Faure Gnassingbe

February 22, 2005 10:19 AM

Some good news! The greatest problem Africa faces is bad government. When the President of Togo died earlier this month, the constitution dictated that power should go to the head of Parliament, until democratic elections could take place. The army expressed their regret that this couldn't happen, since the head of Parliament was out of the country. This was due to the army closing all the borders. They instead gave power to the ex-President's son, and altered the constitution to remove any reference to presidential elections. Now, it looks like progress is being made through protest and peer-pressure.
posted by Pretty_Generic (9 comments total)

not many responses to this post. I think, it's because we don't really know what to say. "we" being the developed world.

however, it is ultimately our interest to help Africa stand on its own two feet -- not in a patronizing way, but in a brotherly way.
being aware of the problems Africans face is a step.

PG is right that bad government is the source of many problems. I think the only real way to overcome this is by reaching out to and constructively educating the people. rather evident, very necessary.
posted by pwedza at 12:08 PM on February 22, 2005

pwedze: Well said.
posted by Freen at 1:33 PM on February 22, 2005

not many responses to this post. I think, it's because we don't really know what to say.

Well, one reason is that nothing has actually happened. It might have been better to hold off on the post until the situation was resolved one way or the other. As it is, I'm not entirely sure what the "good news" is supposed to be.
posted by languagehat at 2:07 PM on February 22, 2005

I thought the greatest problem that Africa faced was debt incurred by previous bad leaders loaned money by bad lenders who knew the money would be effectively stolen.

Many of the loans which are being re-paid were made during the Cold War to repressive regimes and corrupt leaders, who used the money to strengthen their rule or to line their own pockets. Many more loans were made without attention to the viability of planned projects or to the capacity of the recipient country to make repayments. Very little of the money filtered its way down to make any real difference in the lives of the African people. Demanding that these people and their new governments now pay for the corruption and mismanagement practiced by previous regimes is simply unjust.

See also Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (interview, not book, linked):

...we go to that third-world country and we arrange a huge loan from the international lending community; usually the World Bank leads that process. ...One of the conditions of that loan is that the majority of it, roughly 90%, comes back to the United States to one of our big corporations, the ones we've all heard of recently, the Bechtels, the Halliburtons. And those corporations build in this third-world country... big infrastructure projects that basically serve the very rich in those countries. The poor people in those countries and the middle class suffer... In fact, often their social services have to be severely curtailed in the process of paying off the debt. Now what also happens is that this third-world country then is saddled with a huge debt that it can't possibly repay.

posted by mistersix at 6:32 PM on February 22, 2005 [1 favorite]

They instead gave power to the ex-President's son, and altered the constitution to remove any reference to presidential elections.

So, they're just a little more formal than we are.
posted by telstar at 7:29 PM on February 22, 2005

it is ultimately our interest to help Africa stand on its own two feet

No, it's ultimately in our interest to keep at least one continent on the planet inhabited with cheap labor now that Asia got all upitty on us.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 8:19 PM on February 22, 2005

Well, the situation in Togo isn't really resolved yet, but things are indeed on the upswing. I don't think this is the real story, though.

The real story here is the steadfast insistence by Nigeria and South Africa that Togo revert to constitutional governance. These are both nations that have very brief histories as true democracies, and they're asserting themselves in a big way. Most observers see them as the center of the new African politics, so this is exceptionally promising. This objection has been backed up by the nascent African Union and the ECOWAS group of West African States. Both ECOWAS and Nigeria have had periods of ... somewhat self-interested intervention in the affairs of neighboring states.

This is a real moment of maturity in African politics, and I've been very pleasantly surprised at how quickly the protest came together, and how quickly Togo's junta caved. This is indeed good news. Togo is one small nation, but Nigeria and South Africa are essential states; having them on the right side of history is priceless.

If Togo's coup had succeeded, there was enormous risk that other militaries would be emboldened (often using the excuse of "corruption", which is of course endemic on the entire continent), and that dynastic succession would be reinforced in other instances such as Egypt. This bodes well for that country; Mubarak was surely watching the reaction, as many speculate he wants his son to succeed him.
posted by dhartung at 11:21 PM on February 22, 2005

Togo is one small nation, but Nigeria and South Africa are essential states; having them on the right side of history is priceless.

Excellent point. Let's hope they stay committed to the "right side"; both have large majorities mired in poverty that could be used by a demagogue to overthrow democratic rule.
posted by languagehat at 6:03 AM on February 23, 2005

No, while the debt issue is important, it doesn't help if the saved interest money is squandered by government graft.

There are very few governments in Africa that can compare with the long-term stable democracies (Botswana is an excellent exception), even South Africa and Nigeria have a long way to go. It's great that they're finally using their influence to make Africa better for Africans, we can hope for Zimbabwe next. (FWIW, IAAA)
posted by quiet at 3:24 AM on February 24, 2005