Nothing can be true now than the saying that ‘a second can spoil the work of lengthy hours’. Nothing is equally more devastating than witnessing a single mistake ruining decades of hard work when we consider the current storm rocking the American political scene and her prize assert, democracy. It is no news that America democracy is under threat from within courtesy of the presidency of Mr. Donald Trump.
We are equally aware that all eyes from around the global are riveted on America this moment considering her sterling role in world affairs that has been drastically scaled down by the administration of Mr. Trump, an extra conservative ideologist whose administrative style has presented to American think-tanks a sort of paranormal phenomenon as he had so intentionally isolated America from the world stage and went about upturning the gains of democracy America has made for over two centuries.
For just three and a half years, America democracy has undergone serious tests and trials under Trump. Her adherence to the rule of law has been tested and tried; her constitutional obligations to the people have been tested and tried; her jealously guarded independence of the judiciary has been so severely tested and tried and almost every democratic norm that made America democracy stand out from the rest of the world has been put under strenuous test and trial by the advent of Trump’s novel conservative ideology of “America First”.
As an exporter of her democratic ware for decades to other part of the world, not least, Africa, the shaking of American democratic institutions by the Trump presidency has had to teach the beneficiaries of democracy some hard lessons. America’s influence on the world, especially in developing countries in Central America, South Asia and Africa, the apparent tipping point of her democracy isn’t lost on these regions. It is important to quickly note that changes can occur within a twinkle of an eye. It took only three years for America to lose her hard earned influence in most part of the world as her values of promoting democracy and opposing ‘Strong man rule’ in democratically fragile nations of the world are tumbling fast.
For instance, whatever influence or deterrent America once had over countries like North Korea, Iran, Russia, Venezuela, Turkey, China, Philippines, Syria, Libya, North and South Sudan, Mali and many countries now in the hands of rogue leaders is waning if not totally expired as a result of the reversal of democratic norms and values in America. Autocrats and tyrants, put under America pressure to democratize their countries are now let lose to entrench undemocratic rule without any checks, restraints, political or economic consequences.
Africa, a most dependent continent on help and aid from western nations to build her economic institutions for rapid and badly needed development should by now have learnt valuable lessons, from the democratic unbundling that is ongoing in America and prepare to reinvent itself, become self dependent and minimize our dependency on foreign help to develop critical infrastructure that will drive the continent’s economic prosperity and spur inward focus by the teeming youthful populations whose chief ambition is to migrate from the continent to find opportunities in Europe and America. The world has reached the point where its famous ‘global village’ image will be shredded for an individualistic world where every region and country will look inward for their growth and prosperity. The spite of racism, hatred and nationalism is evident all over the world and it calls for a tightening of Africa’s belt to be self-dependent.
Africa must learn that for America democracy to be so threatened by a group of people led by Trump, for a little over three years, then democracy is not safe anywhere and the end of his administration do not necessary mean restoration of democracy as we know it in America. It is only the careful cultivation of democracy and its accompanying values in the world that has instituted liberalism, rights and freedoms of any kind, whether political, economic or personal, and once the cover of democracy is lifted the world would be thrown back into the Dark Age where the language recognized in settling dispute is war and not diplomacy.
Africa must begin now to build her own strong democratic institutions that can stand the test of time in spite of the wind of change that might blow against it and not wait to be reminded to do so by a tottering West. Except for the solid foundations American democratic institutions are built on, this past three years, the country’s political and economic foundations could have been shaken to their roots.
If we look carefully, We did notice that once Europe began to be unwilling to aid Africa for the reasons that her aid to the continent is looted and misappropriated by her leaders ending up in European and American banks, and America long ago either cut or out rightly withdrew her generosity, Africa countries began shamefully turning to China, and the communist nation saw opportunity to continue the exploitation of the continent more than a century after European exploitation owing to the obvious truth that Africa has failed to self-develop and reinvent itself despite the huge amount of mineral resources in the continent.
The natural resource rich continent should know China’s eye is on the raw materials abundant in the continent which it now exploit to develop her economic juggernaut while throwing a few billions in the face of Africa’s greedy and corrupt leaders who are content to fold their hands while they think China is helping our development when in truth this undemocratic East Asian country is exploiting Africa in broad day light. Trump’s ascendancy on the United States politics and onward to the presidency is an eye opener for all, a lesson the entire world is learning, I think a must for Africa and her people that this should not be lost on us as a continent and as a people. The fallout from America’s extant experience with democracy is to Africa a warning and an opportunity.
As a dire warning, it tells us that nothing lasts forever; if two hundred and forty-four years of democracy can be shaken to its root within a space of three and half years, then nothing is safe and Africa’s leaders must learn that. To take the opportunity it offers, Africa must begin to tell the world through an innovative approach to governance her readiness to take the bull by the horn in infrastructural development for economic emancipation and liberation from European, American and Chinese bondage once and for all so that whatever happens in those nations Africa shall ever be independent and for real.
Source: Richard Abam