Thread by @lilomatic

1/ The leadership crisis in Africa emanates from a convolution of governance & politics. We have dysfunctional political values, that place hope & change in the hands of persons who want to run for political power. There is a difference between an elected 'leader' & a leader.

2/ We tend to confuse these two. We forget that a 'non-leader' can be elected. We have plenty useless & inept people in elected seats who have failed to deliver to the electorate. Sadly, most of these continue to be voted for every electoral year. #FarceElectoralDemocracy

3/ We got so excited by colonial hangover, adopted everything left behind by the western colonizers & never bothered to create our own systems that actually work in our context as Afrikan countries. The colonizers left us with a farce & grand fiction called "Electoral Democracy"

4/ We have never investigated what that word means. Perhaps we tend to think that elections are what democracy is. What is so special in an election? Nothing. In fact, everything is wrong with elections. Elections are a 'formality'. #FarceElectoralDemocracy

5/ The notions of formalities are noble fictions that were prevalent in the Roman style leadership, which is the culture of our former colonial masters. When they were going about colonizing, they even brought up another fiction called 'doctrine of discovery'. #DecolonizeAfrika

6/ This is where the colonizer would 'discover' something that the native interacted with every day. One Dr Krapf 'discovered' Mt Kenya. These fictions & concepts were used to JUSTIFY certain actions that would otherwise be unjustifiable. The absurdity of it is really perplexing.

7/ Why would someone evict someone out of their ancestral land? If it is not sheer evilness, then it was meant 'to pave way for modernity'. Now, with that grand rationalization, people buy the fiction & miss the brainwash. We are victims of the many fictions that we call reality.

8/ We are unable to interrogate them & to cease practicing/believing/normalizing them, because we don't even know that there are such things. Or we know but are just fearful of changing what we assume to be real. We are then deceived and shortchanged.

9/ We focus so much on the promise forgeting the immediate reality. We wonder why some things don't work & we blame ourselves unaware that it's not us who are the problem but the tools we use to achieve what we want to achieve. We cannot achieve true democracy through elections.

10/ Elections have become a huge circus All sorts of selfish people gather citizens to have the best liar rewarded. Once the best liars are rewarded they leave the stage & you're left staring at an empty stage wishing the play would go according to the script you had in your head

11/ Democracy has many meanings. Depending on where it is being used. In essence, it seeks to bring together all voices & to address everyone's problems & grievances. Is that the case with electoral democracy? Does it seem to make your voice heard? Your grievances aired?

12/ Your ideas listened to & implemented?

NO

It lies to you that your voice is exercised in the ballot, for you to choose someone whose voice will replace yours.

Think about it!

Be wise, open your mind & start interrogating things

#happyvalentinesday