COLUMN: Our democracy is in grave danger

In his masterclass novel entitled There Was A Country, world-renowned author, Professor Chinua Achebe writes: “Africa’s postcolonial disposition is the result of the people who have lost the habit of ruling themselves. …Nigeria was once a land of great hope and progress, a nation with immense resources at its disposal – natural resources, yes, but even more so, human resources. But the Biafran Civil War changed the course of Nigeria. In my view it was a cataclysmic experience that changed the history of Africa”.

As I navigate through the superb prose of Achebe’s book, it is clear that the author was ideally crafting a prophetic indictment of independent Africa.

A gloomy tale of despondency, abject poverty, kleptocracy, military coups and endemic corruption is failing Africa and her people. The timeless promise of freedom and prosperity for all has mutated into a betrayal of the liberation ideals. The spectre of civil strife is haunting Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Niger, DR-Congo, Libya, Burundi, Sudan, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Burkina-Faso and Swaziland.

In the last six months in South Africa, we have witnessed some dangerous symptoms of arnachic sabotage against the state. In July last year, a syndicated band of insurgents attacked and torched malls and retail shops in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. A top-secret report from State Security Agency had detected political involvement in that insurgency.

Early this year, National Parliament was viciously gutted and burned down in a veiled act of terrorist political sabotage. A man known as Zandile Mafe was resultantly arrested and charged with acts of terrorism and arson. Bizarrely, two shameful political parties are pledging support for Mafe.

The country’s Constitutional Court was recently vandalised by unknown charlatans. There is a brewing counter-revolutionary political insurgency that is seeking to tear the country apart. These infamous saboteurs are actually associated with a rival faction in the ANC. The state-capture brigade is plotting to reclaim political power by hook or bloodshed. Unfortunately and dangerously, the edifice of our constitutional democracy has become the greatest target of this insurgency cartel. All citizens must join hands and defeat this mutinous band of arnachic insurgents.

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