Two-time Nigerian head of state, retired General Olusegun Obasanjo, on Wednesday, November 20, 2023, asserted that Western liberal democracy has failed in Africa, allegedly because it was “forced” on them. He made this claim at a top level consultative forum on “Rethinking Western Liberal Democracy for Africa”, held at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, Abeokuta, Ogun State.

Obasanjo, who has been a global statesman since he voluntarily handed over power to civilians in 1979, also stands as a major voice in Africa.

Democracy, which is classically defined as “government of the people, by the people, for the people”, was re-described by Obasanjo as “government of a few people over all the people or population and these few people are representatives of only some of the people and not full representatives of all the people”.

In making this declaration, Obasanjo joined the group of African opinion leaders who have resorted to shifting responsibility for the failure of most African countries, especially those in sub-Saharan Africa, to former colonial masters or the West.

We concede the fact that the conquest of Africa by European imperialists, the slave trades and subsequent colonisation, changed the destiny of Africa irrevocably. However, Africa was not the only part of the world so affected. The same fate befell Asian and Latin American countries which also inherited the Western liberal democratic model of governance.

The difference between Africa and the others is that while the others asserted their independence to various degrees and maintained most of their original cultural and social norms, Black African countries embraced wholesale Westernism through exposure to their educational and cultural systems.

Liberal democracy did not actually fail in Africa. It was Africans that failed to make it work for them. Africa’s visionless, corrupt, dependent and anti-people leadership elite failed to make democracy work on the continent as India, Pakistan, South Korea and other Asian countries did. Communism, which once made Russia one of the two super-powers in the world, and has catapulted China to the next biggest thing after the USA, also failed in Africa.

We call on Obasanjo to rally African leaders to do a serious soul-searching and accept that the main source of Africa’s underdevelopment is not from outside but within. The solution is also within. Democracy, a system whereby power is derived from the people, and which works for the benefit of the people, can still work in Africa. It is still the best form of government, though complex in machinery and dynamics.

These high-powered consultations should not dissipate energies always seeking to blame the West. By natural endowment, Africa is the richest continent on earth. We can create the world’s biggest market. We need a more accountable system of governance and less lip service to Africa.

Africa’s future greatness starts with taking responsibility for our own actions.