By Adeola Aderounmu

Some of the worst examples of democratic government are found in Africa. It is remarkable to note that even the country regarded as the cradle of humanity-Kenya that is, is among the most useless places on earth where crude democracy is established. If Africans cannot practice true democracy, they should denounce it and look for something that will work for the populace especially the poor people who are worst hit by the crimes of the gangster leaders. It is an anomaly to say for example that Nigeria, Kenya and Zimbabwe have democratic governments. In reality, what you see in these 3 countries are autocratic government imposed on the people in a “whether you like it or not manner”.

Kenya Example
Kenya’s Kibaki and Odinga are two selfish leaders who threw the country into turmoil. Together they are responsible for the death of more than 1 000 people and the displacement of nearly half a million others. Today they are both president and prime minister respectively in a power sharing deal that completely negate the significance of the votes casted in Kenya in 2007. Power sharing by these demonic leaders is not democracy. Power sharing is not a reflection of the votes that were discarded and disregarded.

Odinga is now trying to export Kenya’s democracy to Nigeria. Someone should tell him to shut up! Nigeria already has a disastrous form of “home-grown” democracy and the last thing we need in Nigeria is a further dilution of that calamity. So Odinga, Shut up! The only reason you accepted the Prime Minister’s position was for your own selfish reason and that is not related to anything “peace” or “prosperity”.

Zimbabwe’s Example
After Kenya came power sharing also in Zimbabwe. Mugabe is 84 and he is still the autocratic leader in Zimbabwe. He refused to vacate the office of the president even when it was clear that he lost the elections. He said he doesn’t want the opposition in power because the opposition received the backing of the West. But the issue is: who voted for the opposition? Is it the West or the people of Zimbabwe who voted in March 2008?

Anyway, the opposition leader just like in the case of Kenya also accepted to be prime minister. They call it “in the interest of peace”. Good point! But who created the absence of peace in the first place? Of course it is the murderous leaders. It is the likes of Mugabe and Tsvangirai (aided by the West?) who instigated chaos and turmoil and the end result is that the votes became useless!

Truth is no decent man should accept to share power with people like Mugabe and Kibaki who have lost both the plan and ideas regarding modern world. It would have been better to let them persist as sole leaders rather than serve with them. To serve along with them is not the solution especially as the principles of democratic governance are compromised. Why should the people come back another day to vote if the outcomes of the previous voting resulted to power sharing? What then is the meaning of democracy? Nonsense!

Complicated? Yea! When you don’t have a sound principle, you’ll always accept to serve with wicked leaders like Mugabe and Kibaki and you’ll pretend it is for the people. It also shows that the likes of Odinga and Tsvangirai are selfish and very desperate. They are sharing power with friends and co-looters. The people are suffering!

Nigeria
My last example of some of the worst democracies in the world comes from Nigeria. Does anyone know that 20% of black people worldwide are Nigerians? If you break this down it means that for every 5 blackman /woman that you see, 1 is Nigerian!

Yet in this great country, the sleeping giant of AFRICA, democracy remains elusive! Nigeria is not yet a democratic country because since 1959 when the first elections were held, votes have never been counted. It is a tradition that Obaanjo passed on to his puppet called Yar Adua. Nigeria has also suffered tremendously as a result of the incursion of the military into partisan politics. People like Babangida and the Abacha family stole billions of naira and destroyed all the institutions of governance to ground zero.

Nigeria is very corrupt and the corrupt leaders and politicians continue to use stolen wealth to oppress the other people who are more than 90m and living on less than 2 dollars a day. In a country of 140m it is very shameful that those who could save the country are voiceless and powerless.

I am still amazed why Nigerians troop out on every Election Day to cast votes that will never be counted. That phenomenon should be listed as the eighth wonder of the world. In Nigeria, the situation is worse than in Kenya and Zimbabwe. Why? Because the results of elections are already determined before the Election Day. The godfathers who are mostly illiterates and idiots have their ways of sharing and dividing the political office in caucus meetings. It is a shame and today (october 13 2008) as I write there are violent incidents going on in Lagos Nigeria because of some silly re-election. There is no election in Nigeria without violence, arson, murder, molestation and assassination.

The political situation in Nigeria defiles all logic and human reasoning. This is a country that continues to produce some of the most intelligent people in the world. Nigerians are probably the most intelligent people in Africa, US and UK (and Europe generally) and even in the Middle East and Australia. It is therefore amazing how the idiots in politics have destroyed the institutions of governance and made it a cabal affair. It is amazing how Nigerians continue to develop other countries of the world while their homeland is almost uninhabitable.

Conclusively, there are some democracies in the world marred by stupidity, selfishness, looting, corruption and massive maladministration but the examples of Kenya, Zimbabwe and Nigeria readily comes to mind because of the attendant effects of these anomalous democracies on the lives of the people. For example, there is no reason why every individual in Nigeria should not be a millionaire theoretically. That the monies for 140m continue to end up in private accounts and private pockets remain one of the unsolved mysteries of the 21st century, the 9th wonder maybe!