Olusegun Obasanjo attests to failure of democracy in Africa

Olusegun Obasanjo, the former president, claims that democracy in Africa has failed since it is not benefiting the continent.

Obasanjo claimed that Africa had a government structure that was more effective for its citizens prior to the arrival of colonial control.

This was stated by Obasanjo on Monday in Abuja at a colloquium honouring former Deputy Speaker of the House of

Representatives Emeka Ihedioha‘s 60th birthday.

“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, or what

we stand for, or what we believe,” the former president told the gathering.

“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.

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“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.”

Obasanjo said, “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 had 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 claimed that Africa had a government structure that was more effective for its citizens prior to the arrival of colonial control.

However, he criticised the continent’s existing structure, which the former president claims has given governments the authority to “grab everything illegally and corruptly” and demand that the populace “go to court.”