AFRICAN brand of democracy is government of the few, by the few for a large number of people, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, said on Monday, to stress his position as to how the liberal democracy working elsewhere across the globe, particularly Europe and America, has failed woefully in Africa.
Obasanjo, Chairman of the 60th birthday colloquium of Emeka Ihedioha, former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, in Abuja, on Monday, was emphatic that African model of governance before the western-style democracy worked far better for the people.
“If you are talking about democracy failing in Africa, democracy in Africa has failed. And why has it failed? Because in context and content, it is not African. It does not have any aspect of our culture, our way of life, what we stand for, what we believe.
“Are we talking of democracy or are we talking of Western liberal democracy? When we talk of democracy, we should remember that in Africa, before the colonial rule and the colonial power, we had a form of government, which attended to the needs of our people.
“And whatever you call it, to me, it is democracy. Because what is democracy about? The American President Abraham Lincoln defined it as a government of the people, by the people, for the people.
“Democracy is meant to be a system of government that delivers to all the people, not just a section of the people, not just a few. But what do we have today? I believe since we’ve gone past the Greek democracy which brought everybody to the square and everybody has a say in the decision making which affected everybody, democracy has now become representative democracy and representative democracy has not taken care of everybody.”
Obasanjo, Nigeria’s longest serving leader, who did three years as military Head of State and eight years as civilian President, emphasised that before the advent of colonial rule, Africa had its governance system which he argued served the people better.
