{"id":104598,"date":"2015-04-02T06:00:47","date_gmt":"2015-04-02T06:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=104598"},"modified":"2015-04-02T06:11:47","modified_gmt":"2015-04-02T06:11:47","slug":"ex-soldiers-and-rebels-now-in-control-of-africas-5-biggest-economies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=104598","title":{"rendered":"Ex- soldiers and rebels now in control of Africa\u2019s 5 biggest economies"},"content":{"rendered":"

The election win of Muhammad Buhari in Nigeria now means Africa\u2019s five biggest economies by GDP are now in the hands of either former military men or leaders with armed struggle credentials.<\/p>\n

In addition to Africa\u2019s biggest economy, South Africa, Egypt, Algeria and Angola are run by leaders who either fought in bush wars\u00a0or rode in on soldiers\u2019 credentials, completing\u00a0a stunning reversal of what had been celebrated as the rise of African technocrats.<\/p>\n

It is also a regional trend\u201420 other countries\u00a0share the same leadership trait, together constituting\u00a0nearly half of the continent\u2019s 54 countries.<\/p>\n

\"buhari-campaign1\"<\/p>\n

South Africa\u2019s Jacob Zuma is only constrained by the country\u2019s still-strong democratic practices, but he was among those jailed at Robben Island for his anti-apartheid liberation activities and was ANC\u2019s intelligence chief during the anti-apartheid struggle.<\/p>\n

It appears the continent\u2019s leading economies, scarred by conflict including with militants and separatists, are plumping for stability first. Algeria for example preferred to elect a man in a wheelchair but who could guarantee security after its scarred past\u00a0rather than experiment with fresher candidates.<\/p>\n

Among other things, Abdelaziz Bouteflika is a veteran of Algeria\u2019s\u00a0independence Army of National Liberation, a force he joined in 1956 at the tender age of 19.<\/p>\n

\"Egypt's
Egypt’s Abdel Fattah el-Sisi<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Egypt has since seen a suit-wearing general muscle his way into power in the wake of a revolution that seems to have come full circle, while Angola\u2019s Jose Eduardo dos Santos very much retains his liberation struggle credentials.<\/p>\n

It is an ironic turn\u2014economists, lawyers and academics had been seen as better at baking national cakes, and thus heading off discontent,\u00a0but it would appear they failed the managerial test of wealth redistribution.<\/p>\n

Their rise also\u00a0coincided with with the emergence of security and non-state actors without return addresses as the continent\u2019s major concern.<\/p>\n

Terrorism has in recent years\u00a0bumped big energy finds and technological gains from the headlines, threatening billion-dollar investment and thus support for\u00a0governments.<\/p>\n

\"South
South Africa’s Jacob Zuma<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Given the failure of economic growth to yield\u00a0the expected benefits to individual citizens, there has been a\u00a0renegotiation of social contracts.<\/p>\n

Give us just that, and we will do the rest, has seemed to be the growing African sentiment, and which has been expressed both by\u00a0violent revolution in the streets, and changes at the ballot box.<\/p>\n

This has also been a byproduct of over-promising by civilian leaders, leading to their fiscal overreaching as they sought to desperately raise money to fund their pledges.<\/p>\n

\"Angola\u2019s
Angola\u2019s Jose Eduardo dos Santos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The message from the region seems to be a hybrid\u2014democratic practices but mixed with order.<\/p>\n

It is also scientific. A survey by Afrobarometer in 33 African countries shows that most Africans do support democracy \u2013\u00a0but also revealed\u00a0some ambivalence and conflicted attitudes.<\/p>\n

The researchers asked respondents whether democracy is the form of government they want, but to test their \u201ctrue commitment\u201d, they also asked respondents whether they reject all forms of autocratic rule \u2013 one-party rule, military rule and one-man rule.<\/p>\n

Almost all those interviewed (93%) reject at least one form of autocracy. But fewer people rejected two forms (81%) and far fewer rejected all three forms (58%). Most importantly, less than half of all Africans interviewed (46%) consistently identify democracy as the only form of government they would ever wish to have.<\/p>\n

Although the demand for democracy has increased 15 percentage points since 2002, a deeply rooted demand for democracy – meaning\u00a0rejecting all forms of autocratic government – remains a minority public sentiment.<\/p>\n

\"Algeria's
Algeria’s Abdelazziz Bouteflika<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Essentially, what the poll\u00a0result showed was a deep dissatisfaction with the type of democracy being supplied in Africa.<\/p>\n

It is a message that will resonate with investors, who abhor leadership vacuums and like to know exactly who is in charge in a country and how safe their assets are from political movements.<\/p>\n

It is however not a blanket endorsement for strongman types\u2014a developing debate has been how some are exploiting this new \u201csecuritised\u201d environment to shrink political space\u00a0and criminalise dissent.<\/p>\n

But either way, few would contest that\u00a0these are exciting, if uncertain,\u00a0times for the continent.<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

Source: Mail & Guardian Africa<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The election win of Muhammad Buhari in Nigeria now means Africa\u2019s five biggest economies by GDP are now in the hands of either former military men or leaders with armed struggle credentials. In addition to Africa\u2019s biggest economy, South Africa, Egypt, Algeria and Angola are run by leaders who either fought in bush wars\u00a0or rode […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":104526,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[38],"class_list":["post-104598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","tag-palaver-newspaper"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=104598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/104526"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=104598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=104598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=104598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}