A Rapidly Changing African Past (1)

The sit-tight syndrome among leaders on the continent is gradually giving way, writes Babafemi A. Badejo

With independence realised from colonial rule, Africa had its fair share of sit-tight governments. The continent started off with one-party states that knew only one leader who satisfied demands for elections but making sure that these “African Kings” regularly and purportedly scored over 90% of votes cast. Then came a spate of “African Kings in bootstraps” who equally stayed put in power and hoping to die in office and be succeeded by their sons or carefully chosen loyalist. Of course, there were those who had mother luck smile on them and acquired power against all odds like Daniel arap Moi but who in turn stayed put only to be eventually swept aside by historical pressures towards democratisation given the push for multi-partyism.

It is important to quickly note that multi-partyism is not necessarily a panacea for democracy. Neither are sham elections. Though this debate is for another day, it is enough to state that the foundation for genuine democratic governance must be the democratisation of the material base of society. When an elite steals, pockets and controls the economy there can be no realisation of democracy in governance. After all, it was possible for Mobutu Sese Seko with much of the national wealth in his pocket, to get relations and loyalists to form political parties and hired these to engage in a pretentious game of fair electoral competition. He was able to sit-tight in Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo), like African Kings of yore until Laurent Kabila succeeded in sweeping him of office by force. He went into a lonely death in exile as Europeans pocketed most of the wealth of his country that he had looted. Laurent Kabila did not last long only for Joseph Kabila to succeed his father. Whether he would be succeeded is yet to be seen.

Given such a sit-tight at all cost trend, it is not a surprise that many Africans disenfranchise themselves on the basis of the wrong perception they have to the effect that voting can never bring change in the presidency of their respective countries. Put another way, an incumbent president cannot be voted out of office. Power of incumbency which includes diversion of state material wealth into a campaign, use of security forces, electoral bodies and the judiciary etc., into a structured rigging of an election makes voting in African elections mere window dressing.

However, it is important to note and stress that such a negative perception with respect to realising change in the state house through elections is a changing reality in Africa. In effect, sittight incumbents are being dislodged in Africa. Self-succession is no longer the preferred option. There have been celebrated cases in which incumbent governments in power were defeated, even with ridiculous landslide margins. In fact, there have been about 20 of such cases scattered all over the various regions and states in Africa. More important though is the fact that internal and external realities are rapidly expanding the number of cases.

Somalia would be the first case in post-Independence Africa in which an incumbent government was ousted through elections. This happened in the 1967 presidential election, the second election after Somali independence in July 1, 1960. The very first president who was also the sitting president, Aden Abdullah Daar of the Somali Youth League was defeated by his former Prime Minister who became a major opposition, in the same party, Abdirashid Ali Shermake. The defeated incumbent leader peacefully ceded power, and the newly elected president was sworn on June 10, 1967.

The year 1991 was significant for multiparty elections in Africa. The first example was that of Benin Republic that had experienced a number of military coups at a time when military rule was fashionable in Africa. In 1972, Mathieu Kerekou had successfully carried out his own coup d’etat. He changed the name of the country from Dahomey to Benin, and transmuted himself into an elected president. With hardships on the economic front, Kerekou was forced to accept a sovereign national conference that Nicephore Soglo, an international civil servant had led as an acting Prime Minister under President Kerekou. The sovereign national conference produced a constitution that was approved by the people in a referendum on December 2, 1990. This paved way for multiparty elections at which Soglo defeated incumbent Kerekou who ceded power and Soglo was sworn into a five-year presidency on April 4, 1991. This marked the first time an opposition leader took over power from an incumbent in francophone Africa. Kerekou, with the support of Nigeria, returned to power on April 4, 1996 having won the presidential elections that year against incumbent President Soglo. Soglo equally ceded power without much cacophony.

Kenneth Kaunda would go down in history as scoring a number of important firsts in Zambia’s history. He had led the struggle of Northern Rhodesia for Independence and assumed power in 1964 changing the name of the country into Zambia which was coined from the huge Zambezi River that provided the waters for one of the natural wonders of the world – Lake Victoria. Uncle Kenneth Kaunda’s United National Independence Party (UNIP) became the only party in Zambia after he consolidated his hold on power post a multiparty election in 1968. His authoritarian rule was subsequently resisted until he agreed to a multiparty election in 1991. He decided to lead his party in that election contrary to the brotherly advice from Mwalimu Julius Nyerere of Tanzania who had earlier agreed that 27 years was too long to sit-tight in power in either Tanzania or Zambia. In the general elections held on October 31, 1991, Trade Union leader Frederick Chiluba, leading the Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD), convincingly defeated President K.K. It was a mark of great courage when Uncle K.K. ceded power and became the first Anglophone incumbent to be removed from office by an opposition leader.

Since the three major African examples above, there have been quite a number of instances of peaceful displacement of incumbent presidents. Senegalese Abdou Diouf who had succeeded President Leopold Sedar Senghor on January 1, 1981 as the former resigned in favour of the latter before the 1983 elections. Diouf won the 1983 elections and repeated the performance in 1988 and 1993. In the presidential contest of the year 2000, he accepted his defeat without violence and allowed opposition leader Abdoulaye Wade to take over the affairs of Senegal on April 1, 2000. Wade had a successful first term of seven years during which he realised reforms including constitutionally reducing the presidential term of office to five years by reversing the change Diouf had made in 1991. He easily won a second term of office and succeeded himself as president in 2007. However, he did not read the handwriting on the wall and was removed through elections by Macky Sall who led a united opposition in 2012. Wade was seen as enjoying the support of the security forces. But he did not seek their help and so, the reputed professionalism of the Senegalese military was not put to test. He ceded power within the constitution.