Christopher Omara

28 March 2011

opinion

There are strong reasons for African dictators to tremble in the wake of political defiance at their doorsteps. The demands being raised by the pro-democracy movements in the affected countries are not different from what the citizens in all repressive regimes in Africa are experiencing. It is therefore very unpredictable how these suffering lots are likely to react given the lessons they have learnt from successful revolutions.

The demands by all these pro-democracy movements are both legal and political which include excessive police brutality, absence or lack of free and fair elections, lack of freedom, uncontrollable political corruption involving the rise to power of powerful businesspeople, a situation where "wealth fuels political power and political power buys wealth", high youth unemployment, inflation, and poor standard of living, among others. All these conditions appear to be prevalent in a number of African countries and they cause a lot of uneasiness in the leaderships.

The popular uprising that started in Tunisia in December 2010 and spread to Egypt, Algeria, Yemen, Bahrain, Syria, Iran, Jordan, Libya, Syria, and Morocco, among others, continue to send shivers across Africa.

Suppressions only a temporary relief for the autocratic leaders who know that unless key demands of protestors are met, the situation might explode any time. The uprisings must therefore serve as a stark warning to all autocratic regimes that there will be no lasting stability without freedom and justice. In a globalised world, the power of the social media has ensured that there is no secrecy in any country, especially where there is abuse of human rights.

Motivated by a sense of nationalism and broad-based social consciousness, there has been a radical change from the intellectual stagnation created by decades of repression to a more proactive political defiance by citizens in their struggle to achieve justice and freedom for all. A cosmopolitan culture is developing in which people are beginning to think globally and act locally.

Most interesting is the speed at which the systematic autocratic 'mastery of tactical manoeuvring' of placing relatives and loyal members of the leader's tribe in sensitive government, military and other positions while skillfully marginalising other tribes collapsing. Dictators are equally never safe because the only best guarantee to their own peace are the people who live under a genuinely democratic system.

The determination exhibited by the anti-dictatorship, irrespective of its outcome, could only be likened to the words of Abraham Lincoln (1861-1865), the 16th US President, who said: "The probability that we may fail in the struggle ought not to deter us from the support of a cause we believe to be just."

Mr Omara a student of conflict transformation studies, Gulu University

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