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The quality of democracy in Africa is not only challenged with violence, brutality, human rights abuse, high rate of unemployment, election malpractices, weaknesses in the electoral institutions, but more importantly, the rapid growth of monetization of politics, corruption and the perpetuation of evil for cheap embryonic gains. I consider these as serious threats to our democracy; a looming catastrophe -a silent killer.
This situation could be likened to the precarious picture that the good-news paints about the last days. Just to paraphrase: some will depart from the truth and pay yielding to deceiving spirits. In other words: listening to spirits of lies, or heeding to liars.
It's sad but true that, people cannily hide under the law - outsmarting the system, without being conscience-stricken and some would perpetuate evil to the extent that, we wonder if the rule of law in practice is what we read in books.
Seemingly, reputable organisations and individuals who should have been seen guiding and guarding our values – that is to say: doing the right thing, to protect the moral fabric and the dignity of our society, have rather become guilty parties in wrong doings for the sake of immediate political gratification and money acquisition or to unnecessarily demonstrate who is who in our social ladder.
Most good people know perfectly well that, these vices exist. The question is: why we should continue to nurture or entertain such cancerous behaviours? This trend poses a huge threat and could virtually engulf our entire ecosystem as a people. I believe we would need to totally halt or at least, curb it now before it degenerates into an uncontrollable monster that shall sweep away not only our morale and political values but the humanity we share as well.
The beauty of our democracy is gradually eroding by these malpractices listed above and this will definitely have enormous negative effects on our various judicial systems in Africa and leave human rights, and the socioeconomic development of our citizenry especially the young generation, seriously compromised. This can eventually compromise our security, legal, technological and environmental infrastructure and stampede the gains we have chalked for all these years in the struggle. Every conscious African both at home and in the Diaspora should uphold the dignity of our land and help stop and restore the rapid decay of our morale standing for a true restitution of our position in international affairs and global economy.
The situation can even be traced down to the levels of local government elections across the continent and this is no good news for our young multiparty democracy. It’s a tragedy for our youth. There are atrocities that range from deceit, intimidation to even killings.
The main strategy - divide and rule, as old as it has been, continues to be deployed by many African leaders, and foreign bodies to keep our countries and continent fragmented so that we may remain insubstantial, vulnerable and fragile, to the advantage of other powers.
In some environments, whiles the international media is regarded as a powerful tool to paint negative image and put Africa in bad spotlight, the local media is rather unfortunately and largely oppressed by a few powerful Africans in our societies to suffocate the truth .
This unfortunate reality is not peculiar to Africa but almost a global concern where international bodies sometimes would deliberately cover the truth for many years, at the expense of the livelihood and the soul of many innocent people.
A typical case is that of the Southern Cameroun’s union with the French Cameroons where for almost six decades, a marriage of convenience that should have helped developed both sides, has become a thorn in the flesh of the English speaking people. The world talks of exploitation and marginalization of the Southern Cameroons by the French dominated government, as the underpinning bases for radicalism and an ongoing genocide under the watchful eyes of the International companies and communities that make gains from the cheap resources exploited from the twin nation at the detriment of women and children, and the less privileged of the society.
