Interesting perspectives from a friend in the Gambia...
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(Qua Vadis Africa)

No more Executive Presidents in Africa

Dr Lenrie Peters (FRCS, FWACS, FLCS)

Undoubtedly, one of the burning problems of post independence in
Africa has been the negligible impact of “Good Governance”. Quite apart from
the moral decay of some of the caricatures who have alighted in the
political stage, there had been, over the decades, a dearth of fine
tuning that delicate balance between the responsibility of the
Executive to the Legislative and the Judiciary, and of all three to the
people they govern.

Traditional African rule, notwithstanding the consultations and
Bantaba discussion, has in essence been the rule of autocratic democracy.
Tautology? The chief might the Chief by the will of his people, but
invariably that will has been usurped. It is no accident that the myths of
super human beings have been portrayed as gigantically fearsome and
devilish. Africans crave the magnetic throttle of power, satanic, even
ruthlessness. And augmenting the disadvantage of the phenomenon of the great
all powerful, all knowing leader is the concept of religion,which addresses
that power and authority are dispensed from above. God on high manipulates
humble mortals via angel spirits, ancestors, leaders, and elders down to the
generality of ordinary people.

This artifice well suited the colonialists when they arrived to find
that the king or leader was the individual to deal with, and opposed
to a multitude of factions. To subdue the people the invaders only had to
highjack the leadership both morally and financially - dividing and
ruling. Indeed many of the ills of democracy at work derive from the
policies at least in British Colonies, of dividing the territories of
West Africa into Colonies and Protectorates. Access to power was
cultivated among the former at the expense of the latter, while at
independence, the process was reversed overnight, leading to a
plethora of untutored and ill-prepared leadership obfuscating the political
scene.

Yet despite the mistake and tragedies, near calamities that have beset
the continents, there is now hope of resolution. Tabo Mbeki has called
it a renaissance, but perhaps the change need not be so fundamental. I
would borrow from the language of space exploration the word docking.
Africa is poised to rotate into position with world politics and
economies and to the environment of global stability. For the balance
of Orb Earth depends on the equilibrium of its greater segments. But
there are still huge hurdles to overcome before that equipoise is concluded.

There must evolve a change of mental attitude, a vision of continuous,
sustained and composed survival. A tension of achievement such as we
now witness between soccer and athletic teams. Recognition that every
individual has the token for sublime blossoming. Thus might we rid
ourselves of the greed and ATAVISM of the Taylors and Chelubas, and
allow the people to repossess their crucial powers without fear of the
bullet.

And yet perhaps as we see complex scientific problems, submitting to
the simplest of solution, as the marvels of the micro chip from the
platitude of common sand, the solution to the African problems may be
nearer at hand than we imagine.

If we look at the participatory democracies of Europe, India, Turkey
and others around the world, we find at the top an elected Ceremonial
President who embodies all the nation of sovereignty, dignity and
tolerance, with a finite term of office. Next an Executive prime
minister nominated according to the system of elections, and answerable
both to the President and the Legislature.

No more executive president for Africa. Please such a system would
also neutralise the military in terms of political ambitions, and
strengthen the restorative powers of the Legislature. At independence,
Africa rebounded with too much fury against their former Colonial Masters to
  want to adopt their proven political systems. They adopted instead the
cocktail of the Parliamentary and the American system without setting in
place the requisite checks and balances to obviate abuse. The earth is
moving very fast and cybernetics by quantum leaps.

Africans should review their past and take cogent decisions for their
future NOW. It is certain that by the way we see and govern ourselves
we shall harness a brighter future for generations yet to come.





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