Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has raised concerns over the state of democracy in Africa, arguing that it is not just failing but dying due to its disconnect from the continent’s values and realities.
Speaking at the 60th birthday colloquium of former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Emeka Ihedioha, in Abuja, Obasanjo lamented that Africa’s governance system has become one where leaders “grab everything illegally and corruptly” while telling the people to “go to court,” despite knowing that justice remains elusive.
The former President stressed that true democracy should serve all people, not just a privileged few, and called for a system rooted in African traditions rather than a flawed adaptation of Western liberal democracy.
“If you are talking about democracy failing in Africa, democracy in Africa has failed. And why has it failed? Because in context and in content, it is not Africa. It does not have any aspect of our culture, our way of life, what we stand for, what we believe,” he stated.
He further challenged the definition of democracy being applied in Africa, highlighting that before colonial rule, African societies had their own governance structures that effectively served their people.
Obasanjo said, “Are we talking of democracy or are we talking of Western liberal democracy? When we talk of democracy, we should remember that in Africa, before the colonial rule and the colonial power, we had a form of government, which attended to the needs of our people. And whatever you call it, to me, it is democracy. Because what is democracy about? The American president Abraham Lincoln defined it as government of the people, by the people, for the people.
“Democracy is meant to be a system of government that delivers and delivers to all the people, not just a section of the people, not just a few. But what do we have today? I believe since we’ve gone past the Greek democracy which brought everybody to the square and everybody has a say in the decision-making which affected everybody, democracy has now become representative democracy and representative democracy has not taken care of everybody.”
Obasanjo lamented that the current democratic system allows leaders to amass wealth through corruption while the ordinary people are left with no access to justice.
“Today, we have democracy, which is government of a small number of people, by a small number of people over a large number of people who are deprived of what they need to have in life. That is not democracy that will endure.
“It is, I am because I can grab. What sort of democracy brings you and you grab everything and then illegally, corruptly and you say go to court. When you know that even in the court, you cannot get justice.
“It’s not that democracy is failing, democracy is dying and if we are going to make democracy not to die, we have to look at democracy in the context and in the content of Africa. I hope that we will get to that stage so that democracy which will deliver will be the democracy that we will have in Africa,” he concluded.
