Democracy beyond the ballot box: A path to Africa’s unity, development

Democracy may not have been mentioned succinctly in the seven aspirations of the Agenda 2063 but it is embodied in each one of them.

Lack of democracy in an African nation will make it difficult for that country to attain the aspirations of “the Africa We Want”.

In my opinion, the fair way of examining democracy is to focus on its utility, meaning its functions and outcomes.

Among others, the functions I have in mind are: a better way to organize a polity; a tool of soliciting diverse views and preferences, and a mechanism of striking a mutuality in arriving at decisions, and a framework of effectively responding to people’s and society’s needs, and addressing challenges and ensuring delivery.

And, also maintaining social harmony, political stability, peace and security.

To me, this is the ultimate meaning of democracy, be it in whatever form, or any tag name.

To appreciate democracy, one needs to look at both the process and the results.

Focusing only on results or only on process is being myopic, to say the least.

One common flaw in this respect, is to focus on elections as the metric of democracy, instead of looking at elections as a continuum of the democratic process.

Tendency is to treat elections as isolated events.

But elections left to themselves are nothing other than the mechanism of grasping and translating preferences and choices of a polity.

Elections say little about the nuances that dominate the political life of a society in between elections.

In our context as Africans, our preoccupation should not be on the righteousness and lack thereof of democratic clichés.

We should be more concerned on how best to ensure that democracy, in whatever form or name, answers our needs for unity and development as well as peace and stability.

We should hasten to embrace democracy as an input and throughput in the development equation, and not the result nor the end game.

We should find ways to make democracy contribute to freeing our private sector; unleashing the potential of our youth and women; increasing State’s accountability to its citizens (and vice versa); widening freedoms and strengthening the nation’s fabric, providing foundation for secure, stable and peaceful nations, and ultimately in the whole of our dear African continent…..Let me now turn to elections or the ballot box.

The phrase “Democracy Beyond the Ballot Box” reflects on the limits of “electoral democracy” and the need to go beyond voting after every four, five or seven years.

Let me also state that elections occupy a special place and a crucial one when we talk about democracy.

In fact, when many people talk about democracy, the first thing that comes to their mind is elections.

This reductionism of democracy to elections is problematic in several ways.

It ignores the fact that democracy encompasses many things besides the act of casting a vote.

The way elections are organised, conducted before, during and after the voting tells a lot about the state of democracy in a country.

In fact, many political conflicts in African nations are related to elections.

I have had the opportunity of observing elections in a number of African nations.

What I can generally say is that, where the electoral processes are transparent and people are not precluded from exercising their democratic right to vote, and their choices are respected, the elections will be peaceful.

If transparent at every stage like registration of voters, arrangement of polling stations, counting of the votes at the polling stations and collection centres; announcement of the results is done with integrity and with no mischief, democracy after elections will be smooth.

It boils down to the integrity of the people organizing the elections and the people or parties contesting the elections.

Where corruption, treachery and fraud are dominant, democracy beyond the ballot becomes problematic.

How to build transparent and credible electoral systems is the choice the players and actors should make.

For example, it does not depict the core of democracy beyond periodic elections.

But really does the simple act of casting a vote truly embody the essence of democracy? Does it deal a death blow to dictatorship as it is claimed?

It may not necessarily be the case because there are examples of leaders who came to power through the ballot but afterwards became brutal dictators.

They instituted a reign of terror and used it to be re-elected again and again.

They disrupt democratic norms, paralyse the system of accountability rendering people’s participation a matter of no consequence.

The relationship between democracy and development is not straightforward and has been debated in the scholarly community for many decades.

It was Professor Seymour Martin Lipset, an American sociologist and political scientist, who, through his seminal work titled “Some Social Requisites of Democracy”, attempted to show the nexus between democracy and development. Lipset argued that “wealth leads to democracy.”

He mentioned three indicators of a country’s development towards democracy: wealth, education, and industrialization.

However, research and studies on whether the two, that is democracy and development are intertwined, have produced mixed and inconclusive results.

One line of studies indicates that democracy and development reinforce each other.

That means democracy can produce a conducive environment such as participation, accountability, and inclusiveness for development.

Likewise, development provides pre-conditions such as wealth, education and industrialization, all of which are necessary for democracy to flourish.

In contrast, another line of studies maintains no direct correlation between democracy and development.

China is cited as a classic example that supports this point.

Despite not having impressive scores in democratic ranking in the world, the country has, in the last few decades, experienced impressive economic development much faster than most democratic countries in the world.

Despite the ongoing debate on democracy and development, the adoption of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) underscored good governance as an essential condition for sustainable development.

Good governance, which is an embodiment of democracy, is a hallmark of the Africa's Agenda 2063.

Agenda 2063 emphasizes an Africa, whose development is people-driven and inclusive.

As such, I would say it is essential to look at democracy broadly and beyond elections.

Democracy will only make sense if it provides a conducive environment for the people to be at the centre of development processes.

Let me now turn to the second question, that is, “how can Africa’s unity foster development?” The question of unity at national and continental level is as old as the pre-independence politics of our continent.

First, unity was critical during the struggle for independence against colonialism and is still much needed to fight against the negative forces of globalization.

Second, unity is needed to ensure development; and third, unity is vital to promote peace, security and stability as a prerequisite for the development of individual states, regional groupings and the African continent.

Again, during his speech given in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, on 6 March 1997 on how he saw African unity in the 21st century, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere said:

The future of Africa, the modernization of Africa that has a place in the 21st century, is linked with its decolonisation and detribalisation… Africa must unite!. That call is more urgent today than ever before.

Together, we, the peoples of Africa will be incomparably stronger internationally than we are now with our multiplicity of unviable states.

……The needs of our separate countries can be, and are being, ignored by the rich and powerful.

The result is that Africa is marginalized when international decisions affecting our vital interests are made.

Many studies have projected that, by 2050, Africa will become a prominent player in global economics and geopolitics.

Its population will reach 2.5 billion by that time, meaning that in every 4 people on this planet one will be an African.

Its middle class will reach 1.1 billion by 2060; and the continent will be the largest market worldwide by 2050.

These projections about Africa being an important player will only be possible if we will have covered significant ground on implementing the Agenda 2063 on the Africa We Want.

It is in this regard we commend our African leaders, under the auspices of the African Union (AU), for the wise decision taken in 2019 to establish the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

The objective was to create a single market for goods and services facilitated by free movements of the people to deepen economic integration.

AfCFTA remains one of the flagship projects of AU’s Agenda 2063.

Let us continue to encourage our leaders to ensure that aspirations and objectives of the AfCFTA are realized to the letter and spirit….

If by 2050 Africa embraces unity it will potentially emerge as a powerhouse of the time and of the future in the global economics and politics.

I have tried to speak at length about democracy, unity and development, but I feel there is still more to be said.

Nevertheless, I believe that I have been able to initiate an important discourse on Democracy, Elections, Unity and Development.

Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete is the former President of Tanzania.This article is an abridged version of the lecture notes he delivered at the National Defence College of Nigeria in Abuja on Monday, 19th August 2024.