The Crisis Of Democracy Brings Unlikely Leaders To Power

After votes, unemployed African still lives without future - photo credit: Ansa

Democracy is either declining or in a complete crisis. Even the so-called father of democracy, the United States of America is experiencing an unusual type of government under Donald Trump, which is adversely affecting the country, let alone Ghana, a country in the third world.

Citizens of African countries following a democratic system of government think their rights and powers would be taken into account to create a bond between the citizens themselves and their governments, unfortunately, many African citizens have been totally disappointed.

The thirst for power, greed, selfishness, corruption and the fear to lose power, have propelled the mind of many African leaders to be interested in an authoritarian or dictatorial regime, instead of the democracy platform they previously stood on to solicit for votes.

Once an African leader starts behaving like a dictator, the citizens might think it’s just a temporary official duty to put things right but in Africa, greedy political leaders duty means infinite. That’s the reason in the past and present there were leaders like Idi Amin, Mugabe, Jammeh, etc.

The oldest rulers still enjoying infinite power are Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, Pierre Nkurunziza, Idriss Déby, and Paul Biya, who has been in power since 1982. In a time that was not infinite, they will go towards a democratic regime, with a progressive extension of electoral processes.

Looking at what is happening today, in the world of politics, world leaders or politicians are fighting more and more to hold on to power and more often with a growing consensus and popular support. A support which usually comes out of frustration because of the disappointed of previous governments.

In China, all observers agree that President Xi Jinping has centralized himself in a power greater than what none of his predecessors had accumulated over the last thirty years, while the concentration of power is also emerging in India and in many other Asian countries.

The same thing is happening on the African continent, regardless of the existence of formal election consultations.

Many of us followed with interest and approval of the UN statistics that applauded the increase in the number of African countries that had finally adopted a system of electoral competition, only to realize that the elections were increasingly used to authorize the winner or to exercise absolute personal power over the entire country.

Africa is never a stable continent, amidst greedy leaders, therefore, the continent will always experience democratical crisis and insecurity, under leaders driven to rely on solely on their own charisma, with the certainty of accomplishing precisely those errors that further dispel the achievement of the promised results.

It is not easy to predict where this trend of politics in Ghana will lead us in the future.