NOT ONLY HOLDING ELECTIONS MAKES A COUNTRY DEMOCRATIC! MY MESSAGE TO OVERSTAYING LAEDERS IN AFRICA AND THEIR HELPERS.

By Bamba Mass Human Rights Activist (UK) Democracy is far more than just holding of elections. It requires independent courts, a free press; constitutional checks and balances; robust institutions such as independent mosque and churches that are kept away from politics, non-partisan civil servants, universities; respect of the constitution and adherence preserve civil liberties and above all, a culture of openness and tolerance, especially accountable servants to the people rather than to a president. Unfortunately in Africa, Leaders quest to retain power at whatever cost had made it almost an impossibility for voters’ opinions to be reflected in elections because of sham polls which are mostly controlled in such way that there are very meagre chances for opposition to pull through it. At regular instances which are still dispensable in Africa, incumbents take advantage of their positions to hijack all state institution which clears all levels of a balanced and impartial playfields. It makes citizens frustrated and as a result, many ends up serving the regime as they either find no other alternative or they are forced to bow to pressure not see families go hungry. Worst of all their hope which they think lays outside their boarders fades when siders see such nations as stable democracies. The fact remains that outsiders either may not or they over sighted the truth of people being kept under iron fisted dictatorships thus making it impossible for their voices to be heard across their boarders. People live in a state of mistrusting each other thus not trusting if a close neighbour is a member of the secret service. Things only come to light when the people can’t stand it any longer and rebelled openly even knowing the full consequences they will face if their action does not yield any meaningful change. In such they are more prepared to either succeed or die in the process like what happened in North Africa. Another situation is when a sitting president dies unexpectedly like in Malawi. His cronies in crime are sometimes blinded as to what to do to keep the status co and as a result, they would go helter shelter seeking solutions to their present predicaments. It used to be seen and is still seen in some parts of the subcontinent as the sine qua non. In democracy people don’t just wake up and change provisions in the constitutions so as to benefit personally. That only happens with dictators who are mostly with a sickness that affects humans called Bipolar Disorder. This is a disease that makes people especially leaders belief they are no longer ordinary but super humans and as such they are above anyone’s sensor that they are infallible. Such diseases are only cured by death. Leaders with those kinds of mental incapacitations are most of the time lucky and are like riding on an uncontrollable roller coaster, like a monkey jumping from tree to tree. Such Leaders are always the ones who live in constant denial and don't always realize how their actions affect others. When the chemicals in their brains start to run and overdrive, there are so many different moods that they encounter that it is hard to establish realism vs. "just another mood swing". Sometimes their actions are not coherent to them, and they believe in all sanctity that they are correct and everyone else is wrong. Most difficulties are overcome by their ability to cope stress that enables them to stay longer periods of times. Most of their tactics are dividing the majority into whatever lines best suited to serve their purpose and in most cases, it is at the detriments of the majority who are most of the times brainwashed into believing them in whatever they say or do. But unfortunately for such leaders, today’s Africa is rising faster beyond their imagination and one of their biggest shortcomings, includes their failure see broadly. They tend to be hijacked by their handpicked elites who tend to live in the ivory towers of their own and thus oblivious realities on the ground is mostly ignored until it is too late to turn the clock. Patriotism should be all about everyone putting national interest above individual or sectional interest. In any real democracy, no process should be consigned to the elites or any other groups that wish to see their views override the views of the majority because if allowed without any checks and balances, it creates devils in human forms that are mostly smart at the very beginning but with time, they lose all sensible thinking and do only stupid things. The reality those devils in society faces eventually are to live in constant denials of eventualities and as a result, they fails in most of their well calculated plans to silence people. Because little did they know that sinking the roots of democracy from people who are born free, is no easy task. I mean silencing people who have the capability to seek the truth after being marginalised for long is more difficult than developing wings to fly. Many African rulers still equate peaceful opposition to their policies with treachery but the truth is, they are real traitors to the office of president and Nation because they abuse their incumbency by using state resources to their advantage and denying oppositions’ equal share of the national cake. Too often, African bigwigs think it best, after a shabby election to cast blame on the opposition so as to find escape route to cling on to power. Leaders whose hands are not clean would try every tactic to intimidate opponents by using the media and other resources and denying the oppositions to be heard so that the people can make a fair and balanced judgement They tend to put in place dodgy legislations that would prevent oppositions from holding rallies to sell their Ideas to the people while they hijack all media institutions to their advantage broadcasting their policies on daily basis. That is the real treachery and cheating not otherwise. But while they do their dirty deals, they failed to realise that the habit of democracy is steadily catching on and global medium such as the online web disseminates different pictures and news from their own thus treading the masses more to find the truth on the internet which they sometimes find hard to curtail. As a result when certain dubious dealings of the government are put to light, sacrifices are bound to be made to keep the status co. That is why a lot of firing and hiring takes place and sometimes some fired officials are recycled back into the system after a period of time. That is how dictators operate and the more people remain disunited, the longer their purpose is served and the longer they stay in office. But they cannot overstay the inevitable which is death. HOPE STILL EXISTS! Real democracy existed in Africa despite numerous dictators around and genuine leaders set good