Democratic Reforms And Accountability

The Arab world is in turmoil and nobody needs a soothsayer to tell that centuries-old monarchies face imminent collapse.

What began as one person’s expression of frustration and anger has turned into a hurricane blowing away once very powerful rulers in the Arab world.

On December 17, 2010, Tarek el-Tayyib Mohamed Ben Bouazizi, a street vendor in Tunis, Tunisia, set himself on fire in protest over the confiscation of his wares and the humiliation that was inflicted on him by a female official of the municipal authority.

Anger and violence flared when Bouazizi died. The violent streets protests and riots over social and political issues that followed forced President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali to flee Tunisia on January 14, 2011. Strangely, Ben Ali had a year earlier on October 25, 2009, won with a landslide at the polls, taking 89.6 per cent of the votes, while three other candidates shared the rest of the votes.

The contagion that has become known as the Tunisian or the Jasmine Revolution has spread to other Arab countries and claimed another casualty, Hosni Mubarak, the Egyptian President who had been in power since 1979.

From North Africa to the Gulf Region, citizens who for years have lived under authoritarian regimes and absolute monarchies are battling their leaders not only for political reforms but accountability — a fair share of the vast national resources that have remained in the hands of a few office holders and members of the royal families.

Incidentally, maybe with the exception of Libya, all these dictatorships are staunch allies of the United States of America. Col Muamar al-Qathafi, the man who has been in office for 42 years and who many see as a benevolent dictator, is in a battle for survival. He is confronting the protesters with brute force which has left many people dead. How long he will continue with the killing remains to be seen.

Some of the leaders who have seen the writing on the wall have started their own reforms, but whether that will appease the angry population is very much in doubt, since it is now or never.

For African leaders south of the Sahara, events up north may seem far away, but the wise among them will begin to realise that just like the Arabs, many blacks will soon begin to question the legitimacy of their leaders who have been in office for years and who have turned political office into dynasties.

Mubarak never dreamt that his rule will come to such a miserable end. At the age of 82, he was still preparing to contest the sham elections his tenure had inflicted on Egyptians until his son, Gamal Mubarak, takes over.

All over the continent there are leaders like Mubarak who have outlived their usefulness but who still cling on to power. The new phenomenon which is gaining ground is the father-to-son craze. Joseph Kabila has done it in the Democratic Republic of Congo, succeeding his father Laurent Kabila; Faure Gnasingbe has succeeded his father Gnasingbe Eyadema in Togo, while Omar Bongo was succeeded by his son, Ali Bongo.

Laurent Gbagbo has ignored the electoral process and defied international opinion to remain in power in Cote d’Ivoire when he should have respected the sovereign will of the people who voted for Allassane Ouattara in the presidential polls.

A former UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, made an observation that Gbagbo’s refusal to concede defeat was a threat to democracy and peace.

“Africa and the world cannot afford such a development because if Gbagbo is allowed to prevail, elections as instruments of peaceful change in Africa will suffer a serious set-back,” Mr Annan told an audience at the Oxford University in a lecture on: “The future of Africa: Challenges and Opportunities”.

He said if there was one area which would determine the direction of Africa’s future, it was the quality of its governance and leadership. Apart from its challenges with democracy, Africa has a bigger problem that has undermined its development.

The quality of leadership is definitely not the best, as most of the leaders on the continent hardly appreciate the problems confronting their countries, let alone have any idea how to solve them. It is, therefore, not surprising that in the midst of abundance, African countries are the poorest in the world.

Apart from South Africa, which was an observer at a meeting of the world’s top 20 economies, African countries have remained in their self-imposed Third-World status, always loudly begging other countries on other continents for basics.

Whoever thinks democracy will solve the continent’s development problems may be making a big mistake. Mismanagement and corruption are the twin evils destroying African countries. Governments have devised ways of siphoning national revenue into private pockets.

So for a country like Ghana which is still fighting poverty and deprivation, it is not strange to see some of the best of vehicles on our poor roads belonging to people without any identifiable sources of income.

Our politics has become a do-or-die affair because political power means an opportunity to pillage, plunder and rape the economy. That is why politicians are able to vow that they are prepared to lay down their lives if that will be the only way to gain political power.

It is only a matter of time when the masses will begin to realise their folly in pledging their lives to a few persons who will turn round to strip them bare of their sustenance. They will begin to realise that while it took almost half of the voting population to bring a party into power, national resources are clandestinely utilised by a few in their hundreds.

It took one street vendor, Bouazizi, to trigger a chain reaction with historical consequences among Arabs. We in Ghana may be happy that we have got our democracy. Very soon, the people will demand good governance and accountability.

What we are seeing today as the phenomenon of the foot soldiers may be the signal of things to come when the masses will begin to demand a fairer share of what belongs to all. They will begin to demand answers to several questions. They would want to know why some of them cannot get a square meal when others have got more than enough to feed their pets from the supermarket.

They would want to know why the classroom buildings are collapsing over their children while others, with no extra effort, can afford fees in dollars for their children. The time will come when they will no longer accept the ‘no money’ excuse because they can smell and see money all around them.

When that day comes, it will take one Bouazizi to trigger events. We could avoid that day if our leaders will be more transparent in the way they handle state resources and improve upon state governance. Otherwise, North Africa may not be far away, after all.