Why question the democracy in Africa to achieve SDGs

Rwanda’s democracy and right to women is a beautiful example as the East African country has created a world record for holding 64 percent of women representation in the parliament.

The state of democracy in Africa is one of the most debatable topics and, whosoever has an interest in the continent is faced with a straightforward question whether Africa is democratic and if yes, to what extent. Many commentators have expressed opinions on the topic pulling out the countries that have stuck into the messy ground between authoritarianism and democracy.

During the last phase of the previous century, countries like Benin and Zambia successfully implanted democracy by holding multiparty elections in 1991. In 1994, South Africa had a multi-racial general election by calling an end to apartheid in which Nelson Mandela played a big role. By the end of the previous century, the continent was observing the gradual rise of the multi-party electoral system as an indication of African countries moving towards democratic models of governance. However, Mauritius is currently the only country over the continent with full democracy, according to Democracy Index 2015. The Economist Intelligence Unit has rated this South African country (Mauritius) as ‘full democracy’ in 2016. The countries such as Uganda, South Africa, Benin, Morocco, Botswana, Nigeria, and Cape Verde are listed as hybrid democracies and, according to the UN, the majority of African countries are categorized as authoritarian. Recent political churnings in a number of African countries depict a process of maturing democratic value in the continent but serious challenges still remain.

Sudan is one of the countries on the continent that has broken all rules of human rights. Sudan’s political and social crisis is not new now as the country has seen civil wars in the previous century during the 70s, 80s, and 90s. Even Sudan had witnessed ‘Darfur genocide’ under the dictatorship of Omar al-Bashir in 2003, which is recorded as the first genocide in the 21^st century. Although Bashir was ousted and arrested on April 11, 2019, the situation has not recovered from the military controlled by Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. A military crackdown on June 3, 2019, leftover hundreds of protestors dead and dozens of bloated corpses were thrown in the river Nile. The latest news stories reveal that The Alliance for Freedom and Change received a new proposal for a transition drafted by Ethiopia and the African Union. Although the new proposal summons for a civilian-majority ruling council, it doesn’t discuss the make-up of a new transitional parliament. On the other side, Sudan’s former Prime Minister and head of National Umma Party, Sadiq al-Mahdi has recently forecasted the possibility of country’s transformation into a land of terrorists if the disturbances continue to persist. Millions of civilians in Sudan are constantly living in fear of their lives but their voices are unheard to the world due to severe Internet blackout. Based on the current situation in Sudan, the establishment of a civilian-led transitional authority and democracy is a farsighted dream.

Meanwhile, Malawi’s current political scenario is also not fair. Peter Mutharika won the Presidential election 2019 but Malawi’s opposition leaders are not happy with the election result and came together on the roads on June 20, 2019, to lead anti-government protests. The opposition, Malawi Congress Party and United Transformation Movement, have since applied to the High Court to nullify the election results and conduct another election. The clash between police and protestors escalated in three cities over the stated disputed election results. Police finally used teargas to disperse the protestors who approached the headquarter of the election commission in Lilongwe and tore billboards of re-elected President Mutharika. While Malawi Congress Party has demanded a fresh Presidential election after changing its stand on recounting the Presidential poll, the Constitutional Court has ruled the trial hearing for the case of election to start on July 29, 2019.

Kenya is another country in the African continent which is known for post-poll violence, specifically those in 1992, 1997 and 2007. In 2017, the opposition accused Kenyan government of conducting a campaign of “genocide” against ethnic minorities in the aftermath of the country’s controversial presidential election, in which Uhuru Kenyatta won with 98 percent of the vote. The opposition leader, Raila Odinga, pulled out of the re-run and urged his supporters to boycott it. The re-run was suspended in 25 constituencies which are all opposition strongholds amid security fears. The Election Commission chairman, Wafula Chebukati described the vote as “free, fair and credible”. Amidst that political turmoil, tension rose in various places, mainly in western Kenya and parts of the capital, Nairobi that left many shops burnt and several people wounded. According to the statement given by the Kenyan Police in October 2017, 6 people were killed, 13 injured and 86 arrested in election-related unrest.

Lying in the north of Africa, Libya suffered from a full-scale revolt beginning on February 17, 2011, after the Arab Spring movement overturned the rulers of Tunisia and Egypt. The authoritarian regime in Libya led by Colonel Muammar Gaddafi posed significant stalls on the uprisings in Libya. The First Libyan Civil War started during that time between loyal to Gaddafi and those seeking to oust his government. The country is still suffering the civil war (Second Libyan Civil War started in 2014) and even not at all safe for the tourists to visit till date. On June 27, 2019, the Benghazi-based Libyan National Army launched a massive offensive to capture the capital city of Tripoli. The takeover of Gharyan town by the Tripoli forces is a major blow to the eastern-based Libya National Army led by Khalifa Haftar, which commenced an offensive action on April 4 to take Tripoli from the internationally recognized administration.

The situation in the Democratic Republic of Congo is quite critical as the people living in the country are not at all secured. Hundreds of thousands of people have fled inter-ethnic violence in north-eastern areas of DR Congo in the past three weeks. Among the causes were disputes over grazing rights and political representation. According to the UN refugee agency’s spokesperson Babar Baloch, “This latest flare-up has sent more than 300,000 people into displacement.” The situation in DR Congo’s volatile Ituri Province has significantly deteriorated since the middle of last week, with multiple attacks involving the Hema and Lendu groups. Earlier between 1999 and 2003, this ethnic clash left tens of thousands dead. The UN refugee agency fears this escalation could engulf large parts of the province. On the other hand, the way the current President Félix Tshisekedi was announced the President of DR Congo on January 10 this year just after the elections held on December 30, 2018, is considered undemocratic. The major players in the international community had accepted the election’s results just for the sake of stability. But in reality, they fell short of the aspirations of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 16 that summons for “effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.” That’s the reason the African Union and the European Union have expressed doubts over the results announced by the Constitutional Court. Even the independent national election commission (CENI) first leaked to the press that opposition politician Martin Fayulu won the presidential election with a landslide number. Later, after one week CENI reciprocated its previous leaked information and announced Tshisekedi as the winner. This is another sign of DR Congo’s defeat in establishing a democratic system.

In Nigeria, the military transferred the power to an elected civilian government in 1999 in the presence of representatives from over 40 countries. The newly elected President Olusegun Obasanjo vowed prosperity to the thousands of his countrymen, but after two decades, the country seems to have a disturbing democracy. Severe corruption in Nigeria is one of the biggest violations of democracy. Transparency International ranked the West African country 144 out 180 in its 2018 corruption perceptions index. Although President Muhammadu Buhari introduced an anti-corruption drive after taking office in May 2015, still the country requires a drastic step to combat corruption. According to some estimates, if Nigeria’s corruption is not controlled with immediate effect, it could cost the country up to 37 percent of its GDP by 2030.

Viewing the current political and social scenario in Africa in the context of Sustainable Development Goal 16 (SDG 16), which is to “promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels” African nations still have challenges in the way to strengthen the democratic institutions in the continent and thus have a long way to go for achieving SDG 16. Even for achieving remaining SDGs, the political stability and existence of well-functioning democratic institutions is a sort of pre-requisite.

One important aspect of good governance is the arrangement for conducting fair elections abiding by all the laws that pledge for accountability, transparency, responsibility, equity, separation of powers and the rights to children, women and vulnerable groups. African countries need to strengthen electoral practices and Rwanda’s democracy and right to women is a beautiful example as the East African country has created a world record for holding 64 percent of women representation in the parliament.