African countries face challenges with Western-style democracy- Obasanjo

Olusegun Obasanjo, the former president of Nigeria, has maintained that Western liberal democracy has failed to benefit Africa.

Liberal democracy, according to Obasanjo, ignores the history, culture, and customs of the continent.

The former president clarified that the failure of Western-style democracy in Africa may be attributed to its disregard for the opinions of the vast majority of people.

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At a high-level consultation on “Rethinking Western Liberal Democracy for Africa” in Abeokuta, the capital of Ogun state, he made this statement during his keynote speech.

Western liberal democracy is “a government of a few people over all the people or population and these few people are representatives of only some of the people and not full representatives of all the people,” according to Obasanjo, the gathering’s organiser.

He stated that most people are either purposefully or inadvertently excluded.

Instead of Western liberal democracy, he promoted what he called “Afro democracy.”

He contends that it is improper for African nations to run a political structure over which they have no influence over the “definition and design.”

“The history, content, context, and practise of liberal democracy are the root causes of its weakness and failure,” stated Obasanjo.

“You start to run into issues and problems as soon as you go from being a representation of the people to all the people. If the majority defines it as such, should the minority be disregarded, left out, and denied opportunities?

In summary, we have a political system that we are powerless to define or improve, yet we persist in using it despite our knowledge that it is not serving our interests.

“Those who first introduced it to us are now doubting the propriety of their idea, its viability, and its continued applicability in the absence of reform.

The welfare and well-being of the people, all of the people, is the fundamental component of any kind of governance.

Here, as the inheritors of what our colonial powers left behind, we must examine how democracy functioned in the West at the time it was founded.

“Our goal is to cease acting naive and ignorant. Can we examine both inside and outside of ourselves to see what aspects of our nation, culture, traditions, way of life, and way of living over the years we can learn from, adopt, and modify with practises worldwide for a modified form of governance that will better fulfil our goals and deliver?

“We must think creatively and then apply our fresh perspective to our actions. You are welcome to analyse liberal democracy from a clinical perspective, point out its flaws for our society, and offer suggestions and ideas that can better advance our goals while accepting people for who they are and basing their opinions on both our own and other people’s experiences.

“We are here to think as academic thought leaders and thought leaders with some political experience.”