The judiciary fails to tackle Gvts that bend the law to suit the needs of individual rulers.
The attendees, coming from western, southern and eastern Africa delved into a number of issues still hindering the progress of democratic rule on the continent.
Their subject matter included the judiciary, or its perceived failure to tackle the worst excesses of governments that bend the law to suit the needs of individual rulers – thereby serving as the prime example of disregard of rule of law.
A recent conference on democratization in Africa has served to highlight the differences of opinion that exist on the continent on what exactly constitutes democratic norms, what works or what cannot, whether imported ideas are best or whether home-grown solutions are better, and so on.
The gathering – called Democracy in Africa, a way forward – which took place in the Rwandan capital over a couple of days last week, was organized by the African Democratic Forum together with Never Again Rwanda, a Kigali-based NGO.
On the one hand were academics and thinkers like Professor Anastase Shyaka of Rwanda touting the merits of home-grown versions of rule of the people, by the people, for the people.
In a multifaceted argument for the merits of democratic rule as tailored to suit local realities or needs, the head of the Rwanda Governance Board in his keynote address listed a number of reasons why we cannot talk about democracy the way they talk of it in rich countries.
Citing Rwanda, Prof. Shyaka pointed out the tendency of people to make choices based on their ethnicity above all other considerations, often with calamitous results.
Therefore democracy, defined narrowly as majority rule to the exclusion of other considerations, cannot be good for national stability in still poor, backward countries.
“We need to have a well-educated population first, but our societies still lag far behind others in that area; our GDPs are the lowest, and we score poorest in all other human development indices,” remarked Professor Shyaka, adding: “democracy in a context like this should not be a mere end in itself but first of all a vehicle to greater socio-economic development.”
These arguments were backed, in a panel discussion, notably by Dr. Eric Ndushabandi, director of the Institute for Research and Dialogue for Peace think tank who said: “Whatever happens, democracy is much more likely to work when it is home-grown.”
On the other hand were discussants like Job Kiija, head of the Kampala-based Democracy and Rule of Law, Great Lakes Institute for Strategic Studies.
Mr Kiija outlined a tendency by leaders to talk up the merits of home-grown democracy but wondered about the motives of some who do so while manipulating the system in such a way they become life presidents.
For whom then, Mr Kiija wondered, does home-grown democracy work?
Also, he asked, when some leader bribes parliamentarians so as to remove term limits thereby extending his rule indefinitely, is this what we can call African democracy? His lively intervention obviously was informed by experiences in his native Uganda where amongst other things the head of state has had age limits on presidents removed.
Differences in opinion
“Democracy is messy,” said another Ugandan, Andrew Karamagi – a lawyer described in his bio as a social justice advocate. Disputing the notion that people can agree on one solution; that there can be a uniform opinion on what works whether in democracy or other facets of life Mr Karamagi said, “democracy in its very essence is about differences in opinion.”
The attendees, coming from western, southern and eastern Africa delved into a number of issues still hindering the progress of democratic rule on the continent.
Their subject matter included the judiciary, or its perceived failure to tackle the worst excesses of governments that bend the law to suit the needs of individual rulers – thereby serving as the prime example of disregard of rule of law.
“In jurisdictions like Cameroon the president ‘is the law himself’ and that is the reality we’ll likely have for long!” exclaimed Alice Nkom, a human rights lawyer from Cameroon.
A participant from Zimbabwe, Brian Kagoro gave testimony of some personal experiences under former president Robert Mugabe who was said to often employ terror tactics to deal with those that angered him.
“I used to run a radio station with a mostly rural-based audience and for some reasons we must have displeased the government because one day someone bombed our radio station,” said Mr Kagoro. “The next thing we knew, where there had been a radio station there was a smoking crater!”
Now, how do you promote democracy under a situation like that? Mr Kagoro asked rhetorically.
Social media
Seguing into the topic under discussion by the panel he was a member of, social media and increased information technology and whether they have influenced African leaders, Mr Kagoro said, “As you can see, I have background experience in how governments try to restrain information.
“But we cannot stop, we have to carry on.” He singled out for praise the young in Africa that have used social media to fearlessly tackle issues. Even then that has its downside, with several governments for instance shutting down the Internet, especially around election time – which has happened in Gabon, DR Congo, Uganda, Togo and other countries.
“The social media activists are to be celebrated for their courage in exposing the ills of leadership,” Mr Kagoro said.
He and other panellists however had reservations about the use of social media by some to propagate hate, insults and other ills of the Internet age.
Yet, progress is progress and cannot be stopped, so the best thing is to seek ever better ways to make use of the information age, to win the battle for democracy! One discussant remarked.