Africa Must Learn From American Democracy
BY CHRIS ONUORAH-(AFRICAMESSAGE)-Barack Obama swept to victory as America’s first black president in the early hours of
November 5. Thanks to the ubiquitous information technology, the outcome of this all-important election was brought home to
billions of people around the world so eager to be witnesses to history only hours after polls closed around the country.
Shortly after Obama was declared president-elect, his opponent, Arizona Senator John McCain called to congratulate his Illinois
counterpart. McCain was very humble in defeat.
“The American people have spoken,” admitted the Republican candidate who had waged a rather vicious campaign against Obama.
And in words that echoed the groundwork of democracy, the 72-year old veteran of many battles confessed to a global television
audience that vox populi was indeed vox Dei. What next for the winner and the loser? What else but the Socratic declaration, you
go your way and I go mine. Obama to clock in at the White House and McCain to do the same at the Senate. Both men will
continue to serve the people in their own different ways.
Herein lies the beauty of American democracy. Herein lies the eternal message that in this life, everything is in a state of flux.
Nothing remains the same. And they toil in vain who strive to change this dictum. Here also, is the one lesson which Africa must
learn from this event which shook, not just the United States of America but the rest of the world down to the foundation.
In Africa, where government is regrettably everything, we must change the way we do business, to borrow Obama’s words. As
the world goes, so must Africa. The millions of Africans who are dancing unabashedly as if they were Americans want no less for
themselves than what has happened to the Americans. Change they need. And change they should get. Change for the better.
Now.
The 2000 U.S. presidential election ended controversially. There were allegations of electoral theft. The world scoffed at the
preacher who seemingly did not practice what he preached. But 2008 brought change in such historical fashion. How many
reports of politically-motivated killings did we hear? None. How many houses were razed? None. How many sore losers have gone
all the way to the Appeals Court to try to reverse the people’s will? A Congressional vote recount here or there is more the
exception than the rule. But that’s alright. Americans can live with that.
But what a far cry from the African electoral experience. Recollections of a losing candidate or his agent taking off with the ballot
box in Nigeria while clearing the way for the grand exit with gun blazing still leaves the skin crawling.
Two days after November 4, the world is still savoring this great supper that took over two hundred years to cook. Even many
African leaders who would never midwife such a smooth transition have joined to sing, “oh, happy day.” But there is a time to talk
the talk and a time to walk the walk. According to observers, that time is now.
In a world since gone truly global, Africa still remains local in many respects. Robert Mugabe continues to cling to power in
Zimbabwe. Paul Biya continues to fiddle with the Cameroonian Constitution in a bid to extend his lease at the Presidential Mansion.
Libya’s Muammar Gadhafi and Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak are in no hurry to quit. And in Sudan, President Omar Bashir continues to
butcher his own poor and defenseless citizens.
Say what you will against U.S. President George W. Bush. But you can never accuse him of holding on to power. In his own
words, the man can’t wait to return to his Texas Ranch. There to put his feet up, ask Laura, “What’s for dinner” while watching
American events unfold on television.
In the minds of many analysts, a lot of African leaders have come to see government as the business. They contend that power is
so concentrated in the hands of the leaders that they cannot envision life without it. For them, power can only shift from the
African president’s right hand to the left, and so on, till death do them part. Indeed, Thabo Mbeki stunned many when recently,
he obeyed his party’s will and stepped down in South Africa. There were those who believe that Nelson Mandela could easily have
stayed on as president for life. But he let go and is today revered for it. The smooth transition of power in Senegal from Diouf to
Wade gave a glimmer of hope to many. But when that glimmer will blaze across the continent remains a question mark today.
The failure of the African political leadership to embrace change has left the continent in a permanent state of retardation. John
McCain bragged about his computer illiteracy. The American voters saw the implications immediately. The millions of young Obama
volunteers and voters helped turn this election on its head. They saw themselves in Obama. Young, cool, fashionable and
technology-driven, he represented the future where McCain stuck with the past. So, out with the old.In with the new.
Africa needs a new group of leaders who are more at ease with their Blackberrys than their walking sticks. The Nnamdi Azikiwes,
Kwame Nkrumahs and Kenneth Kaundas who secured independence for their countries were inspired by Martin Luther King Jr and
the American Civil Rights Movement. The next crop of African leaders must be inspired by the American political process
personified by Barack Obama. Incidentally, Obama is himself the son of an African student who came to America in search of the
proverbial greener pastures and left after fertilizing the golden egg.
The world saw the worst picture of Africa early this year in Kenya, the country of Obama’s late father. In the struggle to grab the
country’s highest job, President Mwai Kibaki and his challenger Raila Odinga slugged it out for months. When the hurly burly was
done, over a thousand citizens lay dead. Many were women and children who were driven into churches and set on fire. Today,
Kibaki and Odinga share power as president and prime minister but at what cost? And to think that Odinga claims that Obama is
his cousin. What lesson would Odinga learn from cousin Obama’s election? That the pursuit of power is not in itself necessarily
bad? That what is entirely wrong is absolute power. Because it will corrupt absolutely.
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