Good and Bad Governments - Whose Decision?
Ben Mensah
It is the inalienable right of the governed to decide which government is good and bad and therefore decide to choose between the two. But since this right is constantly usurped by the military it cannot be said that good governments provide the key to democracy in West Africa.Democracy based on multi-party politics cannot be afforded by Nigerians. Indeed, it cannot be afforded in any of the West African countries that are under either military rule or one party system. It has not worked among the Arabs in North Africa or the Swahili speakers in East Africa, so how can it succeedwith West Africans? Even the military rulers who in the past realised the need to hand over power to democratically elected civilian administrations following sustained pressure from the people and also from their own recognition of their inadequacies in the art of government have now concluded that western styled democracy cannot work in West Africa.
One of such rulers is General Olusegun Obasanjo who handed over power to Alhaji Shehu Shagari in 1979. His reaction to General Buhari's coup which toppled Alhaji Shagari's government is "civilian rule was something I felt would be permanent and a lasting feature of our political interaction in this country; something I thought would be made to work because you can imagine that if you have given time and effort to something and that thing had to be shattered, you feel a sense of loss.
"I have come to the conclusion, painfully though, that democracy as it is understood by the west is not what we can toy with now, it is something we cannot afford."
Why hasn't democracy succeeded in West Africa? Posing this question however, does not presuppose that the other systems - military and one party - have worked well. One party rule by Dr Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana, Modibo Keita in Mali, Maurice Yameogo in Upper Volta were pronounced a failure by the military in coups d'etat which brought them to power. That Presidents Houphouet Boigny and Sekou Toure sustained theirs in the Ivory Coast and Guinea respectively must be due to other factors such as the presence of French troops in the Ivory Coast and President Toure's ruthlessness in dealing with opponents real or imaginary.
That leaves us with military rule which is the order of the day in West Africa. And here too the records are full of counter-coups, palace coups and restoration of civilian rule as a result of public disenchantment, dis appointment and disgust with the military leaders.
ASPIRATIONS
And so the question re-emerges, why has capitalist or socialist parliamentary democracy failed in West Africa when it has succeeded in other places?To some people including former Head of State of Nigeria, General Obasanjo, the blunt answer is that West Africans cannot afford democracy..
Others simply dismiss it as a foreign ideology not suited to the African culture, tradition and beliefs. This group argues for the evolvement of an indigenous system of government that will meet the aspirations of the African.
Regrettably the modalities of such a system have not yet been completed by African political scientists to enable the politicians to adopt it.
Yet another answer proffered is that democracy has failed because the civilian politicians have never produced good governments which alone can prevent military take-overs. In other words, parliamentary democracy can flourish in West Africa only if there are good civilian governments.
What then are the hallmarks of a good government? In return for the handing over of power in 1979 the Nigerian civilian politicians pledged not to probe the predecessor military rulers. Yet a public exposure of the activities of the military rulers which were usually transacted in secrecy without explanations and beyond the reach of a controlled press, was necessary to enable all Nigerians to pass a verdict on their military government. Certainly, there were widespread rumours of scandals and thereby provided General Buhari and his colleagues the needed moral leverage to seize political power again. In Ghana the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council of Flt-Lt Jerry Rawlings, which ruled the country from June 4th to September 19th, 1979, similarly entrenched in the Third Republican Constitution that under no circumstances should their 'gains' be 'negated' by the succeeding civilian administration.
Later in 1981 when Flt-Lt Rawlings had the courage to overthrow the civilian government of President Hilla Limann to whom he had handed over power, it was not only stated that certain AFRC decisions had been re versed but three High Court Judges had been murdered for daring to review cases brought before them by AFRC convicts.
On December 31st, 1981, when Flt Lt Rawlings seized power for the second time, he promised a holy war to eradicate corruption in the society. Hof complained about the high cost of living, excess liquidity and lack of basic freedoms for Ghanaians. In pursuance of these objectives he set up a people's tribunal to by-pass the normal court procedure to administer revolutionary justice to corrupt officials.
He withdrew from circulation fifty cedi notes with the loss of the meagre holdings of those who not being conversant with the banking system, kept substantial part of their monies at home. Bank accounts of more than fifty thousand cedis were frozen. Dr Limann's government was condemned for selling the interest of the poor Ghanaian worker to the World Bank which was alleged to have advised Dr Limann to devalue the currency.
In effect Flt-Lt Rawlings had decided that Dr Limann's government was inadequate. And that being so, democracy had failed the people of Ghana and should therefore be ended.
VERDICT
Two years of Rawlings rule and the score sheet reads more mismanagement in 1983 than 1981. The cost of living is not only higher, but that scarcity of foodstuffs and goods has become more widespread. The minimum wage has gone up from twelve cedis to twenty four, possibly 300 soon, and the highest currency denomination is not fifty, as was the case in 1981, but two hundred and fifty. Dr Limann never devalued but Flt-Lt Rawlings has devalued the cedi in levels described as the steepest devaluation ever.Even water and hydro-electric power, which were sufficiently available to Ghanaians before he took power on December 31st, 1981, are being rationed, with some cities being threatened with 'sentences of total darkness' for exceeding their consumption of power.
Do all these make Flt-Lt Rawlings' government worse than Dr Limann which he overthrew? The people of Ghana never had the chance to give their verdict on Dr Limann's government, and have not had it yet to do so to Rawlings. They may never do that while Rawlings is around. But the question Ghanaians in their desperate plight of today must be allowed to answer freely is: is Rawlings' government better than Dr Limann's?
Rawlings represents the military which have ruled Ghana for thirteen out of the twenty-six years of independence. Dr Limann represents the parliamentary democracy which was practised from 1957-1960, 1969-1972 and 1979-1981. On two of these occasions it was the military who decided that democracy had failed Ghanaians and therefore staged coups.
But who decides which government is good and which one is bad? Obviously this is the inalienable right of the governed. And since that right is constantly being usurped by the military, it cannot be said that good governments provide the key to democracy in West Africa. In my view, for as long as the military are more powerful than the civilians and for as long as the military is infested with over ambitious, sometimes power-drunk elements, democracy has no future in West Africa. For might has been proved to be right in this coup-prone region.
MEETING ON HUMAN RIGHTS
A delegation of the UNITED FRONT FOR THE LIBERATION OF GHANA (U.S.A.), the New York-based Ghanaian Organisation that advocates the restoration of democracy in Ghana, has held a meeting with the New York Office of the Centre for Human Rights at the United Nations.The delegation, made up of Michael O. Sackey, Chairman, Kwadwo Affram Asiedu, General Secretary and K. Amo-Agyepong, of the Public Relations Directorate, was invited to the U.N. pursuant to an earlier letter the group had addressed to the Secretary General of the U.N., Mr Javier Perez de Cuellar. In the Secretary General's letter, the UNITED FRONT complained about human rights violations by the government of Flt-Lt Jerry Rawlings.
At the meeting, the delegation was afforded an opportunity to substantiate the charges of human rights violations and furnished the Centre with supporting documents.
At the conclusion of the close door meeting, a spokesman of the delegation thanked the Centre and expressed the hope that their complaint would be acted upon.
The UNITED FRONT is a member organisation of the GHANA CONGRESS OF U.S.A. AND CANADA, an umbrella group of several organisations in the U.S. and Canada that are opposed to the military junta in Ghana.
