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Former Executive Vice President of Unilever Ghana and Nigeria, Yaw Nsarkoh, has stated that Africa’s democratic struggles stems more from inherited systemic failures than mere policy mistakes.
Speaking in an interview on JoyNews’ PM Express, following his lecture titled “Iniquities of Iniquity in Our Santa Claus Democracy,” Nsarkoh argued that many of Africa’s leaders were thrust into leadership under conditions vastly different from those experienced by pioneers of European democracies.
According to him, it’s a historical inevitability rooted in the continent’s tragic starting point.
“I don’t think there’s a difference per se, the starting points were simply different. When you look at what we now call modern European democracies, they emerged at a time when capital accumulation had already begun. So the conversation was about the distribution of wealth that had already been created, which is a very different context.
“They were not necessarily in modern democracies, yes, at a point in time they were there, but in the modern democracies they were not starting from below GDPs of $3,000 per capital. It’s a different kind of conversation, you had long institutions and traditions.” He stated.
He explained that Africa’s democratic journey started at independence, but it was independence in form rather than substance. According to him, post-independence leaders were pioneers charting a course without any clear blueprints.
He also criticized the post-colonial elite for becoming “new colonialists,” saying they took over state structures primarily to serve themselves. He stated that these elite groups maintained the same extractive systems established by colonial regimes and failed to transform governance to benefit the masses.
“The African has two challenges, they had the hangover of colonialism, that book by Claudia Eke talks about it. So our democratic project, actually, if you want to go back to the period of independence, started when the post-colonial era was ushered in. And the post-colonial era, what we declared as independence, Kabral Blay-Amiheres aid this and got into a lot of
“What kind of independence are you talking about if you are not in control of your sovereign productive forces? you read Kabral Blay-Amiheres’s Return to the Source, he talks about this in there. You have an anthem and a dark-skinned president. That doesn’t make you independent.” He said.
Yaw Nsarkoh continued, “You already had a significantly distorted reality as your starting point and then you were navigating in an international sphere where we always have to remember it is very, very, very present today that there’s an inter-state power struggle for domination and hegemony, very complex environment with people who had no predecessors.
“Take kwame Nkrumah, who was he looking to? Whose mistakes was he able to say that has becomes my experience? They were pioneers and they were navigating in parts, and then some of the deformities that happened is that the new post-colonial elite essentially took over the facilities of the state and became the new colonialist and they looked after themselves. Look at the space in which we are, Local government has essentially collapsed.”
Source: Elvisanokyenews.net
