Better late than never?

BY JAPHET M. ZWANA

It seems as though African leaders believe in the saying ‘better late than never’ more than anybody else in the whole world. The problem with this position is not that it is a bad policy. Rather, it is that they have invested in the principle at the expense of doing anything on time.

It was commendable that, under the tutelage of former Secretary General of the United Nations Kofi Anan, negotiation talks in Kenya produced an acceptable outcome. Why, though, did it take a cataclysm that cost more than a thousand lives as a result of internecine conflicts in Kenya? Why did President Mwai Kibaki not do something to nip chaos in the bud when the spectre of trouble began to surface at the very beginning of his administration? Why did the Kenyan leadership and that of the region and the UN not hearken to the loud grousing of the opposition? Where was the African Union (AU) when the masses in the country complained about election rigging intimidation and, why were international warnings not taken seriously?

Sad to say, there is adequate evidence that pressure from outside world leaders was exerted. This pressure was largely responsible for the apparent change of behaviour on the part of many Kenyan stakeholders. The US State Department warned that the prolongation of the unpalatable situation would damage mutual relations between Kenya and the US. In fact, there were threats that visas might not be available to certain individuals planning trips to the US. The US and Europe would be unhappy to see the country weaken its strategic position as the East African region’s business, transport and tourism hub. The signing of the accord, coming as late as it did, sends the negative message that Africans have difficulty in finding peaceful resolutions to their conflicts with no assistance from outside.  

In Zimbabwe, civic society is wondering if the leaders of South Africa, SADC and the AU are waiting for the repeat of Kenya in Zimbabwe before they can devise a remedy. The status quo is a prescription for disaster, which is avoidable if prompt and appropriate action is taken.  

The Zanu (PF) leadership is using all the false excuses in the book to justify their malignant continuation in power in the face of obvious contradictions. This situation prompted Tendai Biti, Secretary General of the main branch of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), to state: “There is no government in this world which can win an election when inflation is over 100,000 per cent; 80 per cent unemployment and three million of its people living abroad. Mugabe, you cannot and you will not do the impossible.”

The compromise agreement signed by the Kenyan President and opposition leader Raila Odinga this week did not have to come at the expense of more than one thousand lives. Mr Odinga had broached the idea of the creation of a premiership as a power-sharing mechanism as far back as 2003. In this case, the principle to apply should have been ‘better early than late’.

In conclusion, whereas this is not meant to be a tongue-lashing of African leadership, I would like to echo the sentiment of one, Sabella O. Abide, who complained: “Our leaders find ways to weaken or corrupt our institutions; they manipulate the poor and uneducated; they play regional and sectional politics; they are masters of ethnic and religious politics; they draw no boundary between public and private interests thereby illegally enriching themselves; they have no respect for human life and dignity; and they rely on coercive agencies to do their biddings. And, in so doing, they become masters of survival strategies and those of divide and rule. All of the aforesaid have caused unmitigated sorrow. Dreams are lost and hopes are diminished”

But I have also given credit to certain countries that have exhibited exemplary developments. In 2004, in the Republic of South Africa, voters went to the polls to elect 400 members of the National Assembly who, in turn, picked the next president. The African National Congress (ANC) was slated to win more than 70 per cent of the votes. There was strong enthusiasm among the populace resulting in 75 per cent participation – a rate that is the envy of even the Western democracies.  

Africans must and will keep hope alive.

Dr Zwana is retired Professor and administrator of the State University of New York (SUNY) and former Resident Director of Syracuse University’s Abroad Study Program in Africa (Zimbabwe).