Africa-Press – Namibia. Contemporary state and government formation particularly after the independence of an African state though was meant to benefit citizens and enhance livelihoods, the opposite is happening.
The post-independence era could have seen the political leadership reforming, redirecting, and refocusing the State affairs to accommodate the needs and aspirations of the people without fail. Beyond all measures and logic, the purpose of the liberation struggle was to improve the socio-economic standards of the people. Contrary to this noble objective, the political leadership has elected a materialistic governance approach to satisfy their personal needs at the expense of the poor masses.
The government become a contested “resources mine”, only excavated by a few inured and cornered technocrats and tenderpreneurs, and indoctrinated political leaders. The renowned French Professor, Jean-Francois Bayart in his book “The State in Africa: Politics of the Belly”, couldn’t explain it better when he re-coined a French-translated concept of “politics of the belly” to describe the nature and attitude of African political powers and the emerged fashion the political leadership has adopted to amass unforgivable and ill-gotten wealth from state resources. Perhaps another French philosopher Frantz Fanon’s theory of “zone of being and zone of non-being” may find amplification here. Amassing wealth for personal gratification has relegated sections of society to “either sub-human or non-human” because of the condition through which they are coerced to navigate. What is even excruciating is the naked truth that those who claim to have unshackled the masses from the joke of colonialism are the same blocking society’s corridor to liveable life because of their unscrupulous governance practices.
Given the above, the post-colonial era appears to have opened an opportunity for those ascending to political powers to stalk and grab any available gap in the governance system to accumulate wealth and live an “oligarchy” lifestyle. This is done under the pretext “we sacrificed our youth life in the liberation struggle of the country”, hypothetically implies and translates as “we should benefit from State resources to make up for the lost time”. This constitutes bad governance and unethical attitudes that gave birth to systematic corrupt practices and collusion. Enticingly, the unethical governance approach suggests that the State has become a bridge towards hegemony, ill-wealth accumulation, and self-enrichment, especially by those accorded political authority through elections, political endorsement, and appointment. The French notion of “politique du ventre” seems to have infiltrated African political powers to an extent that political leadership has embraced an ill-conceived adage that “the goat will eat where he is tethered”. The politics of the belly denotes greedy, self-centred, disrespectful, and worst of all, unremorseful abusing the powers of office to amass wealth for a group of selected political leadership and top technocrats, their families, and cronies. Yes, there is a caveat on this claim. There might be political leaders who are honest and truthful to the course of political leadership, judicious use of state resources, and functional governance. While this article acknowledges that good political leadership may exist in some African states, for this purpose, there is no need to enumerate them. Surely, this category of political leadership is proud of their achievements, and their countries are to a certain extent prospering.
Over six decades of political freedom and independence, African governance has produced misery, desperation, and hopelessness among ordinary people in many African countries specifically in rural villages. Citizens continue to experience and observe various incidents of selective governance, abuse of office, systematic corrupt practices, and inappropriate legislation, deliberately crafted to benefit the selected few to the exclusion of the masses. Visiting rural villages in several African countries, you will come across indescribable living conditions and despairing livelihoods.
You will find people with no access to potable water, live in inhumane housing structures, no easy access to hospitals and clinics, learners being taught in the open air with no chairs to sit on, and the list |
continues. In short, the socio-economic structure has calculatedly been destroyed by the very same leaders who have taken the oath of office to serve and protect society. Unpardonably, the political elites and top technocrats are living an oligarchy lifestyle stemmed from the very State resources they always claim are not enough to provide basic services to ensure that the masses have access to public goods. This is double-dealing and contrary to government intention, plans, and vision. The fabric of society has been impaired. The promises of an inclusive African state and equitable service delivery remain elusive and daydream to the poor. The majority of rural villagers are yet to reap the fruit and benefits of an independent state. People’s expectations and hope have been dashed, cast into desolation, and left to mend their livelihoods, with nothing at all, while “the goat continues to eat where it tethered”. This inward-looking and unethical leadership should be discouraged and rejected.
The politics of the belly suggests poor calculation and judgement by the power that is. The approach neither differentiates between the state, government and party politics nor values citizenry as primary beneficiaries of state resources. It perfidies believe in party politics and defend its continued existence for they amass personal wealth through illogical thinking and cronies’ injudicious choices.
In other words, politics of the belly may denote an “autochthonous type of governance” with which no country across the world would want to associate with. It rejects constitutional imperative and considers people as voting subjects only to return leadership to power, thereby, relegating ordinary citizens to nebulous political participation subject to “purposive but temporary political conscription” when it is time to elect or re-elect political leadership. Political conscription in this sense implies calculated deceit and persuasive action to cause the belief that the outcomes of elections reward all. Dissipatedly, the outcomes result in State resources being repurposed. Although the proceeded statement appears unusual, this is a painful reality in several African politics and governance. To see this harsh reality you need not look far but in your neighbourhoods, surroundings, and communities.
Despite considerable annual national budget allocation, unemployment, poor service provision, poverty, and even destitution are prevalent and evident, resulted from faulty policy and governance response. Some rural communities continue to drink from open wells, street kids are roaming everywhere, the majority of employable youth are excepted from the mainstream economy, and worst of all, African countries experiencing high migration in search of better livelihoods elsewhere.
Reading myriad political statements and languages, state of the nation addresses, and even political party manifestos, you will notice issues like economic downturns, diseases outbreak, and pandemics like Covid-19, being cited as hindrances to equitable service delivery. While this might be real and to a large extent affect the domestic and global economy, political elites continue to live an amazing lifestyle while the masses languish in poverty. The question on ordinary citizens’ lips is; where does government source funds to keep political elites well maintained if it can’t find the same to address the plights of the masses? This question sounds simplistic, but to the rural poor it is very central and can cause agony and distress if not carefully interrogated.
Altogether, greediness, selfishness, and comradery’s way of governance are toxic to human security and survival. The purpose of government as stated in the constitution and political party manifestos will not be realised without pragmatic reorganisation of political leadership and governance. Party politics and public institutional governance should be separated if the promises of economic empowerment and promotion of socio-economic benefits for all are to be achieved. Political parties should revisit the manner they identify, recommend and recruit leadership as it matters most in the governance of the government affairs. Ascending to political party leadership should base on merits but not on patronisation.
This article, therefore, argues that the current governance crisis besieging African governments stem from impromptu political leadership and materialistic-motivated technocrats whose primary target is to satisfy their bellies. Self-centredness, ill-conceived thinking, corrupt practices, lack of transparency, and poor accountability are all products of bad governance and have disastrous consequences on the future of the African state and its people. In the last analysis, sustainable good governance practices should be informed by clearly defined political processes and accommodative institutional arrangements to achieve desired outcomes. The African state should be rescued from the “invisible hand” (not in Adam Smith’s view) of corruption, maladministration, ill-wealth amassing, a cycle of political patronage, and contaminated governance practices.
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