Governance in Africa
Governance in Africa
When talking about governance in Africa, one can say that it has alarmingly declined over the past decade. Characteristics such as bureaucratic obstruction, weak judiciaries, the rule of law and corruption have led to that. This can only be modified through accountability, transparency and competency. There are three main trends that can be identified when addressing governance on the African continent.
The first one was that African regions are diverging. Southern and West Africa have significantly improved their democratic governance, but Central and East Africa have suffered major setbacks. The growing gap between East and West Africa is particularly striking. Over the past 12 years, democratic governance has been deteriorating in East Africa while much of coastal West Africa improved. There was a strong decline in countries such South Sudan, Mali, Burundi and Ethiopia, followed by Uganda, Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania, Mauritania and Niger. Countries like the Gambia, Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal have shown improvement while Botswana, Angola, Zimbabwe and the DRC showed no change.
The second trend is that countries with fast-growing populations tend to be more autocratic. There is a clear correlation between population growth and democratic performance. Generally speaking, the faster-growing countries have weaker ratings for democratic governance which can be seen in countries like DRC, South Sudan, Angola and Gabon with Uganda and Niger close to them but not as bad.
The third trend is that countries that have weakened presidential term limits are growing more authoritarian. Efforts by heads of state to hold on to power by changing or ignoring term and age limits are largely ruining democratic norms. Since 2015, leaders of countries in Central and East Africa have pushed through constitutional changes to term and age limits, or otherwise evaded such barriers, to maintain or extend their rule. In each of these countries, democratic governance has declined over the past decade especially in Burundi, in part because of the term-related changes themselves, but also due to the accompanying breakdown of other democratic standards. Efforts by civil society and the public to combat these power grabs have been met with intimidation, political violence, torture, and arrests. This casts serious doubt on any arguments by leaders that they are only seeking to remain in office to ensure stability and democratic progress.
In Uganda, a constitutional amendment passed in 2017 that removed the presidential age limit, allowing President Museveni to run for a sixth term. The amendment faced strong opposition by much of the public and members of civil society. As for the DRC, President Kabila’s mandate expired in December 2016 amidst significant pressure for him to step down. The Catholic Church mediated a transitional deal that enabled Kabila to retail his seat temporarily. Elections are scheduled to take place in December 2018. Their neighbor in the Republic of Congo, President Sassou Nguesso, secured a third term since reclaiming power in 1997. The vote followed a constitutional referendum in October 2015, which removed age and term-limit restrictions. The referendum and election were marked by credible allegations of fraud and intimidation. Last but not least, President Nkurunziza of Burundi announced in April 2015, his intention to run for so constitutionally dubious third term, which he won in disputed elections held later that year. This sparked violence that included assassinations, arrests as well as attacks by antigovernment forces since 2015. A referendum to change term limits to allow Nkurunziza to run for president again is scheduled for May 2018.
Despite the failures, good governance remains an important fixation among the African community whereby different agencies have invested a lot of time, energy and resources to the implementation of governance reforms as well as strengthening civil society in order to work towards social trust, security, hope and wellbeing.