St John’s College was privileged to host some of the authors of the book Democracy Works: Re-Wiring Politics to Africa’s Advantage for a discussion with grades 11 and 12 learners.
A panel including former president of Nigeria Olusegun Obasanjo, former Zimbabwean minister of finance Tendai Biti and head of the Brenthurst Foundation Greg Mills addressed the learners. The first democratically elected female president on the continent, former president of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, also sat on the panel.
The book discusses how we learn to nurture and deepen democracy in Africa to ensure economic growth and political stability. According to the book, making a democracy work relies not only on a free and fair election but also on the systems and institutions of government. The book explores the fact that democracy hinges on what politicians want to do with the power they acquire.
The politicians shared stories of their time in office and the challenges they faced.
Obasanjo spoke of the troubles at the Niger Delta, where there was much oil and also much poverty. He said that rebels in the area kept breaking the pipelines to steal oil to sell. The joke was that this was done because every time they requested development in the Delta, the government would say ‘it’s in the pipeline’.
Sirleaf shared about imposing a one-year executive order against female genital mutilation in Liberia ahead of the 2017 election, as she struggled to get it passed into law. Though the executive order has expired, Sirleaf remains hopeful that it will one day become law.
Biti laughed as he told the audience, “We invented state capture, you perfected it.”
He said that regular people’s lives have become worse since the coup in 2017, but this is not a failure of democracy. He explained that it can be remedied by making state institutions work. He also discussed the role of social media in breaking the monopoly on state ownership of media in Zimbabwe, which has a single national newspaper and broadcaster.
Mills commended the selfless acts of service of the leaders who took good ideas and translated them into action.
Sirleaf concluded by challenging learners. “To you, the youth in this room, the future belongs to you. Believe in it, take it, challenge it, be it. Be the ones to change the world.”
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