precedencies for their countries as we saw in 1991, in the modest West African country of Benin, four decades after most African countries had achieved independence the leader in mainland Africa, bowed to the wishes of the people and let himself be peacefully ousted at the ballot box. Since then, however, at least eleven presidents have admirably accepted the same fate while still in office. The latest being Abdoulaye Wade of Senegal—a far better record. Botswana has topped polls as continental Africa’s best-run country. Since independence in 1966, it has consistently held unfettered multi-party elections. It was blessed with a fine founding president, Sir Seretse Khama, succeeded by three decent leaders to date. Recent success in development and democracy was witnessed in Ghana which after decades of dictatorship, in a twist, showed exceptional maturity with power changing hands after a really close election. Such result was a model even for Western standard. Also in Sierra Leone the same trend had followed likewise in Guinea Conakry when both countries experienced decades of dictatorships. Senegal and Malawi became the most resent. Though Ivory Coast had it tough but eventually the voice of the people won over dictatorial tendencies of few. It is also the hope of anyone who loves democracy to see Africa through a smooth transition like the one experienced in Zambia when President Mwanawasa died a few years ago. We have also seen how the powers of a strong constitution have forced military junta in Mali to give up and bow to the wishes of the legislature of that nation. President Amadou Tumani Touray has also for the love of his country resigned for a transition to be able to take place so that the speaker of the Malian Parliament Dioncounda Traore to become interim president with the task of organising elections within 40 days, according to the agreement which am sure would be pushed further to alleviate the escalating problem in the north of the country with the Toureg rebels who have taken almost more than half of the country and declared an independent state of Azawad. I hope peace would be restored in Mali too with this signing of peace with the junta and hope Gao, Timbuktu and other historical towns of value to world heritage would not be destroyed during the push to flush the criminals from those towns. Praised also should be given to the clown of Bamako Captain Yaya Sanoko for recognising that power really belongs to the people and bowing to such. In Malawi after the death of President Bingu wa Mutharika, some power brokers within his party were trying to exploit the tragedy to twist the constitution so as to deny the current Vice President the right to assume office which is debilitating to Malawi’s democracy but again, the strong constitution survived when the vice president Joyce Banda, who had held onto her post of vice president despite falling out with late president Mutharika who fired her from the party, she was sworn in as new president as per according to the constitution on Saturday. UNFORTUNATE SADNESS BUT WITH TIME THE PEOPLE WOULD PREVAIL. Africa needs strong constitutions that can stand the test of time. Therefore with love I send my own humble advice overstayed President like: Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea (1979 to now) 33 YEARS Eduardo Jose Santos President of Angola (1979 to now) 33 YEARS Robert Mugabe President of Zimbabwe (1980 to now) 32 YEARS Paul Biya President of Cameroon (1982 to now) 30 YEARS Yoweri Museveni President of Uganda (1986 to now) 26 YEARS King Mswati III king of Swaziland (1986 to now) 26 YEARS Blaise Campore President of Burkina Fasso (1987 to now) 25 YEARS Omar Al-Bashir President of Sudan (1989 to now) 23 YEARS Meles Zenawi President of Ethiopia (1991 to now) 20 YEARS Issayas Afeworki President of Eritrea (1991 to now) 20 YEARS Professor Dr. Yahya A J.J Jammeh president of The Gambia (1994 to now) 17 YEARS All the above leaders have overstayed their welcome as a result, people in their individual countries cry in silence praying for their departure Even if they have done good in some quarters their evil would over shadow their good deeds because as they grow older, their ideas grow with them. They need to know that while they can molest, kill, plunge fear, or anything for that matter to survive whatever forces that stands in their way, they cannot defeat death just like Mutharika who was one of them couldn’t. Even Paul Kagame of Rwanda who had been in power since the genocide that brought everlasting scar on humanity and Joseph Kabila of Democratic Republic of Congo (Former Zaire) who succeed his assassinated father Laurent Kabila, both need to go now after serving for over 10 years which in my view should be the borderline term limit for all Presidents. HOPE NEVER DIES IN AFRICA They need action now for the future of their legacy just like the President of Tanzania Jakaya Kikwete who true to his pledge to set up a strong constitution which will set in place a viable constitution strong to keep the Tanzanian nation on the strong foot of democracy for good, has just last weekend, made his promise a reality by setting up a Constitutional Review Commission which indicated the fact of his serious about the future welfare of his country. The team he set up constituted numerous renowned individuals of impeccable integrity and genuine love for their country. Happily, a number long held belief of falsehoods popular in Africa are being exposed. One of which is that dictatorship and one-party states do better at imposing discipline to spur economic growth. A recent paper by two Oxford academics rubbishes that theory, not just in Africa. The same paper rightly lauds another good African trend, to impose term limits on presidencies as adopted by most African nations now days. Another useful democracy-boosting device, which a score of African countries have agreed to adopt, is the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, whereby governments and big companies with which they do business publish details of their dealings in transparent ways so as to reduce if not completely eradicate corruption. There is a long way to go before all the rest of Africa follows Botswana’s example. No recently retired African leader was this week deemed worthy of winning an annual prize for promoting democracy donated by Mo Ibrahim, a Sudanese-born philanthropist. Yet more Africans these days accept that being able genuinely to choose their leaders is the least bad way to freedom and prosperity. We have seen today in Africa what happens in Senegal where the people’s power overrides dictatorial imaginations of one leader backed by few and with all done to prevent the voice of the people to be heard, democracy has finally won. Now Macky Sall has become president despite being opposition just last year. Malawi too has become a success story. God bless Africa where hope defeats dictators!