AKINYEMI: Only by defining its brand can Africa start to see its greatness

As 2019 winds down, it was a year of big stories — be it in politics, gender or entertainment.

It was the year when the world got its youngest prime minister, Finland's 34-year-old Sanna Marin; Brexit hit a crescendo, which led to the election of Boris Johnson as Britain’s Prime Minister paving the way for Brexit. It was also the year when the Academy Awards rejected a Nigerian movie because it was not local enough since the actors spoke English!

However, the biggest story of the year has to be the impeachment of US president Donald J Trump. It came with some far reaching revelations, key among them the meaning of democracy.

For just one minute, let us imagine that the impeachment was taking place in an African country.

Every news outlet had programmes dedicated to the impeachment. The late night shows were brutal in calling the president names. He was called a moron, stupid, clueless, imbecile, corrupt and a crook just to mention but a few. With this in mind, let us take a trip to Nigeria.

During the last elections, one of the candidates Omoyele Sowore lost to President Muhammadu Buhari. However, what seemed like a selective fight against corruption and the downward slide of the economy put Nigerians in a very bad place. When you hear that nearly $100 million was allocated for renovating the National Assembly in a country with eclectic power supply then questions need to be asked. To put this in context, the budget for education for the whole nation is $132 million while the budget for health is $126 million.

Omoyele Sowore called for a revolution. He was arrested and locked up. The court eventually declared his freedom and while the court was in session, security operatives forcibly whisked Sowore away... from a court room. The temple of justice was defiled in the full glare of the world media.

Then we have Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, the sponsor of a Bill that will make hate speech an offence punishable by hanging. So, If Nigeria were America, every single one of the late night show hosts would be facing the death penalty and every media house not in favour of the president would have been shut down. It however does not stop there.

A picture emerged of the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi literally standing up to the president and pointing down at him. The battle between Trump and Pelosi has been one of the most epic between any head of the executive and legislative arms of government.

Their exchanges have been very viscous and personal. Pelosi continued to outmanoeuvre the president and his team and this eventually led to the impeachment. Trump ran on the premise that he is an outsider who does not know how Washington operates. Well, he has learnt the hard way from a Washington veteran called Nancy Pelosi.

Again, let us close our eyes and imagine if this were playing out in our beloved Africa. The first thing that would have happened would have been that the security of the speaker and all the perks attached with the office would have been withdrawn by now.

Official cars would have been taken away and the speaker would literally be forced to her knees. However, none of that is happening in the US. The Speaker does not feel threatened personally by the Executive. Neither is there a possibility of the executive dispatching security operatives to the House as has been seen in some African states.

All these point to a very dark truth: If what we are seeing in America is democracy, then it is clear that what we have in Africa is not democracy. But then what is it?

The beginning of greatness in Africa will come when we define the African brand. Who exactly are we? We cannot claim to be a democracy if what we are seeing today in America is a democracy.

As we wind down a most eventful year, maybe it is time to begin to rethink our existence and our brand as African nations. If what countries like America and Finland have is called democracy, then we should stop deceiving ourselves.

What we have is definitely not democracy and truth be told, democracy is not a must. It’s time to brand ourselves.

Wale Akinyemi is the chief transformation officer, PowerTalks