The stakes of the power conservation at any price slow down the political and economic progress of Africa
By Adame Wade*
Urbi and Orbi. African democracy continues its steep path marked out between the demands of sacrosanct local specificities and the necessary respect of the popular will. However, should we say it at the beginning of the new year, if democratic alternation is no longer an exception, respect for the constitution is not yet obvious.
This is evidenced by the indecisive elections in the DRC, which finally took place in the last days of 2018. No wonder that, at the time of spending the New Year, Kinshasa is caught between the clamors of discordant cries of victory for power as for opposition.. And while the Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) and its voting machines have not yet revealed the secrecy of the ballot box, we are already at the celebrations on January 1st . The African political agenda did not respect the truce confectioners.
A political year
On the contrary. The New Year will be no less political with a speech by President Ali Bongo convalescent since Rabat, which has calmed some appetites in Libreville, without removing all the uncertainties around the president’s health. In other parts of the continent, presidential elections resembling Nigeria and Senegal and life-size tests in South Africa will confirm or refute the shared view that these three countries are democracies. .
While Macky Sall and Muhammadu Buhari seek to reinstate, there is no indication that Cyril Ramaphosa and the ANC will succeed in ignoring the corruption scandals that have tarnished the image of the anti-apartheid party. As a whole, Africa continues the long road to consolidating a democracy that sometimes moves backwards. In the long term, progress has been enormous since the first breakthroughs of the 1990s. Attention only to the history’s ups and downs.
In 2019, Ivory Coast will be, in a year of presidential elections, at the center of a reorganization of the political domain that will see Alassane Ouattara, Henri Konan Bedié and, probably Laurent Gbagbo, the latter in the process of provisional release, engaged in alliance races under the consolidation of the heritage of Houpheit Boigny. Did the clock of the National Assembly’s president, Guillaume Soro, ring? At least, it can be said, the « political » Ivory Coast came back to the mid-90s.
A curve of economic development that still does not coincide with the curve of politics …
The year that begins will be rich in news about the cryptic maneuvers end of the reign in Mauritania, political tensions under suspicion of third term in Guinea, legislative pushed back in March 2019 in Guinea Bissau, under the watchful eye of the ECOWAS, the political continuation of the riots of the hunger in Sudan and Algeria, African economic juggernaut where the sick president, will represent for a fifth term, which delays to make its moult.
Provided that the continent which is the mother of humanity finally returns to the curve of economic development that still does not coincide with the curve of politics.
* Adama Wade is a journalist and Financial Afrik’s publication director www.financialafrik.com
