COLUMN: The promise of democracy in Africa
Abject poverty, crippling unemployment, civil wars, military coups, and endemic corruption have betrayed the promise of a better life for all.
POLOKWANE – The dawn of democracy in 1994 evoked some anticipation of hope, freedom and prosperity among millions of South Africans.
The first democratically elected president, Nelson Mandela reassured the world that South Africa shall never betray the promise of a better life for all people.
Freedom, liberty, justice, prosperity and advancement were highly instrumental in his speeches. Chanting and ululating over the historic collapse of the Apartheid regime, millions of citizens envisioned a new country.
Most post-independence African states such as Zambia, Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Uganda and Nigeria have awakened us to the insipid dangers of incumbency.
The promise of independence had mutated into a cacophony of desolation, discordance and paralysis.
The destitution across Africa is occasioned by the abject failure of political leadership. The failure of political leadership is the prime cause of most structural and economic conundrums in Africa.
Abject poverty, crippling unemployment, civil wars, military coups, and endemic corruption have betrayed the promise of a better life for all.
The pursuit of the liberation struggle was inspired by an ideal of liberty and justice for all. Revolutionary morality was actually a clarion call for freedom fighters to serve the people with loyalty, selflessness and sheer honesty.
Post-independence, the African continent was supposed to thrive in the enthralling thrills of prosperity, advancement and political stability. Between 1960 and 1967, Nigeria experimented with no fewer than four military coups.
Continuous political instability and military strife have caused untold suffering in Lesotho, the DRC, Mali, Somalia and Zimbabwe. Ghana and Tanzania’s economies collapsed within the first five years of their respective independence. Once the bread basket and epitome of hope in Africa, Zimbabwe has regressed to a point of nothingness.
There is nothing left to honour and admire in the current Zimbabwe. Botswana, Rwanda, Namibia, Egypt, Senegal and Morocco are still treading meticulously on the cusp of hope and glory.
Angola, Uganda, Gambia and Swaziland are still trapped in the bewildering maze of tyranny, totalitarianism and dictatorship.
Africa’s deranged political tyrants are failing Africa and her people.
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