By Mathew K Jallow
Mali and Burkina Faso symbolize the new philosophical bend of the African Union and ECOWAS; playing catch-up with the popular political sentiments of Africa’s vast, dispirited population. But it is only a beginning, the microcosm of what the rest of Africa’s dictatorships could potentially face, yet it is worth celebrating, but with cautious optimism. The moral fortitude, which both institutions have demonstrated since the Mali military coup, is evidence of an unmistakable departure from the AU’s predecessor, the OAU’s revolting attachment to a regime of ineptitude and distraction from Africa’s miserable reality. The tethering of the defunct OAU and ECOWAS to the imperial power and moral bankruptcy of past and present African leaders, an undeniable historical fact, has, for half a century, driven the African continent to a tailspin into the dark depths of despair and pitiful pessimism. The characterization of Africa’s reckless regimes as pathologically corrupt and its leaders as political cannibals, emerged out of the continent’s long history of disastrous economic plunder and unchallenged human rights violations; a practice of moral insensitivity that has taken on the character of banality and shocking regularity in many African countries. But more, the institutional patronage of African leaders completely ignores the will of the African people, surrenders absolute power to individual leaders, and motivates entrenchment of African leaders in imperial powers carved out in their individual countries. This is typically a contradiction to the democratic process that elevates leaders to power just as it devalues the civil rights of Africans to regularly change their government through free and fair electoral processes.
The atmosphere, in which many African leaders continue to operate with the force of monarchical power, and outside the boundary of their constitutional authorities, inhibits the emergence of legitimate political dissent and the foundation of robust civil society institutions that safeguard citizen interest. Often, constitutional amendments African leaders foist on their unsuspecting citizens, to give themselves assumptions of legal and constitutional cover that guarantees life-time leadership, is in complete violation of the sacred citizenship rights of the people. First, Senegal’s President Abdoulaye Wada, and now Burkina Faso’s Blaise Campoare, learnt the hard way the consequences of the arrogant presumption of ownership of the state. Mali and Burkina Faso; that is, if the military authorities there yield to continental and international pressure, showcase the breadth of AU and ECOWAS authority, if both institutions flex their political muscles to defer political power to the people rather than to the divisive, egomaniacal leaders who lack concepts of the true meaning of republican constitutions in the 21st. century. What began in 2012 as AU and ECOWAS’s opportunity to assert the first real test of their authorities, both institutions moved swiftly in textbook fashion to delegitimize Mali’s military leaders and pave the way for quick return to civilian rule. The rapidity, with which the Mali military junta conceded authority and deferred power to civilian political rule, opened a new political frontier in confronting wayward African leaders to shed their pretentious divine authorities and restore the dignity of democracy and rule of law. If the recent events in ECOWAS countries, Mali and Burkina Faso specifically, underscore AU and ECOWAS’s commitment to reject the bigotry of low expectations assigned by an uninspired and unimpressed African public, the continent’s journey to political and economic redemption could like a phoenix be rising from the bowels of the earth.
The story of Mali’s wildly successful political change offers refuge to African intellectuals and academics that salivate for change and for the continent’s vast political and economic possibilities, but Burkina Faso still stands in the way of an open season on brutal dictators who amass wealth at the expense of the creeping impoverization of their people. And to the extent that AU and ECOWAS hold the trump cards, Burkina Faso, one of the continent’s poorest, can hardly afford the devastating effects of destabilizing sanctions and characterization as a regional political pariah. But repetition, in Burkina Faso, of the rapidity with which the Mali junta conceded to the will of citizens will be a significant political milestone in the long struggle to disentomb Africa from the agony of its self-inflicted political and economic misery. If the paradox of African poverty; the wealthiest mineral-resourced continent cursed with a population in abject poverty, does not begin to occupy bureaucrats in the AU, ECOWAS and other regional institutions, the failure can be blamed on lack of imagination and total insensitivity to the economic and political crisis that consume the continent. The challenge for the AU is to create a bulwark against pervasive moral and economic impunity, and assurance of the integrity of government in service of the African people, to supersede the narrow, selfish interest of African bureaucrats and political leaders alike. And, nowhere is the complete rejection of Africa’s institutions’ authority more forcefully ignored with impunity in full public display as in the Gambia where the regime’s disregard of ECOWAS court rulings has reduced that body to a mere cartoon spectacle.
