Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Many of the African countries have been plagued with leaders who are well versed in manipulating the system to serve their own political and economic interests. Such rulers aggressively undermine the system to acquire so much material wealth that they virtually become tin-gods.
As they seek to settle themselves in comfortable positions of strength, they work hard to stifle opposition and, in so doing, end up hounding away those who would otherwise have been better problem solvers. These politicians are in office to acquire wealth by hook or crook rather than solving the problems that feature in their glib, rooftop political rhetoric.
They know how to insulate themselves too. One approach is for them to hold on to power and firmly resist any pressure to leave office even though it might be clear that their inability to solve problems is deepening the economic woes of their countries. Or that they had become an anathema to the people.
Another method is the use of their entrenched position in government to tighten their grip on political power, which they use to torment their opponents—callously scheming to get some killed, brutalized and maimed, or forced into exile. Once assured of security in their cocoons of power and authority, they intensify their savagery and cow the citizens into a painful state of submission which enhances their own well-being. These are the leaders who turn themselves into “Life Presidents, many of whom we know (Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah, Malawi’s Hastings Kamuzu Banda, Morocco’s King Hassan, Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi, and many more).
There are others whose behaviour is puzzling. Among them are those “veteran politicians” (like Senegal’s Abdoulaye Wade) who contested elections and lost numerous times before being favoured by the electorate to win political power, having persuaded the people that they knew better how to solve the country’s problems.
Yet, once they become planted in political office—and having once tasted the sweetness of its fruit—they don’t want to close the avenues for bribery and corruption, or to cede power easily. They know how easy it is to make ill-gotten wealth and that’s when they dig in.
They adroitly devise means to hang on to power by either engaging their lackeys to twist arms so as to amend the country’s constitution to extend their tenure beyond the allowable limit or by simply abolishing aspects of the constitution that don’t work in their favour. The aim is to retain themselves in office until death do them part. But this attitude has a bad sequel.
Some African Presidents have manipulated the system to entrench themselves in power only to create conditions for military intervention in national politics, which isn’t itself beneficial because of the dangers inherent in governance by the military.
In the post-independence era, only a few of the 53 countries on the continent haven’t been plagued by military rule (for instance, Tanzania, Zambia, Morocco, Botswana, Lesotho, Gabon, Cameroon, Malawi, etc.). It doesn’t mean that their civilian rulers have done anything better to uplift their countries. A lot of those countries can’t get out of the quagmire into which they have been sunk by their leaders’ ineptitude.
Of all their inadequacies, the most worrisome negative impact of these leaders’ rule is the conditions that they have created for corruption and bribery to thrive to the point of defying any measure to eradicate them. By manipulating the system, these corrupt leaders surround themselves with sycophants who get the juiciest appointments to fertile sectors of national life where they collude with others to fleece the economy.
Undoubtedly, African leaders are known for acquiring wealth in all forms through dubious schemes that they stash away in other countries to enjoy if they survive the whirligig ushering in a new leader. Who will not recall the sordid examples of the former Zaire’s Mobutu (who was said to be worth $4 billion)? At the time of his death, he had more in his personal accounts than the entire country had. Mobutu is just one of such heartless leaders.
Nigeria’s Sani Abacha is another. We have heard about the Nigerian government’s struggles with the Swiss Bank and the demand that funds looted by Abacha and saved there be returned to the country. So far, we hear $100 million has been returned to Nigeria. Many other African leaders have looted their countries’ coffers and stashed away while using subterfuge to remain in power.
Others are known for such thievery and possessing huge mansions in European countries and the United States of America where they repair to occasionally to indulge in careless debauchery. The problem is that while they give their self-acquisitiveness that free rein and become aggressively defensive of their wealth-acquisition instincts, they neglect the vast majority of the people whose living conditions deteriorate in an exponential dimension to the quantum of wealth that they amass with impunity.
It is disheartening to realize that before entering the corridors of power to acquire so much untold wealth through dubious means, most of these African leaders were “nobodies.” Indeed, a lot of them couldn’t even make ends meet in their chosen professional careers but once they got into office and learnt the alluring ways of bribery and corruption, they became filthily rich overnight, thanks to their subservience to the Almighty Lord Mammon!
In this mad rush for personal wealth, what these African leaders forget is that the very accident or design that opened the floodgates of wealth to them could also work to their disadvantage. We are aware of such leaders being chased out of office (as is the case of Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak and Zine al-Abedine of Tunisia) and being defeated by the Fates to lick the dust.
I have no sympathy for such characters because after sowing the wind, they shouldn’t expect to avoid reaping the whirlwind.
Many lessons emerge from the plight of Mr. Mubarak that I expect today’s (or tomorrow’s) African leaders to learn from. Indeed, if they want to live their lives in peace, then, it behooves them to use the people’s mandate judiciously to do what they are in office for. If they think that they can use that mandate anyhow for personal aggrandizement, they will have the rudest of all awakenings and become nothing but a laughing stock.
As African countries embrace the culture of democracy, do they ensure that the checks and balances that make democracy work efficiently in other countries in Europe or the United States are clearly defined, institutionalized, and enforced? Day-in-day-out, we hear of rampant corruption all over the continent. Democracy cannot grow when there is pervasive corruption. And where there is pervasive corruption, the competition for wealth becomes unhealthy. Because the leaders are in power to acquire wealth by any means possible, they will not want to enforce measures that will close the avenues for wealth-acquisition.
African politics can best be defined as a wealth-making venture. And for that matter, all those who go into politics do all they can to achieve that objective, knowing very well that the loopholes in the system cannot be plugged. Mr. Mubarak is a classic example of such an African politician to whom holding political office means bending the rules for personal redemption from disease, want, or privations.
For much of the period that African politicians rule, they fail or refuse to implement policies to improve living conditions of their compatriots; but they are quick to use all avenues to acquire personal wealth and privilege. Whether by accident or by design, they take more delight in doing what doesn’t promote national development only to turn round to blame everybody else but themselves.
African leaders shouldn’t deceive themselves that they will forever manipulate the system and get away with it unscathed. The day of reckoning is just around the corner. They may succeed in scheming to make hay while their political sun shines; but sooner than later, the table will turn against them. And it will be then that they will realize the futility of all that they did while in office.
As the situation is now, Mr. Mubarak may have all the physical wealth that he might not have even thought of acquiring before he took over from the assassinated Anwar Sadat in 1981. But now cast down into the very nadir of hopelessness, he will not even have the luxury of expressing remorse at his acts of omission or commission or even enjoying all that wealth. His is a vanity of all vanities!
His past has now caught up with him and what he experiences now may be too much heart-rending for him to accept as his Fate. But he can’t undo the harm. He has overreached himself and can’t escape the consequences. Nothing but gloom awaits him. In his frail state now, if he dies before his trial ends, he may end the drama on a less pathetic note; but if he lives to see the outcome of his trial, he shouldn’t blame anybody for his sad end.
Fate will definitely defeat characters of his sort who, when given the chance to redeem his people from disease, squalor, and want, chose instead to do otherwise by fleecing the system and pushing the people further into the abyss of dejection and excruciating poverty. Welcome to reality, Mr. Mubarak!
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