Africa Needs Dictators not Presidents.
- Thread starter RedCloakBlackWraithe
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The logic isn't bad, the only issue is that it's hard to tell whether you have a good dictator or a bad dictator until it's too late. hence why any citizen of any nation on Earth should be hesitant.
Overall, I think we're jumping the gun by throwing away democracy.
What reforms would be needed?
A prime example would be the president of Equatorial Guinea mbasongo. He was a military dictator who came to power by taking away the throne from his uncle who was a monster. Prior to getting power he spoke of reform, but after taking power he was only moderately better than his uncle. So now you have an extremely oil rich nation like Qatar in equatorial Guinea, But it's dictator is evil.
And even good dictators can be incompetent. think of a chairman Mao, who had great intentions for his country and actually attempted to have an industrial base, but He was incompetent. Which is a stark contrast from a Xi jinping who has both good intentions and is Also competent
When you look at the changes he made to yis country and the continent of Africa, arguably Gaddafi qualified too as a good dictator..
When you look at the changes he made to yis country and the continent of Africa, arguably Gaddafi qualified too as a good dictator..
Overall, I think we're jumping the gun by throwing away democracy.
I think it would be better to alter it to fit The African context. I think it's failing in Africa because we transplanted foreign systems without meshing them with local societies. And democracy can have many forms, for example look at Switzerland which doesn't even have a president but has a ruling council of seven people . Or place like Luxembourg which has a monarch with absolute authority that can be checked by the populace. Both of these are democracies, but they don't mirror America or the UK.
What reforms would be needed?
While I'm certainly not a constitutional scholar , I think much shorter terms and the ability to recall leaders needs to be woven into the democracies of Africa. For example, think of how the UK could have a incompetent prime minister like Lizz Truss and the population got her out of power in less than 2 months.
A mechanism like this, would hold African presidents to account. There is no similar mechanism in African democracies. But think of how useful it could be, In a case of bad leadership like with William ruto in Kenya. Here they had a president who was elected based on reform, but ended up being a monster once he was in office; and the population is gaslit that they have to accept this monster just because of the shoddy construction of the Constitution. This is wrong.
(Arguably America also needs this method When You have incompetent leaders like Trump).
When politicians know that there is a legal mechanism to get them out of power, they we'll start behaving accordingly.
And there are many ways to implement this. For example, imagine predefined confidence votes after The initial election. Something like 3 months, 6 months, one year, 2 years intervals where The public can determine whether the person currently in office is living up to their campaign promises. A simple plebiscite would be enough, And if the direct vote of the populace decides that the president isn't living up to promises They are removed and a general election is held.
A mechanism like this, would hold African presidents to account. There is no similar mechanism in African democracies. But think of how useful it could be, In a case of bad leadership like with William ruto in Kenya. Here they had a president who was elected based on reform, but ended up being a monster once he was in office; and the population is gaslit that they have to accept this monster just because of the shoddy construction of the Constitution. This is wrong.
(Arguably America also needs this method When You have incompetent leaders like Trump).
When politicians know that there is a legal mechanism to get them out of power, they we'll start behaving accordingly.
And there are many ways to implement this. For example, imagine predefined confidence votes after The initial election. Something like 3 months, 6 months, one year, 2 years intervals where The public can determine whether the person currently in office is living up to their campaign promises. A simple plebiscite would be enough, And if the direct vote of the populace decides that the president isn't living up to promises They are removed and a general election is held.
I actually think Switzerland model would work very well in Africa. Switzerland has their 7 leader iinstead of a single leader because Switzerland has many ethnicities and languages. This mirrors Africa greatly.
So rather than having a Dutch person or a German person or a French person or a Flemish person leading the country, Switzerland's multicultural executive Branch has the shared council. This actually mirrors a lot of native African government styles prior to colonization.
In regards to the video, one of that speakers big complaints is that a single leader can be bought off. I think The odds of one entity buying off all of the leaders is very low in a Swiss democracy Because each leader has a very strong accountability to their district.
So rather than having a Dutch person or a German person or a French person or a Flemish person leading the country, Switzerland's multicultural executive Branch has the shared council. This actually mirrors a lot of native African government styles prior to colonization.
In regards to the video, one of that speakers big complaints is that a single leader can be bought off. I think The odds of one entity buying off all of the leaders is very low in a Swiss democracy Because each leader has a very strong accountability to their district.
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Africa has had plenty of dictators.
RhodyRum
Mark Gassed-A-Heaux
Encourage tyranny, brehs. 
Mister Terrific
It’s in the name
Dorian Breh
Veteran
2 Up 2 Down
Veteran
T-K-G
Veteran
Switzerlands council of 7 is interesting as hell in concept, there's really no way for any one person to get out of control
Unfortunately politics is so radicalized here if we had a similar setup it'd just be bickering over that 7th spot for majority favor
GoPinheiro
Pro
A very simplistic view. Had plenty of culturally assimilated dictators. But not really plenty who were Africanists. All of the post-20th century African dictators were a product of western education or religious beliefs. In fact, when you think about it, they ended up following the guide perfectly. Because the goal for these assimilated people was for them rise to power and later maintain connections and a relationship of dependency with former colonial powers or similar states(like Switzerland, Austria etc).
Bokassa - French assimilated background. Raised in French missionary schools since the age of 6.
Bongo family(Gabon) - Same thing as Bokassa.
Ngessou(Congo Brazza) - Same thing
Gnassingbé family(Togo) Same thing.
Idi Amim - British assimilated background.
Dos Santos and Chissano - Same thing. Both came from culturally assimilated families. Genetically they were African but culturally were Euro-African, leaning more to the European side.
Mobutu - Very similar to Bokasa but replace 'French' with "Belgian"
Like, when you go to all of the dictators, the history is always the same. Educated from a younger age at missionary colonial schools.
I don't necessarily think there's anything wrong with any of the systems. Like any software system, we say "Garbage in, garbage out". If the people that participate in the system, especially the leaders, are not good people (inputs), the result is going to also not be good (outputs). And we can't leave out the outsiders who like to meddle as well
MajesticLion
Veteran
Zero clicks.
Africa has had plenty of dictators. Some were the colonial powers themselves. Some of them were originally elected and never left. Some of them over threw elected governments.
I am not sure what African countries need, but hopefully whatever emerges will be a system that grants its subjects human rights and lifts them out of staggering poverty.
Piff Perkins
Veteran
You don't think there is anything wrong with authoritarianism via a dictator?
Exactly what I was going to say.
Africa needs more COMPETENT leaders and much LESS corruption, but obviously that's easier said than done.