The Return of Authoritarian Rule in Africa By Zainab Suleiman Okino Premium Times, November 10, 2020

Sudanese people protesting against the military coup, November 2021

The return of authoritarian rule in Africa

 By Zainab Suleiman Okino

I had course to read your article in PREMIUM TIMES online with the above title. I appreciate your analysis but disagree with your recommendation at the end, calling for the sanctioning by aid donors, as well as foreign investors.

I am therefore making some observations which should neither be seen as criticism nor endorsement but rather, as a way of drawing attention to what has always been overlooked by political commentators when it comes to Africa.

The history of Africa is so different from any other continent and  its problems are beyond casual observation as it has defied development experts  and confounded social commentators. It has also baffled friends and foes alike.

For many were the economic and development theories crafted by the experts from the West that have flatly failed to work on implementation on the continent.This is because its history is usually overlooked.

Africa is the only continent to have experienced the quadruple impact of Mercantile imperialism, the twin impact of both the Transaharan and the Transatlantic slave trade, Colonialism and its new version of Neo Colonialism.

While other continents might have experienced one of the above, only Africa has the dishonour of experiencing all. When most of the African countries gained independence in the 60s, they inherited an economy providing special services for the West. It turned out to be an arrangement in which political independence was conceded for economic control by the departing powers.

Any attempt to change the status quo was resisted through military coups usually  instigated and sponsored by the same forces that were later to insist on transition to democracy as a precondition for aid( another name for dependency) and foreign investment. Democracy as an ideal is worth any sacrifice, including dying for it. For many have lost their lives in its course.

It is one of the progressive inventions in the efforts of man to provide for a system which not only provides for his security, but provides an enabling environment in which he can pursue his political, economic and social  objectives peacefully. It also gives him the opportunity to accept, endorse or reject the policies of a government through periodic elections organised at intervals.

The authoritarian ambitions of the elected leaders are also checkmated by the term limits enshrined in the constitution. Added to these are the triple practices  on which the practice of democracy is anchored, that is transparency, accountability and the freedom of association. But the ideals of democracy can be achieved only on a self sustaining economy which can guarantee the basic  requirements of food, clothing and shelter. Where such are not accessible, democracy remains an ideal to be yearned for.

Africa’s transition  to democracy which was midwifed in the 80s and 90s through coercion, threats of withholding aid and  forceful economic reforms were promoted more as part of a resurgent laissez faire as the dominant universal economic system after the demise of socialism as a political and economic system. Africa’s democratic transition was championed by advocates of market economy  for the benefit of the West and its Institutions rather than any other consideration.

Its practice was preceded by the removal of all inbuilt mechanisms to protect the vulnerable ( they call it subsidy removal) under pressure by the Western dominated World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). This situation deprived the system of the ability to practicalise the ideals of democracy and to impact positively on the society,  the failure of which has turned democracy into  a suspect.

Thus, in-between the lack of enthusiasm for military adventurers and authoritarian rulers who were around for long, and whose past records are anything but complimentary, and the self restraint to defend the ousted system by all means and at all cost lie in the paradox of the observed failures of democracy and the return of authoritarianism as well as the solution.

If authoritarianism is so bad but people could not be resilient in resisting it, and if the democratic experiment which is supposed to be better but are not willing to doggedly defend it at all cost and by all means necessary, then something must be fundamentally flawed with African democracy.

Authoritarianism can only be dealt with on the continent if democracy is made to provide the needs and aspirations of the people as against the present system which is essentially centred on providing an enabling environment for the thriving of laissez faire economic system to the advantage  of its local and international advocates and beneficiaries.

The democratic system as is being presently practiced on the continent has only worsened the social disparity within and thereby undermining the resolve to resist authoritarianism. It is not the form that matters, but the substance. No enduring democracy can be built on a weak economic foundation where its shortcomings are prounounced.

Africa needs to go to back to the drawing board to fashion a democratic system that will take into consideration its economic level of development and its historical antecedents.

 A well fed, clothed and sheltered citizenry will be better defenders of democracy than people alienated by a system in which they have nothing to lose. In as much as democracy comes short of expectations, the threat of its collapse will continue to hover on the African continent with unforeseen outcomes. This is my analysis for causes of the return of authoritarianism.

