AU and 60 years of governance-development deficit

Solly Rakgomo | Monday May 29, 2023 06:00

The commemorations come at a time when the continent is facing serious security challenges in almost all its sub-regions. There are arguments that insecurity in the continent can be traced to poor governance.

The challenges of poor governance are not new but have been in existence during the post-colonial era leadership, majority of whom are credited with the liberation of their countries.

Governance deficit in Africa has been a permanent feature of African politics.

Governance problems on the continent revolve around the management of states, resulting from the inability of many leaders to properly manage economies, diversities and political inclusion. This leads to a loss of trust in state institutions and in their capacity to execute basic functions, particularly the provision of the public good. This has unfortunately led to the breakdown of the social contract between the government and the governed, thus leading to some states to be mired in violent conflict. As such, economic and political exclusion, particularly that of women, youth, minorities and other marginalised groups, remain a major challenge.

Even though some African economies have seen sustained growth over the past few decades, such economic growth trajectories have not benefited most people. In many countries, this has instead widened the gap between rich and poor. This is in addition to a growing tendency among incumbents to introduce constitutional amendments allowing them to run for third terms and, in some cases, increasing the power of the executive. While some blatantly remove the limit of two terms in office, while other leaders have played around with age limits and come up with the ‘innovative’ argument that a new constitution effectively institutes a new Republic, which then gives them a clean slate regarding terms. Any voice of dissent against such economic malpractice or blatant disregard for constitutions is subjected to callous brutality at the hands of state security agents.

Up and down the continent, African politics see more than its share of chaos and corruption. According to many Global Corruption Perception Indices, there is no African in the top 10 of countries with good governance performance, instead the bottom 20 of bad performers in terms of governance is dominated by African states. Many countries in Africa suffer under kleptocratic greed where the state is controlled and run for benefit of a few privileged individuals within the political corridors and their inner circle who use their privileged positions to transfer a large fraction of public resources to themselves. Even though kleptocracy has been largely synonymous with Africa’s immediate post colonial dictators, it is still very much alive today but perpetrated through sophisticated procurement processes that appear legit in the eyes of the gullible public. This is one of those issues that needed a sober reflection when the African Union was celebrating 60 years of existence yesterday.

By side stepping institutions of governance in various subtle ways, greedy politicians have proved to be disastrous for economic performance and are a cause of the rampant poverty faced by innocent citizens across the continent. In most cases, success of kleptocrats rests in their ability to use divide and rule via patron clientalistic strategies to maintain power in weakly-institutionalised polities costly to society. Oversight institutions such as anti- corruption bodies do not work the same way in many African states so as to control corruption. These weak oversight institutions have not as a rule, up to this point, worked with practical effectiveness in Africa. Instead, it is some leaders who have become institutions through cult of personality politics. As a result, corruption has continued to hamper both economic and human development.

Instead of utilising public coffers to improve the socio-economic conditions of their fellow citizens, politically connected elite loot everything at their disposal and stash the ill-gotten loot in offshore accounts which they also use as tax havens. As wealth and power is synonymous with political power, political power in Africa has largely been used for self enrichment. The rich are generally the politicians and their patron clientalistic elites who have received their wealth through political process including an opaque network of connections and the poor are the rest. In the short run, inequality, with political power being the source of wealth, cannot be decreased as wealth is confined to the one and the few. Wealth is only available to the few admitted through political connections to the wealth. Since wealth is accumulated via the political system, it is not surprising that the State is seen as the domain or the fiefdom of the politically empowered.

In most cases, lucrative contracts go primarily to the adherents of Africa’s ruling political parties, especially fellow tribesmen through dubious tender processes. The tenderpreneurs and politically empowered begin to see the favoured position as theirs, their birth right, something to fight for, something to defend and something which others must be expelled. This is the reason why for some of these merciless and corrupt leaders losing an election or losing political power is more serious and considered a catastrophe. This is so because losing the elections is losing wealth and power that has the potential of relegating one to a life of poverty. In many African states the loss of political power or exclusion from political power can be a permanent loss. This means that those who are outside political power can be excluded in theory forever. Faced with such a possibility of elimination from power, this is when you start to see the callous brutality and political chicanery of some African leaders who then start unleashing all the artillery at their disposal for political elimination of their real and imagined enemies through systematic torture, exiles, detentions, marginalisation, use of bribes, rampant abuse of state media as well as security agents. The logic is to enable them to sideline politically pivotal groups off the equilibrium path, ensuring that they remain in power against any challenges. It is quite shocking to realise that since the dawn of independence, a total of five imperial presidents in Africa accumulated a combined total time in power of more than hundred and 50years, which is a global record. Instead of engaging in pseudo pan-Africanist rhetoric during AU commemorations, political leaders within AU should reflect on good governance-development that can go a long way in eliminating kleptocratic behaviour that has become so deeply institutionalised in many African states. The simple wisdom is that a strong government rests on strong institutions, reflects in modern democracy through the separation of powers, a system which allows for checks and balances. Strong oversight institutions, instead of strong imperial leaders, are what the continent of Africa needs to ensure accountability, transparency and most importantly adherence to the rule of law. Such can result in good governance that can improve the socio-economic performance of states. Strong institutions are the cornerstone of stable governments while strongmen with kleptocratic characteristics are a serious threat to stability and long-term security. It is very urgent for the African Union to walk the talk of addressing the challenges of rampant governance-development deficit that has engulfed many African states for more than 60 years.