25 September 2008
opinion
Kampala — IN January, Kenya set a new pace in African politics. President Mwai Kibaki was forced to share power with the opposition following a disputed election. This was replayed in Zimbabwe. This is an absurd development on the continent. But this may be the most viable solution for Africa's political problems. It is better than the situation where the winner takes it all.
Once all the parties honour the agreement, corruption shall be minimised, national unity shall be achieved and all forms of nepotism minimised.
Power in Africa is viewed as a source of wealth and various groups of people work hard to exclude others from having a share of the national cake. Political parties that are a means to power are formed along those lines and when a party wins elections, it is a triumph for a particular tribe or region.
Coalition governments will prevent power from looking like booty. Governments will cease to be of cronies. They will be governments of all nationals. In Zimbabwe, ZANU-PF is mainly composed of the Shona. The Ndebele have always suffered at the hands of ZANU-PF. If the parties in Zimbabwe agree to share power, the Ndebele will get fair treatment.
In Kenya, the Luo have suffered under past regimes because the party that many of them subscribed to was not in power. Now the Luo are secure in Kenya. The system creates regional balance and accommodates all citizens. Many times, people flee to exile after controversial elections but this arrangement can minimise that.
The system will succeed where coups and revolutions have failed. Governments will cease being institutions of relatives, friends and in-laws. It will be governments of checks and balances. This is because people in the government shall be hunting for blemishes from each to outsmart themselves before the masses. The arrangement will widen the base of ideas in the building of the country since all parties shall contribute.
Under the winner takes it all, the winning party assumes that the opposition's ideas are useless yet this is not the case. Coalitions are the most viable formations because they reflect reality on the African continent.
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We have already had "coalition governments;" the NRM was a coalition government before the western democracies forced it to adopt multipartism; the single party governments during the cold war that run African countries economies to the ground were socialist, communist, or whatever-you-call them coalition governments. The question is, since all the power is invested in the head of state, the only way you cannot have a winner-take-all is to share a presidency. Now how in the world are you going to share the presidency in a coalition arrangement? There can only be one winner, one president, at a time. Under… [Read Full Text]