One Down, Ninety-Nine to go!

A sitting African president, one of Nigeria for that matter, has been defeated in a presidential election, wow! Mr Goodluck Jonathan, has conceded defeat and actually congratulated his opponent, retired General Buhari, assured him of his maximum co-operation and wished him the best of luck for the future. That is very significant, coming from a man called “Goodluck”, who has had a lot of it in his own life.

It is only the third time (if we discount Joyce Banda's electoral loss after she ascended to the Malawian presidency following the sudden death of President Mutharika in April 2012), that something that profound has happened in post-independence African politics without any hitches, so far. The others were Mathieu Kerekou in Benin in March 1991, followed in November of the same year by the electoral hammering of the scheming Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia.

Of the earlier three instances mentioned above, Mathieu Kerekou and Kaunda decided to go quietly, while Mrs Banda tried unsuccessfully to annul the elections, the usual African way.

The historical election of the retired General Buhari is a precedence that must be replicated throughout the continent in the coming years, to uproot incompetence, ineffectiveness and corruption in government. Most Africans are sick and tired of leaders who do not seem able to use their God-given faculties to marshal the immense resources at their disposal, for the benefit of the vast majority of the people they pretend to serve. The result of this monumental failure on the part of African rulers has been endemic poverty, premature death of millions of the continent's citizens and the highest number of asylum seekers around the globe, leading to the decimation of whole towns and villages across the continent.

Nigeria and Ghana, in particular, have been shadowing each other in a number of 'firsts' in Black Africa and so hopefully the voters of Ghana will take inspiration from their cousins further east, to rid themselves of the other half of the “the twin brothers” of incompetence, ineffectiveness and corruption in West Africa.

In 1957, Ghana became the first sub-Saharan African country to gain independence from Britain, to the disappointment of Nigeria, whose citizens believed that as the “elephant” she should have gained independence before the ant, Ghana. Nigeria gained her independence from Britain on 1st October 1960, over three years later.

In line with their quest for unbridled power, most of Africa's 'independence' prime ministers quickly turned their countries into republics, with themselves as executive presidents, some for life, with the power to appoint and remove state officials ranging from the supervisors of garbage collection, through school head teachers to Supreme Court Justices. In this, Ghana again beat Nigeria to it becoming a republic on 1st July 1960, with Nigeria achieving republic status three years later on 1st October 1963.

Although Togo experienced the first military coup d'état in West Africa in January 1963, the first major coup with far-reaching consequences for the whole sub-region occurred in Nigeria on 15th January 1966, which was followed by Ghana's own first post-independence coup d'état of 24th February 1966. Nigeria would go on to fight a bitter three-year civil war which would ruin the very fabric of Nigerian society for many years. Mercifully, this is the only department in which Ghana has so far not followed Nigeria's example.

Coup d'états that removed elected governments of the two countries would culminate in about two decades of persistent military interventions, during which period Nigeria in particular, entered into a protracted and sad phase of precipitous and total decline. A succession of military regimes stripped the country of its wealth, influence and confidence. The worst of these was the regime of Sani Abacha whose government engaged in open corruption and unabashed wealth accumulation that will probably never be equalled anywhere in Africa.

Meanwhile, under pressure from local civil groups and international donors, Ghana's last military strongman Jerry John Rawlings, managed to twist the arms of his cronies and accomplices behind their backs, to design a special constitution to suit him and ensure his immunity from prosecution, shed his military garb and became a constitutional president for two four year terms, beginning with controversial parliamentary and presidential elections in December 1992.

Nigeria would not be left behind in these military turned civilian rulers machinations. Retired General Olusegun Obasanjo who had ruled Nigeria as a military dictator from 1976 to 1979 would shed his military fatigues and rule as a democratically elected civilian president from May 1999 to May 2007.

The following could be a proposed criteria for voting out governments in Africa:

a) The Economy: Any government that borrows more than the previous one and records poorer economic achievement in terms of growth in GDP (Gross Domestic Product), inflation and infrastructure, must not be allowed a second term.

b) Health: Decline in health provision, which must be measured in terms of child mortality, occurrence of environmentally preventable diseases like cholera, Ebola and measles, that kill more than 50 citizens, must not be allowed a second term

c) Wellbeing of Citizens: Any government that is not able to improve the wellbeing of its citizens by way of non-provision of social services like adequate potable water supply to 60% of its citizens and electricity supply for industry and domestic use for a total of ten months in any particular year during its first term in office, must be denied a second term.

d) School enrolment: Any government that cannot achieve 85% of enrolment of its school-going children in any particular year during its first term in office must be denied a second term.

e) Justice delivery: Any government that cannot deliver justice to its people in any two years in its first term in office must be denied a second term. In most African countries, civil and criminal cases sometimes drag on for years. In nearly every African country I know of there are prisoners that have been on remand for up to five years, in some cases. In any given year, any country that has more than 200 of its citizens on remand for more than six months must be denied a second term.

f) Child abuse: Any country in which up to 1000 children are found to be abused in any shape or form (FGM, forced marriages, especially of child brides, child labour, slavery, physical and mental abuse) in any year during its first term in office, must be denied a second term.

g) Corruption and embezzlement: Any government in which a minister, agent or other appointee of government is found to have committed any act of corruption, such as bribery, over-inflation of government contracts, embezzlement of state funds, or any act that costs the taxpayer more than $200,000 in any year during its first term, must be denied a second term.

Finally, any president whose government is found guilty of more than four of these infractions must not only be voted out of office, but must be prosecuted and jailed, if found guilty, to bring home to all potential leaders of Africa that government is about service and not about raiding state coffers with family, friends and tribesmen and women.

The African Union is supposed to operate under non-interference of the internal affairs of member states. This principle has allowed heads of member states to get away with murder. We are raising red flags now. In the quest for good governance and elimination of graft from the continent, we are advocating active monitoring of ALL activities in every country, including campaigning against corrupt and incompetent heads at election time, to ensure the removal of corrupt, incompetent and non-performing heads of state.

I rest my case, for now, but I shall definitely be back with my beaded gourd!

Naana Ekua Eyaaba has an overarching interest in the development of the African continent and Black issues in general. Having travelled extensively through Africa, the Black communities of the East Coast of the United States as well as London and Leeds (United Kingdom), she enjoys reading, and writes when she is irritated, and edits when she is calm. You can email her at [email protected], or read her blog at https://naanaekuaeyaaba.wordpress.com/.