Biya, Ouattara’s re-election, Africa’s worsening image, and Oshiomhole’s gauntlet
The re-election of Paul Biya and Alassane Ouattara as presidents of Cameroon and Côte d’Ivoire, respectively, is a dangerous development that has added to the ridicule of the continent of Africa. The sit-tight syndrome appears to have retarded the progress of the two countries. Africa must be concerned!
From a dirty swamp usually springs forth a beautiful lily. By the same token, in Nigeria’s National Assembly, largely regarded as a rubber stamp, certain members are distinguishing themselves by the quality of their contributions. Adams Oshiomhole is easily a gadfly!
“While the streets of Yaounde went up in flames of bonfires by protesting youths as a result of the election that returned him being made public, Biya and his handful of supporters and acolytes clinked glasses in toast to a bizarre victory.”
‘Dinosaurs’ in power
The quality of leadership on the African continent has become a cause for concern. Many have expressed disappointment over the inability of leaders to wean themselves off the feeding bottles of their once colonial masters.
Several years after they claimed they got independence, African countries are still taking orders from the United Kingdom, the United States of America, France, Germany, Russia, and a few other nations.
When the news broke last weekend that Paul Biya had secured re-election as president of Cameroon for another eight years, it cast a pall on the hope of freeing the country from the stranglehold of imperialists, who manipulate local leaders for their own advantage.
Biya, who came to power in 1982, has manipulated all elections to perpetuate himself in office. He has dismantled all democratic roadblocks, including presidential term limits, to enable him to maintain his tight grip on power.
While the streets of Yaounde went up in flames of bonfires by protesting youths as the result of the election that returned him was being made public, Biya and his handful of supporters and acolytes clinked glasses in toast to a bizarre victory.
The re-elected president has lost the mental alertness to carry out his duty in office. He is a liability to his countrymen and women. A man who is no longer coherent in his speech and does not physically attend state functions, not to mention international engagements, but delights himself in occupying the office of the president cannot be anything but an enemy of his people in the real sense of the word.
Cameroon has lived through 40 years of largely unchallenged and hardline rule under Biya. He runs the country through a very small circle of aides, whom he appoints and sacks at will.
Reports had it that open discussion about succession in Yaounde is like a taboo, and Biya has overseen a ruthless crackdown on dissent since his highly contested re-election in 2018. The people have been under servitude.
To put Biya’s reign in proper perspective in a way it can be well understood, it means that since the time the late Shehu Shagari was in power in Nigeria, down to Muhammadu Buhari as a military head of state, to Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, to Ernest Shonekan, to Sani Abacha, to Olusegun Obasanjo, to Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, to Goodluck Jonathan, to Buhari as a civilian president and now to Bola Ahmed Tinubu, only one man (Biya) has been in power in Cameroon! Crazy!
While many Africans were still processing the unfortunate development in Cameroon, another equally unsettling piece of news broke on Tuesday: Alassane Ouattara had been re-elected in Côte d’Ivoire. He was first elected president in 2010 and has continued to win subsequent elections organised on his own terms.
With the goings-on across Africa on the leadership front, the continent may still continue to wallow in the dark for many more decades. A continent where politicians are just only interested in occupying power seats and care less about the good of their people is a stigma that has reduced the continent to a laughing stock on the global stage.
For decades, Africa has remained a playfield for developed nations. These countries have also ensured that the continent remains perpetually underdeveloped.
This was captured in a book, ‘How Europe Underdeveloped Africa’, published in 1972, authored by Walter Rodney. The book described how Africa was deliberately exploited and underdeveloped by European colonial regimes. The rape is still going on today. The election of fragile men, who lack the balls to face the Western imperialists, has been a minus on the continent.
The quest for real independence was the reason three countries – Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso – decided to take their destinies into their own hands.
The West have, over the years, controlled the leadership of Africa, dictating whatever they do, so much so that they have no mind of their own. The former colonial masters claim that they are interested in the progress and development of Africa, but the reverse has been the case.
The sit-tight syndrome is not just Biya and Ouattara; there are some other African leaders who have clung to power for decades, either by force, breaking laws or bending constitutions. It’s an established norm that has been practised throughout the modern history of Africa.
Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo has ruled Equatorial Guinea for over 45 years. He came to power in 1979 through a military coup that overthrew his uncle, Francisco Macías Nguema.
Denis Sassou Nguesso has ruled the Republic of the Congo for close to 40 years since he took over power in 1979 and was in power up to 1992. He was defeated in 1992 and fought the then-government. He seized power again in 1997 and has won all the elections ever since.
