The problem with missionary politics

Jerry Rawlings ruled for six months in 1978-79 and handed over power to a civilian multi party government. The experiment lasted two years and ended in another coup led by him. It is after he gave Ghana a long reign of 18 years that he bequeathed it its current stability and democracy. Olusegun Obasanjo ruled Nigeria for four years and returned power to a multiparty civilian government in 1979 that collapsed in 1983. Brig. Mada Bio of Sierra Leone ruled for one year in 1995 and returned power to multiparty civilian rule. This precipitated another coup, civil war worsened and the state collapsed.

In fact, most nations of Africa that have been unstable are those that did not have a founding president who served for very long – Ghana, Uganda, Congo DRC, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Chad, CAR, Nigeria, Chad, Burundi, Rwanda, Sudan, etc. Indeed the first president in post independence Africa to do “the right thing” and relinquish power peacefully after electoral defeat was Osman Daar in Somalia in 1967 – he had served seven years. Two years later Somalia had a coup, then civil war and the current dismemberment of the country. Liberia had 17 peaceful transfers of power from 1848 when it was established and 1980 when Sgt. Samuel Doe staged a coup i.e. each president serving an average of six years. From then the country degenerated into civil war, state and economic collapse.

In Sierra Leone, President Siaka Stevens retired peacefully in 1985 after serving 16 years. Within seven years, civil war, military coups and counter coups turned the country into a failed state that was only rescued by British troops. Uganda had its experiment in peaceful democratic change of government. On June 19th, 1979 a vote of no confidence in President Yusuf Lule was passed by parliament. When the results were announced, the Speaker, Edward Rugumayo, turned to the stone-faced Lule and told him: “you are no longer president of Uganda.” After that, the country succumbed to military coups, civil war and near collapse.

There are presidents who ruled for long and their countries unraveled –Siad Barre in Somalia (22 years), emperor Haile Selasi in Ethiopia (45 years), Juvenal Habyarimana in Rwanda (20 years) and Mobutu in Congo/Zaire (32 years). It is not clear whether Congo/Zaire would have been more stable if its presidents had served a short time. There are many inconsistencies among these countries – and it is hard to see one clear pattern that ensured stability and peaceful transitions to stable democracies. Each country’s development seems to have been shaped by its unique circumstances.

If you are open-minded, this brief history is a moment to pause and reflect. We see that serving for a short time and peacefully handing over power did not guarantee stability. In most cases, it precipitated coups and civil war. Second, there are very few cases where a long serving president bequeathed instability. In most cases they delivered peaceful transitions leading to stable democracies.

These facts contradict our secular gospel that condemns those of our leaders who served long. In fact they teach us that longevity and term limits are not mutually contradictory – one seems to lay a foundation for the other. Therefore the real issue facing Africa is not the length of time a president serves but how he/she organizes politics. Secondly, the worst mistake would be to treat all our countries as the same and prescribe one solution for all of them.