THE Egyptians stated clearly last week their unwavering determination to hold on firmly to their new-found liberties when they forced President Mohammed Morsi to hurriedly abandon the latest prank in his power acquisition bids. Morsi had attempted to smuggle a clause into a draft constitution that would have granted him sweeping and almost unrestricted powers which, as well, would have given him immunity over judicial oversight. At least nine officials have resigned from the Morsi government in protest over the bloodshed from protests and his handling of the turmoil. Other emerging democracies have a lot to learn from the doggedness of the Egyptian people.
Moving with the same gusto and tenacity that led to the ouster of former President Hosni Mubarak, their president for almost 30 years, the Egyptians mounted a sustained pressure, through days of street protests, that resulted in Morsi fleeing the Presidential Palace on Friday and finally changing his mind three days later on the obnoxious decree granting him sweeping and unchallengeable powers.
As was the case with the fight to kick out Mubarak and his military constituency from governance – which resulted in about 840 deaths – about six lives were reportedly lost in clashes arising from the decision of some pro-Morsi supporters to come and rally in support of their President. Significantly too, in spite of the “victory” of forcing the President to retrace his steps on the power acquisition bid, the Egyptians are still pressing ahead with more demands, asking for more secularity in governance, as against the bid to subject their freedoms to the authority of the strict Islamic law, the Sharia. They are also battling to ensure that the draft constitution does not go to a referendum already scheduled for Saturday.
This is a clear demonstration of the people's power in a democracy. The Egyptians knew that if they folded their arms and waited, nobody would fight their battle for them. They knew that their efforts in ousting Mubarak and his military junta colleagues would have been in vain if they allowed Morsi to get away with his rapacious hunger for power. It would have amounted to the replacement of one despot with another; perhaps a despot in uniform with another in mufti.
It is unfortunate that instead of bread, freedom and social justice, Morsi is delivering bloodshed to his people. Unyielding grip on enormous political powers is the hallmark of every dictator in Africa. Morsi is proving that he is not, in any way, different from Africa's pack of feckless rulers. Morsi who assumed office on June 30, with relatively little power to his credit, had moved steadily but determinedly to acquire power, especially the absolute power of legislative authority. Although the Supreme Council of Armed Forces that supervised his election as the democratically-elected president, had reserved legislative powers for itself, pending when elections would be held for the parliament or the People's Assembly, Morsi did not only revoke that decision of the military but he transferred the powers to himself. His new decrees issued on November 22 were reportedly “final and unchallengeable by any individual or body until a new constitution has been ratified and a new parliament has been elected.”
While the Egyptian example is quite commendable, it is however sad that electorate in other African countries have not yet appreciated the enormity of the power at their disposal in a democratic dispensation. Democracy is not just a political system for choosing and replacing the government through free and fair elections, it also requires active participation of the people, as citizens, in politics and civic life.
In Nigeria, for instance, the quality of governance has been of the most deficient and despicable standard because the people have not thought it necessary to hold political office-holders to account. Government officials get away with all manner of corrupt practices and looting the treasury without the people so much as lifting a finger. Elections are rigged in broad daylight without people showing enough anger commensurate with the offence.
As an oil producing country with a lot of money coming into government coffers, the standard of living in Nigeria continues to fall year after year. The quality of education continues to decline so fast that parents now rely on schools outside the country for the training of their children, while hospitals in India have become the most preferred destination for sick and affluent Nigerians.
Just last year, the country was defrauded to the tune of over N1.7 trillion in the name of paying oil subsidies to refined petroleum products importers. As if importing petroleum products is not embarrassing enough for a country that is the sixth largest oil producer in the world, only a handful of people are now standing trial almost one year after the mind-boggling heist was discovered. From the Egyptian example, it is obvious that African countries that are making forays into democratic rules can only derive the expected maximum benefits if they can carry out the kind of oversight functions their Egyptian counterparts are performing.
Morsi should spare his country the agony of violence, power grabs and flawed judgements.