From Uganda to the Kingdom of Eswatini to Eritrea, from Rwanda to Djibouti, and from Gabon to Togo, it is all about “dinosaur” leaders in the saddle!
How can this be happening in Africa? What do leaders discuss when they go to the African Union (AU) meeting? What do they tell themselves at international forums when they have to meet with their peers?
Paul Kagame is said to be doing great in Rwanda, but he should not push his luck too far. He should leave when the ovation is loudest. He has been in power since 2000.
If the international community is serious about helping Africa, it should say something about the re-election of Biya and Ouattara, who have easily outlived their usefulness on the power stool.
The manner of their emergence and the lame-duck manner of their leadership may have sold them out as inconsequential voices on the global scene. No wonder they are not consulted whenever important decisions are being taken that impact the continent of Africa.
The international community also knows that such leaders are not even popular in their individual home countries. So, anytime they manage to attend important conferences where important presidents make speeches, they just fill the space as “waka pass”, as in Nollywood home videos.
Even when they are given an opportunity to make some remarks at such events, nobody pays attention or takes them seriously. The reason is that they are always attending such events to beg for more grants, debt forgiveness, more vaccines, more food…always cap in hand! No value addition!
When they go to the United Nations (UN) summit and say, “Give us a permanent seat on the Security Council.” The question is, what to do with it?
Africa has remained very unserious, and the West has also continued to prey on that unseriousness to make the continent behave like a zombie. Until African leaders begin to engage in self-introspection and purge themselves of the bad eggs amongst them, the international community will not take them seriously.
Oshiomhole’s moment of truth
Hate him or like him, Senator Adams Oshiomhole is a political gadfly any day. Although many Nigerians may brand him a rabble-rouser, he has, through his robust engagements on the floor of the Senate, put on the toga of a patriot, always taking his colleagues to task on many issues.
He has also unsettled the leadership of some federal institutions with his probing questions.
In July last year, Oshiomhole, who represents Edo North Senatorial District, had sought a probe of the funds allegedly appropriated to the military in the past to fight insurgency and banditry across the country.
The senator had said that it was necessary to carry out an investigation into the purchase of a yacht and the establishment of universities allegedly built with funds appropriated for the military in the hometowns of some past service chiefs in order to prevent recurrence.
But the Godswill Akpabio-led Senate flatly rejected the prayer.
Just a few days ago, the former labour leader-turned politician verbally bombed his colleagues when he pointedly told them that they should stop arming youths and rigging elections, warning that such acts undermine Nigeria’s democracy and fuel post-election violence.
“As elected persons, we as senators should not, directly or indirectly, secretly or openly, aid and abet unemployed or semi-employed people and arm them to disrupt elections. If we reform our character, this problem is 90 percent solved…,” he said.
The senator noted that “After every election, violent crimes increase. Because the politicians who have procured weapons for children who are hungry and pay them a little fee, once the election is over, are not able to retrieve the weapons. And the weapons are then deployed by these people for violence.”
Oshiomhole has, indeed, struck the right chord. Elections in Nigeria have moved from a simple exercise to a moral equivalent of war in which politicians stake everything, including the lives of innocent individuals, to achieve victory.
Electoral violence has become a big issue in Nigeria. The saddest thing of all is that those who parrot Electoral Act reform and the need to make the electoral process credible are the same people who go back to plotting to win at all costs.
With the worsening unemployment rate in the country, resulting in jobless youths roaming the streets and joining all manner of dangerous associations, chances are that a good number of them could be recruited by desperate politicians to do some odd jobs in 2027.
The ugly experience of many Nigerians in the last general election may have fuelled distrust in the system, with some citizens predicting that the level of voter apathy in 2027 might be higher than the figure recorded in 2023.
With the planned deployment of 45,000 police personnel, excluding those that may also be deployed from other sister agencies, to Anambra State for the off-cycle gubernatorial election on November 8, 2025, it creates an impression that election is war in Nigeria and that it is indeed a matter of survival of the fittest.
Commending the senator, Olukayode Oyeloye, a former media aide to former ministers in the Olusegun Obasanjo administration and the late Muhammadu Buhari administration, posted on his Facebook wall: “At last Adams Oshiomhole pinpoints sponsors, financiers and abetters of violence and terror – his fellow politicians.” But as it is said, “The taste of the pudding is in the eating.”
But all said and done, the government of the day will need more than just flippant verbal reassurances to convince the citizens that ‘dogs and baboons” will not soak in their own blood in 2027.