But, Yahya Jammeh’s vapid antics include invitation of Equatorial Guinea’s leech, murderer, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo to Gambia, arming rebels to destabilize the south Senegal region of Casamance, and the undeniable ownership of a large shipment of military weapons seized in Nigeria. Yet through it all, ECOWAS and Senegal have been paralyzed by lack of commitment to regional peace, to confront Yahya Jammeh’s ubiquitous show of contempt for the laws that govern regional peaceful coexistence and stability. And in order to repel widespread perceptions of redundancy, both AU and ECOWAS must pressure African leaders to commit to transparent governance systems and to laws that advance the interest of citizens and guarantees the sanctity of their inalienable rights. At this juncture, Mali must be the reference point, and hopefully Burkina Faso too, but the challenges that lie ahead cannot be trivialized into magical simplicity. True, the long standing existence of bureaucracies and institutions in every African country as appendages of the ruling parties, and the blurring of the boundary lines between the parties in power and the public service, presents a unique, but not insurmountable challenge to both AU and ECOWAS. Notable though is that fact that when political rivalry offers possibilities for more parties to govern, bureaucrats and civil servants have an amazing ability to neutralize their political biases and show remarkable resilience in adapting to the governing philosophies of the parties in power. But the founding of viable, rival political parties and civil society institutions, a tenet of democracy and rule of law, must prevail to ensure the sanctity of political systems, deter the complete domination of government by single parties, and ensure regime change occurs with regularly through the democratic electoral process.
Regime change in Africa through the ballot-box, though, has remained a pathetic manifestation of greed and lust for power, as exemplified by the continent’s unapologetic and longest serving leaders. Cameroon, Paul Biya, 29 years; Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang, 35 years; Angola, Jose Eduardo Dos Santos, 35 years; Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, 34 years; Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, 28 years; Sudan, Omar al Bashir, 25 years; Chad, Idrisa Deby, 23 years; Eriteria, Isaias Afwerky, 23 years and Gambia, Yahya Jammeh, 20 years. Yet, in spite of their projections of strength and invincibility, former Burkina Faso strongman, Blaise Campoare’s surreptitious flight to the Ivory Coast exposes the apparent and inherent vulnerabilities of every power-hungry African kleptomaniac. Burkina Faso has now shown the way; the onus is on opponents of life-time reigns of terror to reassert their power to redefine politics in their countries. And in this life and death struggle for African political emancipation, neither the African Union nor ECOWAS can afford the luxury of receding into the comfort of neutrality and inaction. Imagine, Gambia’s Yahya Jammeh and Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang own adjacent properties outside DC, in America’s choicest real estate area, and if Zeinab Jammeh’s shopping forays to New York are not offensive enough, the luxury, opulence and wealth of the playboy son of Equatorial Guinea’s President, Teodoro Obiang, will leave one speechless. At a time when dire poverty is cannibalizing the dignity of citizens, both Gambia and Equatorial Guinea exemplify the ridiculous unworthiness of African leaders. The recent events in Burkina Faso prove a continent on the brink of political change from half a century of African imperialism. For first, Senegal’s former President, Maître Abdoulaye Wada found out. Now, Burkina Faso’s military strongman, Blaise Campoare, is finding out too. But are Africans ready to close this sad, immemorial chapter of deadly and devastating reigns of tyranny?
Mathew K Jallow, MS, Public Administration, Adviser, Gambia Consultative Council (GCC)
Mr Jallow, exiled in the US for the last eighteen years and a vociferous critic of the murderous military regime in his native Gambia, is adviser to Gambia Consultative Council, a civil society organization that seeks to restore democracy and rule of law in his country.