The total break with a corrupt state is possible without federalism or secession.
The situation in the tropics is hot, not just because of the climate, but mainly because of the social tensions that have persisted for decades, and the authorities in charge of these states have always used cosmetic measures, dividing the public opinion, corrupting the political class and muzzling the masses both by misery and by police forces, which are implicitly encouraged to do what is best to earn their pittance, the armed forces and the police since decades of crises have been hitherto the only recruiting cadres and agents, who generally by nepotistic sham manage to enter the caste of the elected ones, who at least can pride themselves, on living in the oasis of the desert of misery. In Africa, whether you are deserving it or not, you always need to have a parachute and solid boots, to succeed in any sector, this means you need to have high-ranking people who would defend your interests.
The decay of the states of sub Saharan Africa, has in recent years reached a serious peak with kleptomaniac rulers who accumulate elective mandates as in Cameroon or the Congo. In Africa, Even the so-called democrats come to take over by the might of Weapons and Western policy, which is often very complacent when it comes to placing one of its neo-colonial agents, as was the case in Cote d'Ivoire, where the nobility of democracy was often referred to as a mean to force zany agendas.
In the early 1990s in Algeria, the Islamic Salvation Front had won elections in a clear manner, both the communal elections in 1990 and the parliamentary elections in 1992, which would normally have brought the leader of the party Abassi Madani to power. However, the West had thought it would be wise to ignore the results of the ballot boxes, to finance a coup d’état that sent the founders of the party, Abassi Madani, Ali Benhadj, Hashemi Sahnouni, Said Makhloufi and Abdelkader Hachani to prison. The ensuing bloody decade bore the stamp of both Western-backed government forces and the Islamic front of salvation with its armed Islamic group, which had made easy the denigration and demonization campaign against them that followed. Eventually things ended in stalemate and status quo. The government supported by the West, consolidating its grip on power through the wear and tear of war, with Abdel Aziz Bouteflika who, like his counterparts in the south of the Sahara, managing to manipulate the constitution, in order to remain in power ad vitam aeternam. Democracy was Thus sent to oblivion even if the Islamists themselves had intended to impose a dictatorial regime, it is no less true that a political class decided to remain indefinitely in office with the blessing of the West.
This example illustrates how difficult it is for people to find happiness in politics, because politicians in general serve only selfish agendas, that are light years away of the interests of the people. So, it becomes important that the same people stop legitimizing the oppressive position of a caste of politicians, in the management of their destiny. It is contradictory to fight a system and at the same time to feed the same system. While discussing with representatives of that type of government what are the expectations? that the authority will at last hear you, and that in a magnanimous manner it will grant you suitable conditions which would reduce its power?
It is imperative to understand that politicians are adepts of political science not of the management of the public thing, which is only a tool that they use in the realization of their design, which is the capture of the political power. Especially in democracies under Western protectorate, such as those in sub-Saharan Africa, or in democracies under the protectorate of the industrial oligarchy, as in the Western democracies.
Political science is the opposite of the management of public affairs; however, the politician uses the means he holds to manage public affairs, to establish his power, which in general runs in the opposite of the interests of the populace. In the case of crises which are the norm of this kind of government, which are undoubtedly cyclical, since policies taken in disregard of the interests of the people always coincide with the economic situation, which is also cyclical, in the dominant capitalism that governs the Western and African Nations. Strikes, secessionist movements and the like that occur in a cycle, serve only to provide experienced politicians, both locals and internationals, with a multitude of options to manipulate the masses, and above all to remain the keystone of the system. While manifesting or sending grievances to a state that is known to be corrupt, or by asking for the support of the Western Nations which helped to perpetuate the situation of widespread misery under the Tropics, like it or not, one validates the power that this State, and its western acolytes, have in the management of the life of citizens.
To put an end to this vicious cycle of unsatisfied demands, and corruption of the elite, a very simple solution is to cut off the corrupt state from the means it recovers, from the management of the public affairs by a simple ploy.
Organize the civil society into a conglomerate that will gradually take control of all the key sectors of social life. The management of public health, public works and education is possible outside the government, which has since failed the populations. In addition, it is of course possible to push further the influence of this social conglomerate, by purchasing, including by force of law, important shares in the management of companies exploiting mineral resources. Would this conglomerate once implanted have enough moral probity to do better than the government?
The question remains unanswered because often when things do not work in a country, the wrongs are often shared, even if the reality of the ubiquitous interventionist state (both positive and negative intervention) takes away any benefit of the doubt from the government. However, by making every citizen a legal shareholder in the conglomerate managing public life, participatory democracy cannot fail, because everyone would feel concerned by the management of the public thing, which mutatis mutandis would become theirs from the point of view of the law and ideology.
One of the biggest criticisms that has often been made against African administrations emerging from colonization, is their inadequacy with local and traditional realities. By appealing to African solidarity, a system of tontine at the level of a state is possible. Africans in the south of the Sahara for sure would thus rehabilitate, the notion of public good, to the notion of common good; because the state is always seen as an oppressive entity, a direct outgrowth of the colonial power.
Far from being a view of the spirit, examples of peoples taking charge of their destiny exist in Africa. It’s the case of The Royal Bafokeng Nation, a small area of the Rustenburg valley in the northwest of the Republic of South Africa, whose population of 150,000 is essentially composed of the Setswana ethnic group, who speak English as second language.
The Bafokeng form a very special tribal group, in the sense that they are financially prosperous. In general, African nations have become dependent on foreign aid which is in fact reimbursable loans; shameful balls at liberty and development, Donor countries, creditors of facts require to be repaid in their own currency, which is often stronger. With the fluctuation of exchange rates, the scandal of the deterioration of the terms of trade and of slavery-like currencies like the CFA F, the system of debt and unfair treaties North-South, is simply a perpetual slavery, and the States created by the colonial powers to enrich them continuously, cannot simply beyond the contempt of the regents in place, serve the welfare of the local populations.
Per a certain adage, the weapons of the slave master are often used to consolidate its house, not to destroy it. However, beyond the African miserabilism that often make headlines in the mainstream press, the Bafokeng, through a rigorous management of the funds they collected among themselves and several lawsuits they brought against the multinational companies operating mines in their region, have managed to retain control over their natural resources. While Cameroonian secessionists lose time to discuss the international laws that protect indigenous peoples for political reasons, the Bafokeng have instead exploited the economic character of international legislation on indigenous peoples, obtaining, through trial, lucrative royalties on Mining operations. With this financial windfall snatched from Western operators, the Bafokeng have created a multi-billion-dollar sovereign investment fund, the Royal Bafokeng Development Trust. A sovereign fund that deals with all the key sectors of life of the Bafokeng, who remain South African, but are no less proud to belong to their ethnic group. The Bafokeng thanks to the Royal Bafokeng Holding have built roads, hospitals, schools, football stadiums, and grant scholarships, in the most prestigious universities of the world to their children. It should be noted, however, that far from being an ethno-fascist entity, the royal Bafokeng Holding has thousands of shareholders from other black ethnic groups of South Africa.
The Chief Igbo some time ago began to follow in the footsteps of the Bafokeng by instigating a series of lawsuits against the exploiters of the petroleum resources of the region of Biafra, while in Cameroon the so-called Anglophone citizens reveal themselves in the long run to be very good French, which they seem to criticize, illustrating themselves as the latter, very sharp, in the political jousts and social unrests. France has always been the country par excellence of strikes and social movements.
By Hubert marlin Elingui Jr.
Journalist writer.
