OBASANJO: AFRICA MADE A MISTAKE BY EMBRACING WESTERN LIBERAL DEMOCRACY

Babatunji Wusu –

Olusegun Obasanjo, the former president, claimed that accepting the Western liberal democracy brought by the Europeans was a mistake made by African nations.
This was stated by Obasanjo on Tuesday in Abuja at a meeting with House of Representatives members who were supporting a measure to bring back the parliamentary form of government.

According to the former president, the liberal democracy that the West brought to African nations is out of step with the moral ethos of the region.

Declaring that there is nothing uniquely African about liberal democracy, Obasanjo urged the nations of the continent to design their own brand of democracy.

He said: “Let me go back to the beginning, where we got it wrong — the Western liberal democracy, that is what the Europeans have.

“When you look at Western liberal democracy, it is a product of their history. A product of their culture. A product of their way of life.

“I have looked into most African languages; Western democracy has what they call loyal opposition. What is opposition in African languages?

“Enemy. Western democracies called oppositions ‘loyal’ because the oppositions are loyal to the monarchy. That’s where their loyal democracy began. They used to have monarchies.

“There is nothing in liberal democracy that is African. We ruled ourselves before the advent of colonialism. We had empires and striving kingdoms. We did not rule ourselves as opposition.

“What is in it for us? I don’t know, but you can give it. For lack of an appropriate word, let us call it afro-democracy. That is where we have to begin.”