By Joesf Omorotionmwan
There was a Continent, the Dark Continent, so-called. The continent had leaders who were accepted at home and respected across the world. At the mention of such names as Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo, Aminu Kano, Kwame Nkrumah, people knew them and what they stood for. Long after the death of the first Prime Minister of Zaire, Patrice Lumumba, from that distance, young Nigerians were still proudly identifying with his name.

With time, the pioneers left the scene and by Nigeria’s Second Republic, the political space was gradually occupied by men of the fabled timber and calibre without national stature and without significant grassroots support. That was when different admixtures began to enter into the political matrix, which made it possible for a politician to remain a national leader without any home base.

Essentially that was the beginning of the hijack of Africa’s democracy by mediocres, and sometimes, outright liabilities. The hijackers are now with us and they come in various forms – in khaki, in agbada and indolence. The plain truth is that a politician without valid support must cut corners to remain relevant. Before long, African politics became dominated by men who were originally rejected by their people and in turn, they could only give birth to their type – the incessant military interventions that followed.

For example, in 1979, Dr. Kingsley Mbadiwe lost his deposit in a senatorial election in then Imo State; Chief Richard Akinjide lost his deposit in the gubernatorial contest in Oyo State; Alhaji Umaru Dikko lost his deposit in a senatorial election in Kaduna State. Chief Adisa Akinloye was hated with passion in his home-base in the Yoruba states where he was only remembered for the Scania scandal. Dr. Alex Ekweme was little known outside his home-town before 1979 and in that year’s election, his choice as Shagari’s running mate added no value to the ticket as it failed woefully to translate into a single constituency victory for the NPN in the Eastern states.

Yet, these were the men who called the shots in the NPN government at the centre, no thanks to the zoning system, which soon became an integral part of the process for the subversion of the political system. That explains how Chief Olusegun Obasanjo became Nigeria’s President in 1999, even when he lost in his ward and polling unit.

A fundamental premise of the democratic system is the capacity for peaceful leadership change through the ballot box. What is implied here is the right of the people to choose their next government. It also presupposes that a defeated government will automatically relinquish power. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan was essentially right in his assessment that American democracy did not become effectively operational unit 1801, when President John Adams lost the election to Thomas Jefferson and he handed over very peacefully to Jefferson.

But in Africa, it is highly improbable that a government in power would lose an election and relinquish power peacefully. That explains why democracy will hardly take firm root here because the African political leadership exists for the purpose of circumventing the electoral process and gluing the incumbent to power.

See the theatricals that have forever been playing out in Zimbabwe? President Robert Mugabe has ruled Zimbabwe since 1980 when the country attained independence from Britain. The sit-tight syndrome has been at play here. Morgan Richard Tsvangirai had tried to give Mugabe a good run for his money. So tough was the struggle that a power-sharing arrangement was arrived at under which Tsvangirai was Prime Minister while Mugabe remained President during the period 2009-2013.

Tsvangirai contested the first round of the 2008 presidential election as the MDC candidate, taking 47.8% of the votes according to official results as against Mugabe’s 43.2%. Tsvangirai’s withdrawal from contesting the second round of an election that he was already winning was based on the spate of violence and intimidation by government supporters, which led to the death of 200 people. Tsvangirai had a ghastly accident on March 6, 2009 when he was going to his rural home in Buhera. His wife, Susan, was killed in a head-on collision. He has now been frustrated out!

With his failing age and diminishing utility, President Mugabe has carefully stationed his wife, Grace, a typist, to take over from him. She will contest the next presidential election due in 2018. Mugabe has equipped the typist with a bogus PhD from the University of Zimbabwe where he is the Chancellor.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Mugabe has gone to work, publicly threatening and defaming her visible opponents, including the Minister of Justice, Emmerson Mnangagwa and the incumbent Vice President, Joice Mujuru.

The latest entry into the African hall of shame comes from Burkina Faso. It would be recalled that Blaise Compaore, on October 15, 1987, seized power in a coup in which his former friend, Thomas Sankara, was ousted and assassinated.

Twenty-seven years down the line, Compaore walked the country’s constitution on its head and with the instrumentality of his constitutional amendments, he sustained himself in power. Again, the thief has every day but the owner has one day. The owner’s day came on October 28, 2014, when hundreds of thousands of Burkina Faso citizens took to the streets to denounce yet another impending constitutional amendment. In the process, protesters set the parliament and other buildings ablaze.

On October 31, 2014, Compaore was forced to announce that he was stepping down. Burkina Faso’s Army Chief, Navere Honore Traore took over power. It was not a tea party. One pertinent question here is where is the democracy in the transfer of power from Sankara to Compaore and now to Traore, all military men?

All the same, it appears Africa Spring has finally arrived? We hope other African leaders are listening.

The checks are many: Non-performing governments could perish at the polls. And if they decide to frustrate the democratic process in order to remain in power, besides the military that is always lurking around, the Africa spring is now also an instrument of last resort.