Weaponisation of government harms Africa

Weaponisation of government remains the independent Africa’s Achilles’ heel. We lost the morality war when weaponisation of government succeeded the colonial state; we defeated colonialism only to watch in horror as black-led governments presided over a political space that is antithetical to democratic desires of the average citizen. Leaders talk democracy yet they display cravings for plenary authority.

Everything about African independence is a structured lie. The stance betrays trust between the public and government; it marginalises the average person from decision-making; it is responsible for the erosion of human rights in the continent for government critics, individuals and organised groups.

Characteristic features of many governments in the contemporary Africa include moral depravity, appropriation of public power, greed, short-termism and naivety, absence of ideological originality and ideological uncertainty – frequently pivoting towards whatever country/ region gives or promises financial grants and/ or loans, flawed democracies without oversight, and the law that functions as a control vessel not an accountability tool.

Time for a silent public to go; the average citizen must be the arbiter of our political system; appropriation of power from the public and the susceptibility of the political elites to unchecked bribe-taking and foreign influence must be taken seriously and pushed back strongly – now, that is patriotism.  

Responsibility must be equally placed on the average African, the average person cannot claim to be the innocent victim here: for too long, people have indulged the elite and elected the tricksters. What we then get are governments if not that we deserve, then certainly those we choose, and expose ourselves to manipulation.

We argue that some things must never be tolerated and appropriation of power by the elite is one of them. No one should be making decisions on our behalf without our consent, and we should not be surrendering our power to anyone without due diligence.

Denouncing all forms of injustice, including that committed on our behalf is never unpatriotic, if anything, it is the most patriotic thing one can do.

Conversely, by not paying attention to injustice, we implant it; when we neither punish nor reproach evildoers because others, not us, are victims, we are not simply protecting their evil actions, we are enabling them and are just as guilty. Let us use available resources including online technologies to confront, year-round, real and perceived threats to personal freedoms and liberties.

We cannot start to talk about freedom where government institutions are primed to consolidate power, target, censor, and control certain population groups and state critics.

Government overreach is normalised in many African capitals where time and again, we witness the executive nefariously leveraging various institutions of governance to consolidate power, control public access to information, control the narrative, extend privilege to and protect allies from prosecution for real crimes while concocting fake criminal charges against and prosecuting perceived adversaries.  

Authoritarian leaders purposely surround themselves with sycophants and loyalists. They purposefully marginalise competent public officials because being surrounded by impotent sycophants without ideological conviction, but blind loyalty gives them a sense of invincibility.

Fear of losing power, more than necessity, determines policy decisions and investment priorities; governments wilfully turn the law against public interest, turn combat officers into mediocre crowd control stooges just to demonstrate their power and intimidate the public.

No surprise then that we are in an era where tribe, partisanship and loyalty are prioritised over merit and competence. There is constructive marginalisation of the public from corridors of power via convoluted, corrupt electoral processes including the meddling of the state in local elections, open threats of violence against the electorate for voting one way and not the other, and other perverse, non-democratic interventions.  

The outcome is a political space that creates and adopts damaging short-sighted pseudo laws that authorise policies designed to secure the trust of those in power, empower them to punish their adversaries and thereby ripping the foundations of justice from beneath future generations.

When sycophants are brought closer to power with the primary mission of implanting vulnerabilities to the system, the outcome is the systemic decapitation of the public.

In the chaos that ensues due to the partisan decisions of those who run government departments as if they were private enterprises of their benefactor leader, and the wilful undermining of rules, there is consistent and dangerous consolidation of power in the executive, weakening of oversight tools, deepening of government incompetence, wastage and a lack of accountability within the system – invaluable authoritarian regimes.  

Until the average citizen constructively withholds his power, withholds his labour and all privileges he extends to the elite, the illusion of the power of those in power will persist and the average citizen will continue to witness his needs relegated to wants. The average citizen must understand the power he holds and take control in shaping local and national policy.