Africa Must Earn Respect For Itself…
In 1990, French President Jacques Chirac declared that Africa was not ripe for multiparty politics. And the fact is he was proven right time and time again. Unfortunately, too many African countries have strived to inspire such remarks, especially in West Africa where nearly 30 coups or attempted coups have been perpetrated since 1990, against 14 on the rest of the continent. But with or without turbulence, there is a terrible dearth of peaceful political alternations, free and fair elections. The scarcity of democratic breathing deprives populations of perspectives and means of expression. It makes them utterly estranged from the power that was supposed to represent them. It makes them inaudible in a world that does not know them. It drowns them in the propaganda of these sprawling regimes.
But beyond the dramatic consequences suffered by the populations of African countries, and the consequences for the world of their lack of hope, we are struck by the infantilism in which the whole world holds Africa, and which transpires in the any op-ed or article about the continent as it transpired in the words of President Chirac in spite of the accuracy of his remarks.
For the most part, this condescending vision is due to the inability of most African countries to establish either a proper rule of law or an original system of governance emanating from their own cultural traditions and capable of transcending genuine legitimacy.
In a resounding speech delivered on July 11, 2009 in Ghana, US President Barack Obama said this:
«In the 21st century, capable, reliable, and transparent institutions are the key to success; strong parliaments; honest police forces; independent judges; an independent press; a vibrant private sector; a civil society. Those are the things that give life to democracy, because that is what matters in people’s everyday lives… History is on the side of these brave Africans, not with those who use coups or change constitutions to stay in power. Africa doesn’t need strongmen; it needs strong institutions. »
This strong men / strong institution dichotomy, and even more so the relentlessness of the former to thwart the delivery of the latter, this is the terrible prison that the peoples must break from. When a French or American President is at the end of his second term, it does not occur to a journalist to ask him if he intends to run for a third one, or if he will deign to step down. No one wonders whether man is indispensable, whether the sky will fall on people’s heads shouldn’t they be in charge, or whether he has the powerful guarantee of a powerful western country. There is no pretext (death of the desired candidate, will of activists, determination to retain power …) before which the law should be erased. No petition reaching this fateful number which automatically renders the constitution null and void. No parade of prostrate personalities and more less constrained, clamoring for the perpetuity of their condition. Not one of these thousand fancies that kill democracies in the bud.
It is the very existence of such considerations and debates in Africa that illustrates the lack of respect the continent commands. It is the possibility for the leader to place himself above the law that best characterizes the so-called banana republics that arouse so much mockery. Africa must finally earn respect and can only do so by imposing its laws on its citizens and leaders.
On December 31, 2019, the Ivorian President wrote on Twitter: “We had to restore the institutions and strengthen them so that they accompany the action of the State. We did it “, but how do you strengthen institutions without submitting to the constitution? By maintaining doubts about his participation in this election, he de facto weakened the institutions. By motivating on March 5, 2020 his decision not to stand by his goodwill and not by respect for the constitution, he created the possibility of the uncertainty that Côte d’Ivoire is currently experiencing as a result of the painful and unfortunate loss of its Prime Minister.
Institutions will be strong only through the wisdom of a head of state who will submit to the laws, and not through any announcing effect. The recognition of the supremacy of the law over the citizen, and over the will of those who hold power is the very essence of the rule of law.
With Aristotle, power comes from below and is exercised on behalf of all. In this fairly modern view, power is self-controlling, where governance is respected. Jean-Jacques Rousseau in the Social Contract establishes that “sovereign power, all absolute, all sacred, inviolable as it is, does not and cannot cross the boundaries of general conventions”
The issue of governance is the fundamental challenge facing the peoples of Africa. It is intrinsically linked to the legitimacy of the powers that be. Africa has no choice but to define the laws under which it wants to live and to impose them also on the leaders it chooses. Then, Africans will no longer have to read through articles by journalists, sometimes on the payroll of deified African rulers, the hazardous twists and turns of the fate that is being drawn for them …
Francis Alain Konan
