Africa’s democracy fragile, says Shettima

Vice President Kashim Shettima has urged Africans to question the kind of democracy run in their various countries.

He said Africa as a whole had its issues with the world, such as why its democracy is fragile.

Shettima spoke at the 6th Annual Lecture/Conference of the Association of Foreign Relations Professionals of Nigeria in Abuja on Tuesday.

The vice president, who was represented by his Special Adviser on Political Matters, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, noted that until democracy in Africa is questioned, the problems could not be fixed.

He said, “Africa as a whole has its issues with the world such as why our democracy is so fragile. This is our problem.

“The task we have is to put it on the table and ask why it is so difficult to sustain the democratic process in Africa.

“To stay within the democratic framework, it will be our decision as Africans to question the type of democracy we run and to ask what we need to do to fix it.

“If we cannot do it, we will all go our way because Africa shares fundamentals like its economy and political processes that we run.”

The special adviser assured all that Nigeria will play its part in restoring peace in the Economic Community of West African States.

“We have issues in terms of membership in the ECOWAS, and Nigeria will do anything within its power to try and reintegrate and move beyond the problem that we have,” he stated.

In his remarks, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, said all hands must be on the deck to achieve a better democracy.

Tuggar noted, “Democracy is ideal. There is no perfect democracy. We must constantly work to achieve a great democracy.

“One of the 4Ds of President Bola Tinubu is Democracy and Nigeria is non-threatening to its neighbours.”

The 15-nation bloc ECOWAS,  formed in 1975 to promote economic integration in member states,  has struggled in recent years to reverse a wave of military takeovers in the region, including Mali in 2020 and 2021, Burkina Faso in 2022 and Niger last year.

The exit of three countries from ECOWAS threatened the African Continental Free Trade Area aimed at accelerating intra-African trade and boosting the continent’s trading position in the global market.

Earlier, ECOWAS imposed economic sanctions on the countries.

The sanctions were, however, lifted a few weeks ago following the intervention of Nigeria’s ex-military head of state, Gen. Yakubu Gowon.

The President, ECOWAS Commission, Omar Touray, said the decisions were taken in the interest of unity and security in the African sub-region.