by DAYO OLAIDE
In the last two weeks Africa’s democracy encountered two major events. In Senegal, a new President Macky Sall emerged after a failed ‘civilian coup’ staged by outgoing President Abdoullaye Wade, 85, to have a third term. Mali was not so lucky as Coupists, led by Captain Amadou Sanogo, sacked elected President Amadou Toumani Toure (ATT); frustrating the country’s democracy and presidential elections scheduled for 19 April 2012. Both events are epochal in many regards. On the one hand, demonstrating the beauty of democracy, and on the other, revealing the ever present danger that democracy faces in Africa.
Both events hold important lessons for civil society, electorates and political parties in West Africa’s new democracies. But more importantly, for ECOWAS and AU, whose role as democracy watchdogs risks falling into disrepute as a result of the double standards they display in the face of threats confronting democracy and constitutional rule in the continent.
The case in Mali is clear and therefore needs no long explanation. Disgruntled soldiers, mutineers, seized power from an elected president. The reaction is all round condemnation throughout the continent and among its friends. Against the robust frameworks, protocols and conventions, that have emerged in the last two decades to promote and protect constitutional rule, the reactions are an understandable and welcome development.
The reaction was however different in Senegal in spite of the similarities in situation. Like in Mali, where Captain Sanogo and his allied soldiers sacked an elected government to suspend the constitution and impose unpopular administration, Wade’s third term bid would have resulted in imposition of unpopular government on the people, in addition to progressive weakening of key institutions and rules which the administration had pursued through constitutional amendments.
Throughout his 12 years reign, President Wade amended the constitution fourteen times (i.e. once every ten months on average) with the acquiescence of a weak parliament that acted in cahoots with Wade as a rubber stamp. Wade also used the discredited Constitutional Council to validate his candidacy and disqualify Youssou N’dour and others four weeks before the February 2012 election, throwing the country into major violence that resulted in at least six deaths, disruption of work and destruction of properties.
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