Much ado about elections in Africa
We are in the middle of a spate of elections across Africa. Last year, a dozen countries went to the polls. Ten more have held elections this year, with about thirteen more to go before the end of 2019. In a formal sense, democracy appears to be sinking deep roots into the continent’s soil. Gone are the days of the last quarter of the twentieth century when military dictatorships and one-party states where the norm. However, this has not translated into the betterment of the lot of the poor masses. Two thirds of the least developed countries in the world are in Africa. This of course does not mean that everyone in those countries bear the brunt of poverty. The politicians and businessmen in countries like Congo, Mozambique and Uganda which are considered to be some of the poorest countries in the world, enjoy opulent lifestyles. The key to ostentatious wealth for these degenerate figures of the African ruling class is political power. And through hook or crook (quite often som...