African Democracy and Development in 2008

In Africa, more than in any other continent, the international community has the power to demand more democratic and responsible governance and to support the people that support that cause.

African states are internationally weak and dependent (70% of Chad’s budget comes from international donors). In Nigeria the regime needs foreign investment and its leaders crave legitimacy and acceptance from the world. Also, the personal assets of many corrupt African elites are invested heavily in Europe, Canada, and the U.S. Their children attend private schools there and they shop and spend holidays in the Western world. They need visas to do this. This gives the Western democracies real leverage, if they choose to use it.

The Western aid so systematically directed toward military budgets should be redirected toward schools, hospitals and businesses.

A plan needs to be formulated which brings Africa into the 21st century – a continent which no longer relies solely on primary resources. This plan must not only include the widespread basic education that has been so instrumental in the East Asian miracle, Sierra Leone and Zambia, but also information technology and marketing schools, as well as investment from big business.

Since nineteen United States servicemen were killed in 1993 in the infamous “Black Hawk Down” incident, it would be extremely difficult to get the American public to support the deployment of U.S. troops to restore democracy in an African state, but Britain has had success in peacekeeping missions in the cases of Kosovo in 1999 and Sierra Leone in 2002. Other powerful nations could step-up and give assistance to such efforts.

On the matter of violence within Africa, the United States National Security Agency (NSA) suggested three linked strategies: Countries with a major influence on their region; like South Africa, Nigeria, and Kenya, should be hubs for regional engagement; there must be coordination with allies and international institutions for conflict mediation, as in the example of Nigeria and Sierra Leone; and Africa’s capable states and regional organizations must be strengthened as the primary means to address terrorist activities.

Pressure from Western states has made a difference in several instances, but only when the major democracies have been united. African states need to hear a coherent message. One large obstacle to Africa’s democratic and developmental progress has been the lack of consistency of Western powers over time.

When African military officers depose a functioning democracy, they should be told clearly, unanimously, and forcefully by the international community that their regime will be isolated from any support and that they must leave power and restore a constitutional system.

There are still too many “Western-approved” regimes – although they are never overtly referred to as such. For example, the continuing French support for a number of authoritarian “customer” states and continuing American support for Egypt shows compliance and a degree of recklessness on the part of these powerful states.

A new bargain needs to be brokered between Africa and the West, swapping debt for democracy and investment for integrity. However, as we know, this is easier said than done.