In today’s letter, I’ll explore political nepotism and why it does not exist in Canada, despite it still being racist. Whereas Canada doesn’t have nepotism in the upper echelons of power, our southern neighbour, the United States, is currently littered with it. Both countries use Western democracy, though differently. Canada isn’t only different from the US but also from Africa, where colonisers introduced chaotic democracy that never worked because it was a far-off imposition on Africa. Other than Botswana and somewhat South Africa, it is hard to pinpoint any African country with a functional democracy. Western democracy embeds and provokes intraparty scuffles and fake patriotism for power, but not serving the people as they pretend to.
Many so-called political parties are either kitbag property of their founders and owners, or veiled means of controlling resources for exploitation by a political cabal of self-seekers, their families, and friends. Colonisers introduced their democracy to Africa to perpetually weaken, control, and exploit it. That’s why it has created family domination and monopolisation of power in many African countries. Why does this democracy always depend on the West if it doesn’t serve its hidden interests as opposed to those of the African ordinary people? Western countries are always happy to dish out millions of dollars to fund our elections. To make sure that recipients meet their standards, they dispatch electoral observers to Africa.
Using their lens, once they’re satisfied with the results, they’ll declare it credible, free, fair, and transparent or not. So why don’t they allow us to observe their elections, at least to learn how democracy is implemented and give our insignificant verdict? Former Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe once ‘offered’ to send electoral observers to the US. My eye! The US flatly ignored the offer. This brings us to an over-touted but complex riddle of the government of the people, by the people, for the people, a description of democracy which worries me a lot. Who are the people, and what are they? After winning, US President Donald Trump twice filled many top positions in his government with family members.
Trump in his two administrations appointed his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, his senior advisor; Jared’s father, Charles Kushner, US ambassador to France; Kimberly Guilfoyle who was engaged to Donald Trump Jr until last year, ambassador to Greece; and Massad Boulos-the father-in-law of Trump’s youngest daughter, Tiffany- senior adviser on Arab and Middle East African issues, who also recently became the interceder in the DR Congo conflict. Ironically, when African presidents replicate the same, it’s called nepotism! It becomes anti-democratic. Let’s face it, nepotism is nepotism. Period. It’s bad, howbeit who employs, enjoys, entertains, or espouses it. When Tanzanian President Samia Suluhu Hassan recently appointed her daughter, Wanu Hafidh Ameir, as the deputy minister for Education, and her son-in-law, Mohamed Mchengerwa, as minister of Health, it became big news globally.
Tongues wagged with condemnations. In Equatorial Guinea, its long-serving president, Teodoro Obiang Mbasogo, appointed his sons, Teodoro Obiang Mangue, vice president and Gabriel Lima Mbega minister of Mines, in 2016; like his Togolese counterpart Gnassingbe Eyadema appointed his son Faure Essozimna minister, who later inherited the presidency after his demise. In the Ivory Coast, Alassane Ouattara appointed his younger brother, Téné Birahima Ouattara, minister of Defence. In Congo, President Denis Sassou-Nguesso appointed his son, Denis Christel Sassou-Nguesso, minister. What difference does such nepotism have from that in the US or any monarchy?
My simple argument is: if we want to become truly democratic, democracy must apply equally across the board; failure to which means double standard and hypocrisy. For Western democracy to work effectively and equally, it must apply the same standards globally. Its selectivity and inequality are its big undoing. We need to decolonise and deconstruct Western democracy by diving back into our past to see how our pre-colonial institutions and systems worked as a viable alternative to Western democracy, which has become a mockery.