Democracy in black Africa (even in Ghana) is really all about the personal and (admittedly fractured) collective agenda of the intellectual and political class. I say agenda, because if Nigeria is any indication, that class is profoundly lacking in, perhaps, allergic to vision. They mimic the tool of Western democratic institutions to manipulate their way and their stay in power. It is a huge joke, just look at Professor Jega's INEC registration farce and fiasco. I actually applaud ACN's jettisioning of the "democratic" process whereby their drunken elders selected the candidates instead of going through the expense and joke of a "process."
Western democracies work for them because there is an alignment between the governed and the governors. The education and socioeconomic levels are comparable. In Nigeria, the bulk of our people are living and toiling in conditions that would be unacceptable to American pets. It is the fault of our intellectual and political class, a failure of leadership.
In the case of Ivory Coast or whatever the name du jour of that blasted country, it should worry us that the structures are not robust enough to allow a peaceful transfer of power and authority to the next thug. Yes, they are all thugs. Our intellectual and political class sit in air-conditioned comfort mouthing all the right words ("collaboration," stakeholders." "freedom," prattle prattle prattle!) but refusing to spread the wealth of comfort, refusing to invest in the work that would uplift the rest of the people to near where they the leaders currently are. That is what should be done. At this stage in the game, the democracy is really among the political and intellectual class. The people of my village will never turn their part of Nigeria into Egypt. It will not happen, you and I know that. We have done everything that the intellectual and political class have asked us to do. They in turn have failed us. They are thieving bullshitters. Just look at what the assholes of Nigeria's prodemocracy movement gave to us. The past ten years have been worse than Abacha's reign of terror ten-fold. Wole Soyinka is right: We asked for leaders. We got executioners.
Getting Gbagbo to leave is the least of our problems. Getting rid of all the Gbagbos and Quattaras of our world would be heavenly.
Please leave Gbagbo alone.
- Ikhide
From: "Emeagwali, Gloria (History)" <emeagwali@mail.ccsu.edu>
To: "usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com" <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Sent: Sat, February 5, 2011 9:13:40 AM
Subject: RE: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Please Leave Gbagbo Alone
Thanks so much for this intervention. I also wanted to find out from Dr. Mensah
whether we were wrong to applaud Ghana for its last election. We all thought it was a success.
Gloria Emeagwali
www.africahistory.net
www.esnips.com/web/GloriaEmeagwali
________________________________________
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Anunoby, Ogugua [AnunobyO@lincolnu.edu]
Sent: Saturday, February 05, 2011 1:54 AM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: FW: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Please Leave Gbagbo Alone
"This democracy, which leaves out a whole lot of the people who 'lose' the 'elections' may
not be optimal multi-tribal, multi-clan, multi-state systems that constitute modern African states"'
km
Multi-party/candidate democratic elections are contest that produce winners and losers. Candidates that contest these elections in good faith know to accept the verdict of the electorate if the elections pass the general "smell" test. Democratic elections' outcomes therefore imply that a whole lot of people (usually a minority of people) may be left out until the next elections when all that may change.
African countries challenges in the practice of modern democratic governance are not as much the result of the diversity of their constituent parts as they are because of ethnic chauvinism, the failure of governance, and the opportunism of politicians who choose to play the ethnic/religion card to gain/retain political power. Very few countries in the world are homogeneous. Somalia generally is, by ethnicity and religion but she is more political fragmented than most other African countries. Zimbabwe has two major ethnic groups and she is by most accounts a failed state. Many African political leaders accentuate their countries' population difference for short-term political gain. China, India, and Malaysia are not homogeneous countries. Their leaders have nevertheless, succeeded for the most in crafting countries that citizens accept as theirs and therefore countries that work. The countries have consequently made and continue to make great development leaps that citizens are proud of, right before our eyes. I believe you mean well when you said "my Akan language" for example. Why not one of Ghana's languages instead?
What ever Gbagbo's incentives, motivations, and objectives are, there is now no doubt that he is assiduously and fervently determined to destroy his country. His proclaimed patriotism is consequently doubtful. He has been president of his country for ten years. For five of those years, he was an unelected president. Why should he continue as president of his country after an externally funded election that he accepted to participate in, and declared to have lost. He is said to be a former professor of history and an expert on the French revolution. If the above are true, one must conclude that while he may have passed through history, history has definitely not passed through him. As a result of his own choice, his scholastic accomplishments are presently not yielding dividends in his "service" to his country. he has become a costly and heavy burden and scourge to his country, continent, and race.
oa
________________________________________
From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com [usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Mensah, Edward K. [dehasnem@uic.edu]
Sent: Friday, February 04, 2011 6:29 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Please Leave Gbagbo Alone
Ikhide, Thanks you very much. Like they say in my Akan language, mo neka,
meaning, thanks for saying it. I have said it many times in this forum
that the problem is bigger than overthrowing one African (mis)ruler.
I am sure that the historians among us know that the ancient African
kigdoms were not ruled by a winner-takes-all 'democracy'. This democracy,
which leaves out a whole lot of the people who 'lose' the 'elections' may
not be optimal for multi-tribal, multi-clan, multi-state systems that
constitute modern African states. A bit of thinking can help us design a
more appropriate system.
