Under-development, Bane Of Africa’s Democracy

‘’Even when people are allowed to participate in a free and fair election devoid of any electoral malpractices, there is every tendency that the people would chose the wrong candidate’’

Someone might have asked you, or you may have been asking yourself, that if democracy means all the theoretical, institutional and behavioural dimensions that is usually written in books, why is it that, not every country in the world where a democratic government exists operate democracy successfully like it is written?

Especially in Africa, democratic governance is not a stable feature of our society, but rather, an episodic phenomenon.

Study has shown that, there are many reasons why Africa especially have proven incapable of operating stable and successful democratic governance. Some of those reasons include, economic underdevelopment and mass poverty, centralization of economic and political power, corruption in its various forms and manifestations, and negative historical precedent.

For the purpose of this article, the concentration shall be on economic underdevelopment and mass poverty, which I believe are the result of corruption and negative policies.

It has been established that, the main feature of underdevelopment that acts as a barrier to democracy and good governance, is the fact that, economy of underdeveloped countries are structurally linked with the economies of the advanced capitalist countries in such a way that, the economic activities in the underdeveloped countries produce beneficial and positive results in the advanced countries while creating poverty, misery and negative results in the underdeveloped countries.

Example can be seen in the Nigerian Oil sector, where Nigeria's crude oil is transported to foreign countries to their economic benefits, but return back to Nigeria in exploitative form, thereby creating scarcity and misery, which eventually leads to fuel subsidy which has crippled multimillion small and medium scale businesses over the years, as well as created massive poverty, massive corruption in oil sector and all sort of negative examples too numerous to mention. It is in this sense that some scholars from developing countries speak in terms of ''the development of underdevelopment''

Studies have also shown that, the above expression simply means that, as the underdeveloped countries try to improve their economic conditions, their situation gets worse or to use another expression in the negative indices of development that they seek to improve become deeper and more far reaching. It is therefore not surprising that such countries of which Nigeria is one, can hardly operate a stable democratic government, but have to move constantly between democracy and authoritarian rule. This ensures that, there is a dysfunction between the goods produced in our country and the goods consumed by our population as well as problems like low life expectancy, incapacity to respond to natural calamities such as the recent floods around the country.

How Nigeria democracy is weakening?
The economic system introduced in Africa by the Europeans was extroverted. Extroversion simple refers to a situation where producers/government officials have their attention fixed on the outside rather than on their national market. Roads/sea ports in Africa were directed more at Europe and America than on our national territory. This situation ensures that every valuable resources, be it mineral, man power, intelligent citizens and historical/ancient valuables are transported abroad. The uneven nature of European activities in Africa produced some core area of influence and affluence existing in precarious relationship with the vast periphery of rural areas.

Another area to understand is education. The kind of education introduced to African countries in the colonial era is aimed at producing black European gentlemen rather than well trained engineers and technicians, but till date, most African countries including Nigeria have been unable to shift away from the education of being just a gentleman, to an education which is aimed at national transformation. Education, which not just conceive European based policies but a truly indigenous policy that can actually work and produce the right result needed to be implemented in Africa.

This economic idea also allows advanced countries to impose their own policies on the underdeveloped countries by the use of unfounded, partial and often misguided policies and theories. An example is the removal of the fuel subsidy championed by the Nigerian Minister of Finance, Mrs Ngozie Okonjo Iweala, who claimed that it was inevitable to the economic stability of Nigeria, a policy which was clearly improvised and is having negative effect both on present and future well-being of the citizens. The subsidy situation came about due to corruption, and without tackling the root cause, has ensured there can never be any progress.

Other studies have pointed that the devaluation, economic liberalisation, removal of subsidy etc. can be shown to promote economic growth and development in some particular western countries, but their blanket application to underdeveloped countries, like Nigeria, in general helps to keep them impoverished. Where a large number of people are poor, illiterate, hungry and sick, the practice of democracy is rendered virtually impossible for such a situation, many people are so concerned with meeting their basic needs for food and shelter that they care more or less about political participation. And even when they participate in the political process, their sole aim of participation is to acquire monetary benefits from both established and aspiring politicians. In a situation where an aspiring politician with sound mind,realistic blue print to tackle challenges in the country declare to contest in an election, such politician must back up his good ideas with immidiate financial benefits to the electorates, else, he shall fail woefully. The first motive of most electorates in participating in elections in Nigeria is financial gratification.

In such a situation, even when people are allowed to participate in a free and fair election devoid of any electoral mal-practices, there is every tendency that the people would chose the wrong candidate who doll out the required cash.

The relationship between economic underdevelopment and democracy and good governance was shown to be as such, as the forces of production of a society grow, the society is able to accumulate more surpluses from the labour of its members. This surplus value extracted from labour over time makes some societies wealthy and capable of dominating others. When such domination is directed mainly at acquiring private economic gain, then a relationship so established becomes an imperialistic relationship, thereby creating wealth and prosperity for the advanced countries and poverty and underdevelopment for the developing countries. And such poverty and economic underdevelopment stands as a major barrier to the growth and development of democracy in the world.

History have it that, since the 19th century, most African countries have been held in a structural relationship to the countries of Europe and America, which has left them underdeveloped. For this reason, these countries have been unable to practice democracy and good governance because they lack the necessary social prerequisites for democratic governance.

It must be noted that, for the underdeveloped countries to have any chance of operating a successful democracy and good governance with its principles like other advanced countries, the underdeveloped countries must cut its structural tie with the advanced countries, leaving a room for a level playing ground and moving at their own pace. Their relationship with the advanced countries must strictly be based on mutual interest and mutual benefit.

Underdeveloped countries must operate as independent entity, independent in government, economy, policies and affiliation. Watchout for the concluding part.

Abdulrazaq O Hamzat is a peace and conflict resolution expert based in Nigeria.

He can be reached through [email protected]
Culled from my book, ‘’The truth about Nigeria’’