadian public service, but he feels no restraint pouring out his frustration on Africa.

To be fair, Furey’s suspicions are not exactly unfounded. A few months ago, it was reported that the total amount of money in the coffers of the Zimbabwean government was less than $300. Liberia’s Ellen Johnson Sirleaf’s government is a family business, with three of her sons in juicy positions. Equatorial Guinea has the same per capita income as former colonial power Spain, but most of the less than 1Million people are poor. The president’s son, Teodorin Nguema Obiang Mangue is a big spender who is alleged to have bought seven life-size statues of Michael Jackson, and even the gloves Michael wore for the 1986 Bad Tour. Maybe, Furey deserves a medal for his efforts.

Kwesi Tawiah-Benjamin, Orleans, Ottawa.

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