August 10, (THEWILL) – A continental pro-democracy organisation, Pan-African Radical Congress (PARC), has said that democratic negotiation for political mandate remains the most viable means of governance for humanity.
PARC came up with this position during a Zoom convention it organised to deliberate on a way to break the yoke of re-colonization, which it said is being cunningly introduced through military interventions on the continent
The convention, which was held between Saturday, 5th and Sunday, 6th August 2023, has as its theme: “Africa, Time to Break the Yoke of Neo-Colonial Despoliation”.
PARC, after the conference, said the Niger military coup is a major concern for democratic governance and rule of law, particularly coming on the heels of similar coups in Mali, Chad, and Guinea just as Sudan is still battling internal, armed civil war and of course, strung by foreign powers.
It said that there is a fever of clamour to engage in military options to return Niger Republic to constitutional and democratic governance, saying this has polarised global and foreign powers along the lines of those in support of the coup like France and those for return of democratic government led by the m United States of America (USA), adding that “perhaps, we may also add ECOWAS under Nigeria steering”.
The Conference, therefore, called on African leaders and Institutions to mount pressure on the military junta in Niger to respect and restore democratic order, saying the cost of war and its social consequences would be too fatal for the continent to bear.
PARC, however, maintained that, if diplomatic entreaties fail, military options should become the last resort.
The Conference further resolved to commence a Campaign for 100,000,000 (Hundred Million) Signatories on African Citizens’ Petition Against Military Coups to be submitted to Global Leaders and institutions like the UN, AU, and ECOWAS as well as diplomatic communities
It recalled with admonition, the position of Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, that military solutions to the military incursion of democratic space in Niger may become an ill wind that blows no one no good, just as it also highlighted ebulliently the nature of French policy of assimilation of African countries into its neo-colonial orbits at the detriment of the States.
Despite all manoeuvres, the conference said it stood its ground that it is not hoodwinked by its commitment to peoples’ mandate through democratic processes not to notice the apparent bastardisation of this system by African leaders.
“Many did not only emerge in powers through credible democratic processes, nor demonstrate eagerness for requisite electoral reforms. Many, on the other hand, transformed into sit-tight, despotic rulers riding roughshod over their citizens. The greatest sin, however, is the inability of most so-called democratic leaders to deliver palpable gains of democracy to ameliorate the sordid conditions of squalor of their citizens.
“This is largely because the political and economic ruling class serve first the rapacious interests of their foreign powers’ patrons, and thereafter, like kleptomaniacs who they are, corner the little remaining resources, leaving nothing to address the needs and yearnings of the citizens.”
While identifying this situation as providing fertile grounds for an undemocratic takeover of governance, the Conference believes that democratic negotiation of political mandate remains the most viable means of governance for humanity, saying, “It is the most correct means of meeting up with the social aspirations of the Africa continent and its hapless citizens.”
At the end of the jaw-jaw, the Pan African civil society organisation conference, therefore, resolved that “peoples’ democracy, providing concrete, sustainable panacea to social needs and aspirations of citizens is the pathway to attain for the African continent to attain its full potentials, peace, prosperity and development.”
It further resolved that there is a dire imperative for the rejigging of the powers, strategic objectives and mode of operations of global institutions like the United Nations, International Court of Justice, and even the African Union to be able to take up cases of ‘Crimes Against Humanity’ that has been committed against African people over time and history yet subsisting unabated.
PARC also called for the creation of a new social-economic order that shall address unfair, uneven global market exchange mechanisms to offer equitable compensation for African natural resources and the immediate halt to undemocratic, armed intervention in governance, commencing with the restoration of the recent militarily ousted democratic government of Niger Republic.
The signatories to the Communiqué of the conference include Razaq Olokoba, Chairman, Pan-African Radical Congress; Omotaje Olawale-Saint, President, Work-Bond International Network (WIN); Gbenga Soloki, President, Centre Against Injustice and Domestic Violence (CAIDOV); Nelson Ekujumi, Executive Director, Committee for the Protection of Peoples Mandate (CPPM); and Comrade Linus Okoroji.
Participants were also drawn from South Africa, Kenya, Libya, Uganda and Ghana.
About the Author
AYO ESAN, has been actively reporting and analyzing political events for different newspapers for over 18 years. He has also successfully covered national and state elections in Nigeria since the inception of this democracy in 1999.
