The Advent of Barack Obama!

By Tazoacha Asonganyi

The euphoria that has greeted the victory of Barack Obama in Africa can only be compared to that which greeted the election of Kofi Annan as the Secretary General of the United Nations some years ago.

To some, Obama’s feat is a signal that the hour of the black race to dominate the world as predicted by Colonel Ghadafi has come!

Such wishful thinking is indicative of the fact that even if we have refused to organize and prepare ourselves for such a possibility, we would be happy if it came our way!

It is the regular changes imposed by presidential term limits in the USA that allow people like Barack Obama to emerge from relative obscurity. Indeed, Barack Obama may never have emerged if the first president that took up office in the USA in 1789 and subsequent ones each served for 20 years or more!

To qualify to dominate the world, there must be appropriate processes that allow us to regularly identify the best among us to lead the way in all domains. This is why it is appropriate to revisit the recent debate on Presidential term limits in Cameroon which featured the usual classical arguments on the issue, except that it was taking place in a poor, underdeveloped country that needs innovative and strategic thinking to turn the country around.Those who were against term limits were mainly barons of the regime in place.

They argued that a "good" president could be lost through term limits; that the two-term limit is undemocratic because it limits voter choice; that in some western democracies there are no term limits for the heads of executive branches; that some policies require long term leadership to ensure their success...Those who were for term limits were mainly those who think that our society has to constantly renew itself to meet the various challenges of bringing prosperity to the country.

They argued that the role of President of the Republic is so important that unlimited terms may breed elective dictatorship; that unlimited terms allow the use of the advantages of incumbency to win election after election; that the longer a specific individual is in place and has the potential to continue to be in place in the future, the greater the chance that council, legislative and regional elections would be fixed to ensure personal support for him nationally; that the longer the tenure, the greater the chance for corruption; that no one man is greater than the office of President, the more reason why Ahidjo "the father of the nation" went and the presidency continued to function; that in our multi-ethnic, bi-national country, the best option for just and equitable rule is to have term limits that allow regular changes in the Presidency to manage our diversity; that the checks and balances that allow the legislative and judicial branches to control the executive in western democracies are absent in Cameroon where the president of the republic is the "head" not only of the executive but also of the legislative and judicial branches; that if the people really support the policies of the incumbent, the party the President belongs to can continue them when his term is up...The term-limit debate was therefore about the best form of an executive branch that should lead governance processes in Cameroon.

Unfortunately, it was turned around to become a debate for or against Paul Biya. Having decided to put personal interest over national interest, we can surely not seek to eat our cake and have it! The processes that familiarized us with Barack Obama do not resemble those that allowed us to conduct and decide on the outcome of the term limit debate...The people in every society that seeks to dominate the world are inherently plural with different opinions, different points of view, different passions... They are always debating issues, in permanent struggle, in permanent self-reflection and permanently engaged in self-criticism.

These activities open the society to challenge, innovation and change. Since 1982, we have zigzagged from no-term-limits to term-limits and back to no-term-limits to satisfy a single individual! Such zigzagging cannot be said to be characteristic of people who are even imagining that they can one day rule the world... or produce a welcome surprise for the world, like Barack Obama!

The manner in which the term-limits debate was conducted and resolved is symbolic of the personalized and haughty manner in which governance business is conducted in Cameroon. This gags our society and constitutes a major impediment for those who pretend to be preparing to dominate the world. A second impediment is our lack of both a framework of governance and a form of state laid down in a constitution of Cameroon that is accepted by all stakeholders.

The present constitution, cherished by the party in power is contested by political parties in the country, since each has its own "constitution" for Cameroon that they would "adopt" if they got to power. It is also contested by civil society groups like the All Anglophone Conference that proposed its own constitution for Cameroon in 1993.

Further, there is presently a call from within some political parties like the feminist Coordination of alternative forces that is clamouring for the holding of a "Peoples’ Assembly" to debate and adopt a framework of governance in Cameroon.

The country that has thrust Barack Obama to the fore has a framework for the organization of government laid out in their Constitution that is unanimously accepted by all stakeholders in the USA. Their constitution provides a solid foundation on which politics and political processes are conducted, to the benefit of all. Unfortunately, we lack such a solid, firm and unshakeable foundation for our country.

One of the principal failures of the regime in Cameroon is its refusal to heal this rift on constitutionalism by facilitating the provision of a framework for governance that is acceptable to all of us, without discrimination of political party, ethnic group, factional interest or other considerations. Without such a solid foundation, we are unable to stand up in the world, not to talk of aspiring to dominate it!We need a framework of governance that depersonalizes the conduct of issues of national interest, and gives citizens equal opportunity to pursue their happiness and wellbeing.

The absence of agreement on the supreme law of the land alienates stakeholders and leaves them quarrelling over trivialities, instead of freeing citizens to engage in individual, reasoned actions and productive efforts to bring prosperity to our society.

This is why the time to dominate the world still has to wait. But we should not fail to learn the "lesson from America": that in an appropriate environment, Africans can be just as good, sometimes better than other peoples!