Governance

In practice, the ruling Rwanda Patriotic Front (RPF) has progressively reduced the space for other political forces to operate in the country. For now, political space in Rwanda is completely closed to political parties that are not co-opted into the RPF monopolistic machinery.

Elections in Africa are taken far seriously by citizens than previously thought. Academics may dismiss these as inconsequential, but Western powers do not, as they seek to use elections to promote their strategic interests.

I attended the August 2013 session of the Pan African Parliament. My first impression was of an institution that was open to the public and not a ‘closed’ space (or at least not as closed as most AU organs).

Now the ruins of slavery are cleared, we can proceed to build the Afrikan federation, the same way artists create a monument when ruins clear (civilizations in this case).

Zimbabwe is once again an eye opener to all Africans who value their national sovereignty and control of their country’s mineral wealth and other Africa’s national resources for their people. The sustained attack on Zimbabwe is an economic war by imperialist Western countries on Africa.

During the 1960s to 1980s, dominant discourses in West Africa centred on industrialisation and manufacturing economy.

Through the recent few decades, there has been a strongly-asserted argument on African countries which are struggling economically and politically. The argument is that their way out of the vicious circle of poverty, debt and dependency is in the ‘market’ way.

Zimbabwe’s last elections have given credence to the suspicion that President Robert Mugabe may never willingly give up power. But an American journalist has suggested that Mugabe can still be enticed to step up away from power in 2018 by offering him an honorable exit now.

Zimbabwe just had general presidential and parliamentary elections in which the ruling party simply swept the votes contrary to the expectations of many.

General Olusegun Obasanjo who misruled Nigeria for eleven years recently went to Ibadan to curse corrupt and inept rulers of Nigeria, including himself, when he stated: ‘Maybe we are all going to hell’.