There Are Reasons Why Democracy Fails in Africa

 By Henry Srebrnik, Fredericton Daily Gleaner

Virtually every country in sub-Saharan Africa is a colonial construct that makes no sense ethnically, linguistically, and in most cases, religiously. Control of government is a zero-sum game, where one group’s gain, in terms of political power, resources, or influence is an equal loss for another,

Two recent examples are the disputed elections held in Cameroon and Tanzania. (A coup ahead of elections was recently thwarted in Benin.)

Most Cameroonians have only known one leader: President Paul Biya, who is 92 years old and has been in the presidential palace since 1982. The country is a union of a predominantly former French colony, and a smaller British one. The past decade has seen the outbreak of a violent separatist struggle in the nation’s two anglophone regions, where militants are fighting for independence.

In late 2016, peaceful protests started against what was perceived to be the creeping use of the francophone legal system in the region’s courtrooms. The French- and English-speaking parts of Cameroon use different judicial systems. In late 2017, anglophone separatist leaders declared independence for what they called the Federal Republic of Ambazonia. It has led to thousands of deaths.

Meanwhile there is also unrest in the Far North region, where the Islamist Boko Haram has been active since 2013. Boko Haram is an offshoot of local communities, and though far more active in neighbouring Nigeria, it is not a foreign group. There is no real social distance between Boko Haram militiamen and the local population and it is in fact a movement integrated into the local context.

Prior to the Oct. 12 vote, Biya had clamped down on political opposition, jailing hundreds of peaceful protesters, including Maurice Kamto, the runner-up in the 2018 presidential election. He had been freed only after heavy international pressure.

“I’m not sure Biya would have allowed these crises to escalate today,” opposition politician Tamfu Richard said, suggesting that Biya’s years have hampered his ability to resolve national crises. “He’s unable to go to those zones due to his age to actually feel the pinch.”

That didn’t stop him from contesting the most recent election. First of all, he disqualified Kamto from running. A main opponent then became Ndam Njoya, the mayor of Foumban and chairwoman of the Democratic Union for Cameroon (UDC). As a member of parliament, she was a member of the Forum of Women in Africa and Spain for a Better World and a member of the African Parliamentary Union. The 56-year-old politician’s election campaign slogan was “Freedom. Justice. Progress.”

The election produced a wave of violence. Many people were killed during protests in Cameroon’s economic capital of Douala, ahead of the official announcement of results in the highly-contested election. The regional governor, Samuel Dieudonné Diboua, claimed police posts had come under attack and security forces had defended themselves. Opposition figures estimate the death toll at 55.

“The violent crackdown on protesters and ordinary citizens across Cameroon lays bare a deepening pattern of repression that casts a dark cloud over the election,” Ilaria Allegrozzi, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch, remarked. And yes, Biya won, securing 53.66 per cent, in case you were wondering.

In Tanzania, Chadema party opposition leader and former presidential candidate Tundu Lissu was arrested and charged with treason and his party was barred from participating in the Oct. 29 election. The charge was connected to his nationwide campaign pushing for electoral reform under the slogan “No Reforms, No Election.” The only other serious contender, Luhaga Mpina of the ACT-Wazalendo party, was disqualified on legal technicalities.

Many could not see this coming. When current President Samia Suluhu Hassan first came to power in 2021, after the death of President John Magufuli, she was praised for reversing some of his more authoritarian tendencies.

Her “four Rs” policy – “reconciliation, resilience, reform and rebuilding” -- reopened Tanzania to foreign investors, restored donor relations and mollified the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. But over the last two years the targeting of government critics and opposition voices is said to be more ruthless now than it ever was under Magufuli.

Campaigners and opposition parties accused the government of an intensifying crackdown on political opponents as the voting neared, citing arrests and abductions of opposition members.

No surprise: She belongs to one of the longest-reigning parties in Africa, Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM), which has run Tanzania for over five decades.

The result was a foregone conclusion, with Samia ostensibly gaining 97.6 per cent of the votes. Protests escalated in major cities across Tanzania as opposition supporters denounced the election as a sham. The Tanzanian government deployed the military and ordered a curfew. Reports indicate that no less that 1,000 people had been killed. Independence Day celebrations Dec. 9 were banned.

While the unrest was unprecedented, it had been preceded by a political climate marked by stalled reforms and youth anger. The CCM leveraged its unlimited powers to tilt the political landscape in its favour. Genuine political competition now seems at an all-time low, raising questions about the future of the opposition as well as the direction of democracy in Tanzania.

On the other hand, Samia was lauded on Zanzibar, from where she hails, as the country’s first president from Tanzania’s semi-autonomous archipelago. The split may have widened.