Abdullah Dan’azumi Mohamed Golkos is CEO salasadis_course Pol. Consults. II What is glaring is that African countries are artificial  creations. In most countries the people were/ are not involved in the setting up of the democratic structures.

That being so, when they are truncated the people show that it does not concern them. They are preoccupied with their daily survival. Because the people never cared to erect power structures that they can control, when the armed forces withdraw their allegiance from the government in power, it collapses, and they become the new rulers.

Why did a coup attempt fail in Turkey?

 May be the Turks are better educated, may be because Erdogan is delivering, or may be because it was viewed as foreign-sponsored. And that brings forward another dimension to coups: my view is that they are usually sponsored by meddling powers.

And France is number one meddling power. Nobody stays in power in its possessions as long as he will not accept its dictation. And that dictation is to rob the captive country in order to enrich France.

Western powers respect spheres of influence between themselves. May be because African politicians do not mean well for their people, they prefer to leave the people uneducated. Personally, would I stick my neck out to defend the farce going on in Nigeria as democracy?

No. Military rule may mean exclusion, that civilians do not influence policies. Do ordinary people, even elites outside government influence policies in our democracy? Our democracy is a more costly form of exclusion. However disruptive it might be, we need a governance system where a government can be brought down constitutionally before its term expires.

As it is today, we elect our enslavers.

Re: The return of authoritarian rule in Africa, By Zainab Suleiman Okino (premiumtimesng.com)

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FREE SUDANESE POLITICAL DETAINEES, CEASE ARRESTS: RIGHTS GROUPS

Sudan Tribune, November 10, 2021

(NAIROBI/KHARTOUM) – 

Sudanese security authorities should immediately release people arbitrarily detained since the military takeover on October 25, 2021, two human rights groups said on Monday.

 “Security authorities should also cease further arbitrary arrests and stop using unnecessary, including lethal, force in response to peaceful protests,” Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International said in a joint press statement.

From the early hours of October 25, according to the human rights group, security agents in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, detained at least 30 civilian political leaders, including six of the country’s cabinet members.

On the same day, the rights groups said, the army also detained Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, and two days later placed him under house arrest.

“Over the last two weeks the military has resorted to its well-trodden and brutal tactics, undermining small but important progress on rights and freedoms that Sudanese from all walks of life have fought for,” said Mohamed Osman, Sudan researcher at Human Rights Watch.

“The military should immediately free all those arbitrarily detained over the last two weeks and end all illegal detentions, including enforced disappearances, by the military,” he added.

The two human rights groups also accused Sudanese security of using heavy-handed measures to repress peaceful protests against the military takeover.

“Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have documented unwarranted use of lethal force by security authorities in their efforts to counter the many protests that erupted in Khartoum,” the group further stated.

“At least 14 people have been killed by live ammunition in Khartoum since October 25 according to the Central Committee of Sudanese Doctors,” it added.

Meanwhile, the African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS) said that security authorities detained more than 30 people including ministers, advisers to the prime minister, and journalists, between October 25 and 27.

ACJPS is a renowned South Sudanese human rights organisation.

“Since October 25, internet and telecommunications have been repeatedly disrupted, limiting people’s access to timely and accurate information, infringing on people’s ability to express political views, and restricting reporting on rights issues, including about detentions, especially outside Khartoum,” said the human rights entity.

Among those arbitrarily arrested, ACJPS said in the statement, is Cabinet Affairs Minister Khalid Omar Youssef, who was detained by a group of security agents in front of his family in a dawn raid on his house on October 25.

Under international law, human rights groups argued, when anyone is detained by state forces and their detention is either not acknowledged or the person’s whereabouts is concealed, placing them outside the protection of the law, this is an enforced disappearance.

Enforced disappearances, it further stressed, is forbidden in all circumstances.

According to human rights groups, despite regional and international calls on the military to halt the crackdown, abuses continue. On November 7, for instance, security forces, including police and the military, reportedly violently dispersed a sit-in called by the teachers’ association in northern Khartoum.

(ST)

- Sudan Tribune

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