Western democracy not working for Africa – Obasanjo

Former Nigerian President, Olusegun Obasanjo has said that the Western liberal democracy does not work for Africa taking into account the country’s culture, history and tradition.

According to him, the failure of the Western style of democracy in Africa is majorly because it does not consider the views of the majority of people.

The former President said this during an address at a high-level consultation on ‘Rethinking Western Liberal Democracy for Africa’ in Abeokuta, Ogun state.

He further described the Western liberal democracy as “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.

"Invariably, the majority of the people are wittingly or unwittingly kept out, he said.”

He urged that the term ‘Afro democracy’ should be used in place of Western liberal democracy. Adding that African countries have no business operating system of government in which they have no hand its definition and design.

Obasanjo said, “The weakness and failure of liberal democracy as it is practised stem from its history, content and context and its practice.

“Once you move from all the people to a representative of the people, you start to encounter troubles and problems. For those who define it as the rule of the majority, should the minority be ignored, neglected and excluded?

“In short, we have a system of government in which we have no hands to define and design and we continue with it, even when we know that it is not working for us.

“Those who brought it to us are now questioning the rightness of their invention, its deliverability and its relevance today without reform.

“The essence of any system of government is the welfare and well-being of the people: all the people.

“Here, we must interrogate the performance of democracy in the West when it originated from and with us the inheritors of what we are left with by our colonial powers.

“We are here to stop being foolish and stupid. Can we look inward and outward to see what in our country, culture, tradition, practice and living over the years that we can learn from, adopt and adapt with practices everywhere for a changed system of government that will serve our purpose better and deliver?

“We have to think out of the box and after, act with our new thinking. You are invited here to examine clinically the practice of liberal democracy, identify its shortcomings for our society and bring forth ideas and recommendations that can serve our purpose better, knowing human beings for what we are and going by our experiences and the experiences of others.

“We are here to think as leaders of thought in academia and leaders of thought with some experience in politics.”