The only certaintly after any African 'election' is a mass rebellion. Why
can't we see that this system we imported from our colonial masters is
causing more problems than the original problem it is supposed to
address-- the allocation of political power among the competing interests?
Kwaku Mensah, PhD
Chicago
On Thu, February 3, 2011 8:48 am, Ikhide wrote:
> Folks,
>
> Gbagbo is a jerk. Like practically every other misruler in Black Africa. I
> get
> that. But why is the world picking on him? Are we not yelling at the
> symptoms of
> a larger problem? Democracy as practiced in Black Africa today has been a
> plague
> on a truly dispossessed people, perhaps worse than the scourge of AIDS.
> This
> "democracy" was imported willy-nilly by our leaders, political and
> intellectual,
> the new masters of mimicry. The last time I checked Gbagbo is an
> intellectual.
> We are asking for external forces to be massed against Ivory Coast because
> it is
> a small country. That is just not right. Are there no other options to
> deal with
> this matter?
>
>
> If the soldiers take over from the resident termites in Aso Rock would the
> AU
> similarly mass soldiers against Nigeria? Why not send soldiers after
> Mubarak in
> Egypt? What about North Korea? What are we doing? Let me be blunt: Every
> day I
> wake up and pray for the end of whatever they are calling the yeye
> government in
> Nigeria. I will not cry in my beer if monkeys overthrow those assholes in
> power.
> Please leave Gbagbo alone. Our problems are worse than merely unseating an
> asshole with a PhD. This democracy is not working for us. It is actually
> killing
> us.
>
> - Ikhide
>
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Abdul Bangura <theai@earthlink.net>
> To: "USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com"
> <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>
> Cc: leonenet <leonenet@lists.umbc.edu>
> Sent: Wed, February 2, 2011 12:48:05 PM
> Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - War Criminal And Pervert Gbagbo
> Tells AU
> To Go To Hell
>
>
> I hope that the African (Dis)Union can finally get out of the way of
> ECOWAS to
> fulfill his mandate. Thank you, War Criminal and Pervert Gbagbo, for
> helping the
> AU see its folly.
> AU Mission in Ivory Coast Encounters Obstacles
> Scott Stearns | Dakar February 02, 2011
>
> Photo: AP
> Ivory Coast Prime Minister, Guillaume Soro, attends a media conference at
> the
> Golf Hotel in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, January 30, 2011.
> The prime minister for the U.N.-certified winner of Ivory Coast's
> presidential
> election says African Union mediation is the last chance for a peaceful
> resolution of the political crisis. The incumbent government says it will
> not
> accept any mediation that challenges the president's re-election.
>
> The African Union's latest effort to resolve the political crisis in Ivory
> Coast
> is having problems before it gets started.
>
> Members of the heads-of-state panel differ over the possible use of force
> to
> remove incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo. Gbagbo supporters oppose the
> inclusion of the Burkina Faso president on the panel because he is an ally
> of
> Gbagbo's rival, Alassane Ouattara.
>
> Gbagbo's foreign minister says his government will not accept any finding
> that
> questions the legitimacy of the constitutional council annulling nearly 10
> percent of all ballots cast, which made Gbagbo the winner.
>
> Ivory Coast's Electoral Commission and the United Nations say results
> shows
> Ouattara winning, even if most of the contested votes are thrown out.
>
> Ouattara's prime minister, Guillaume Soro, says the African Union mission
> is the
> last chance for a peaceful resolution of the crisis.
>
> Soro says the five heads of state will go to Ivory Coast to ask the
> elected
> president to explain the guarantees he will offer to the losing president.
> Soro
> says Ouattara has promised if Gbagbo agrees to leave power, Ouattara will
> accord
> him the status of a former president with all of its privileges.
>
> Having served as Gbagbo's prime minister for more than three years, Soro
> told
> VOA that he does not expect the incumbent president will abide by the
> decision
> of the African Union, because the alliance already recognizes Ouattara.
>
> "AU recognized Alassane Ouattara as the elected president of Cote
> d'Ivoire," he
> said. "And I think that it is a victory for democracy in Cote d'Ivoire.
> It is a
> victory of the people of Cote d'Ivoire."
>
> Human Rights Watch says Gbagbo allies are killing and raping Ouattara
> supporters
> in post-election violence. The United Nations says peacekeepers are being
> blocked from suspected mass grave sites.
>
> Soro says those responsible for that violence must be brought to justice.
>
> "The struggle for freedom and the fight for democracy is not easy," he
> said. "In
> the history of our continent, the struggle for freedom generally generates
> crimes and killings and everything."
>
> Both of Ivory Coast's competing governments went into the African Union
> summit
> hoping for decisive action against their rival. Instead, they got a panel
> of
> heads of state. Soro says he is not disappointed.
>
> "No, no, no. I am not disappointed. I am a fighter," said Soro. "When
> you
> fight for democracy you can not be disappointed."
>
> The leaders of Burkina Faso, Chad, Mauritania, South Africa, and Tanzania
> make
> up the African Union panel. They met Monday to outline their strategy and
> must
> now decide when to visit Abidjan and how to approach the country's rival
> presidents.--
>
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