Obasanjo, Osinbajo worry about threat to democracy in West Africa

29 Mar Obasanjo, Osinbajo worry about threat to democracy in West Africa

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo and Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo, on Monday, declared that the West African sub-region and indeed Africa were currently experiencing storms as a result of political instability in some parts of the continent.

They spoke at the opening session of a high-level dialogue organised by the Coalition for Dialogue on Africa, bemoaning military incursion into the democratic regimes of some African countries.

The two-day event with the theme, ‘West Africa: Rising to the challenges of consolidating democratic governance’, was held at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, Abeokuta, Ogun State.

Obasanjo, who is the Chairman of CoDA, lamented that coup d’état, election fraud and political violence and instability had crippled the growth of Africa.

He condemned military takeover of democratically elected governments in some African countries.

He warned that democracy in West Africa and indeed Africa required urgent attention.

Obasanjo insisted that power grabbing and governance through the gun would neither help Africa nor procure democracy through the judiciary.

He stated, “In recent years, we have witnessed a return of coup d’état, election fraud and political violence, resulting in instability and threatening the developmental gains we have made in the last couple of decades.

“I feel very sad and it gives me great concern when I see the democratic system we have painfully built collapsing. And I believe that there must be a solution, because the problem is human and all human problems can be solved by human beings. That is why the Coalition for Dialogue on Africa, under my chairmanship, and the OOPL have brought all of us together today to discuss pertinent issues affecting governance in West Africa, including the challenges and then to seek the way forward.

“Achieving this may not be easy, but it is a must if we want our nation to make progress; it must entail responsible management of diversity, which makes everyone feel a sense of belonging and be a significant part of the whole.

“We need a stable environment to grow our economies and ensure that countries develop in a sustainable way. Such an all-inclusive democratic environment will fast-track the development of our economy and will strengthen our security and promote general progress.”

Delivering his keynote address, Osinbajo said, “This is a moment of peril for democracy in our region because we are navigating a perfect storm of adverse circumstances, a world economy that is reeling from recessional shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic, price and supply disruption from the war in Ukraine, the emergency of armed non-state actors, and poor challenges associated with catering for the youngest population in the world.

“We must not allow our continent to become as it was in the cold war era. A fetter of proxy wars and great power conflict, we know from experience that this would result in a deepening or the recession of democratic values in Africa.”

The Vice President said, we know that “we cannot secure the Africa we want by turning back the hands of the democratic clock. We have walked these thorny roads before. We have many decades worth of bitter experience and the unimpeachable lesson of our history is that despotism cannot guarantee the security and prosperity for our people.”

Prof. Osinbajo commended the recent actions of leaders across the continent, noting that “it is a testament to our democratic commitment in Africa that we have been united in condemning the toppling of elected governments in the region.”

He said: “The immediate imposition of sanctions on extra-constitutional regimes by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and the concurrence of the AU not only demonstrates our unity of purpose on this issue; it is an unequivocal affirmation of a pan-African consensus on democratic norms.

“Yet we must also acknowledge a criticism that has been levelled against our responses thus far. One highlighting a mismatch between our immediate and uncompromising condemnations of military regimes and our relatively lukewarm reproaches to elected governments that fail to act in ways consistent with democratic values.”