Former chairman of the Impartial Nationwide Electoral Fee (INEC), Attahiru Jega, has warned that democracy in West Africa is deteriorating because of poor governance and ineffective management.
Talking in Abuja on Tuesday because the keynote speaker on the “Reflection Convention on Democratic Elections in West Africa,” organized by Yiaga Africa, a civil society group (CSO), Jega linked governance failures to the resurgence of navy coups throughout the area.
He cited latest coups in Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea, and Niger as proof of rising public dissatisfaction, attributing this unrest to the actions of political leaders who’ve prioritized private acquire over public service.
“The so-called elected representatives of the folks have primarily transformed public sources into private fortunes on the expense of residents’ wants and aspirations,” he mentioned.
Jega warned that democratic setbacks attributable to governance failures have supplied justification for navy interventions, posing a big risk to the area’s stability.
“These persistent challenges have given coupists the reasons wanted to stage a comeback—a harmful phenomenon that might engulf the area and speed up democratic backsliding until addressed decisively and urgently,” he cautioned.
He criticized political leaders for utilizing elections as a way to retain energy reasonably than to deepen democracy.
“Elections turned largely farcical rituals designed to make sure the retention of the incumbent president and celebration,” he famous.
Jega additionally highlighted the hazards of identification politics, arguing that ethnic and non secular divisions have been weaponized by politicians to take care of management, additional destabilizing the area. “Multiparty politics, circumscribed by destructive identification mobilization, has been fractious, conflict-ridden, usually violent, and divisive, reasonably than accommodative or unifying,” he mentioned.
Calling for pressing reforms, he emphasised the necessity to strengthen democratic establishments, improve accountability, and be sure that elections genuinely replicate the folks’s will.
Jega urged civil society organizations to withstand democratic decline, stating that “residents and credible CSOs should proceed to mobilize successfully for credible and sustainable democratic growth.”
