“ELECTIONS, DEMOCRACY AND GOVERNANCE IN WEST AND CENTRAL AFRICA”
NIAMEY, 24th (twenty fourth) of March of 207
His Excellency, the President of the Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism
His Excellency, Coordinator of the international section of the Jean-Jaurés Foundation
His Excellency Political Advisor of the European Foundation of Progressive Studies
Illustrious Representatives of the Public and Private Sectors, who are present here
Illustrious Representatives of the civil society
Illustrious Lecturers
Illustrious Participants
Illustrious Guests
Allow me, first of all, to address, in a very special way, the organizers of such an important event, namely:
• Mr. Mohamed Bozoum, president of PNDS
• Mr Alexandre Minet, Coordinator of the international section of the Jean-Jaurés Foundation
• Mr. Vassilis Ntousas, political advisor of the European Foundation of Progressive Studies
I extend my warm salutation to all the participants of the parties and organizations of the big political family reunited here, and, also, to the lecturers that, with their proven contribution alone, justify this conference.
We come from afar, from a “big small l” African country but we feel that we are in the home of Fraternity, Work, Progress, which, in itself, makes us feel thankful for the great hospitality we were shown here, as well as extremely honored with the invitation we received to participate of this good opportunity to share our experiences and expectations regarding each one of our political organizations and respective countries, but even more of the importance to our continent and humanity in general.
The Jean Jaurés Foundation reminds us of the ideas and the work of its illustrious tutor, a socialist of deep convictions and of notorious political ability, that was villainously murdered in July 31st of 1914, marking its own time on a difficult period of the labor movements in Europe.
Co-organizer of this conference, the European Foundation of Progressive Studies, think tank of experts that conduct research and produce counseling of the utmost importance for political and economical issues, thus being an extremely useful academy for our work.
The PNDS – The Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism, member of the International Socialist, which, besides having strengthened the democracy in the country through its notorious experience, is giving a major contribution to the political and social development of Niger through this very event.
Ladies and Gentlemen!
Illustrious Lecturers and participants
The theme of this meeting, ELECTIONS, DEMOCRACY AND GOVERNANCE IN WEST AND CENTRAL AFRICA, interpellates (exhorts, appeals to) our organizations to conduct a deep reflection upon current issues with several inspirations for the enunciation of a progressive path to our countries as we formulate our respective development policies that will respond the expectations of our populations regarding economic well-being and social peace, the foundations of our democracy.
In its secular existence and cycles of experience, democracy is, always, an instrument in permanent experimentation, resulting of its necessary and continuous perfecting through the invariable social and political dynamics that citizens and respective societies pose to the ones carrying the political responsibilities.
In Niger, Cabo Verde, Senegal, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Central African Republic, Congo Brazzaville, Gabon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, France, Benin, Mali, Burkina Faso, among so many other brethren countries, we converge in the need for our people to be assured an affective exercise of citizenship with full democratic participation of the citizens and the consequent benefits of the development generated from it.
And it is true that each one of our countries has experienced distinct paths, through the nature of the historical conditions determined by secular economic, social and political dynamics, which characterize different political identities in the current perception of democracy.
On the other hand, we must take into account the growing globalization that comes with the economical and financial crisis, which worry us all, given the factors of debt and financial lack of regulation, tying us to dependency which ordinance, most of the times, is out of our reach, given the fact that we are haven’t yet freed ourselves of the entanglements caused by the instincts of domination that are intrinsic to the ruthless globalization in course.
The world today is interconnected and entangled by policies of a known advanced economy that, intending to impose a so-called valorization of democracy, will not understand the internal variants of Africa, with its own web of intricate policies, many times, suggested by the main donor countries, which establish a close relation between the donation and democratization, conditioning, in this form, the implementation of public policies and of a plural political praxis with severe consequences in terms of unemployment, lack of hope and discouragement of thousands of people, especially our youth (or young people, or youngsters).
Actually, the injustice of this orthodoxy in the international economical threads does not contribute to a cooperation based on a sincere interculturality of the cooperation in the field of our commercial exchange and the political specificities particular to the reality of each one of our societies.
Ladies!
Gentlemen!
Many will be the factors determining the democracy with which each one of us will intend to install in our countries. Besides the fact that this concept is regarded as a way of government and organization of a State, through the mechanisms of direct participation where the people elects its representatives, let us keep in mind that it is a way of social cohabitation where all the citizens are free and equal and in which social relations are established according to contractual mechanisms.
This to say that in each society, being in a customary way or not, from the perception of participation, formulates, consequently, a certain way of understanding and exercise democracy given the fact that it is intrinsic to the very exercise of citizenship, with profound implications in the way a political system is conceived and installed.
Let us take as an example, the democracy in the United States of America, which obeys the very own references of conception of democracy and citizenship by the plural American citizen, since the founding of their Nation.
Let us look at the constitutional European regimes, some being monarchists,some presidentialists e semi-presidentialists, each one obeying to reasonings founded throughout their historical paths.
Look at the asian regimes, whose references are tied to millenarian cultural roots, as strongholds of political and social cohesion of those countries.
And let us look, at last, to our continent, in which the model of the political systems and social and economic development has a lot to do with the old colonial powers.
Ladies,
Gentlemen,
Dear participants,
We think that the exercise of democracy and consequently, of citizenship, is not an orthodox road, either through the resulting and determining cultural reality from the history of the building of our nations, or the necessary commitments with the economic growth, employment, social justice and environment, or furthermore, with the sustainable development objectives, which will not be attained if there is no affirmation of the cooperative and dialogical complementarities, respecting and valuing the virtues and virtualities of the physical, geographical and human reality of each country and Nation.
We mean, by saying this, that democracy, elections and good governance can only be a reality if the premises mentioned before, actually exist so that they also ensure the belief in politics, the trust in democracy, the sense of belonging to the society and the perspective of the future.
We believe that in our countries, there are barriers that can only be surpassed through the knowledge of our own reality, through a process politically produced as a shared objective among all, to make room to union e, consequently, to the cohesion of the national dimension.
This brief reflection means that we are all committed to the same causes and that, even within our differences, we should find synergies to settle democracy.
Regarding Cabo Verde, we must, first of all, take into account that we are a small archipelagic country with a population of about five hundred thousand and whose only resources are its own citizens: the capeverdean woman and the capeverdean man.
A small country but, nevertheless, a giant in its ambition to create a new land within its land, of conquering a new future for its people, with more equality, more opportunities and more prosperity for all.
This country, of which I am proud unto the deepest of my soul, has come a long way since its independence, forty-one years ago, a way through thought and action, based on its historical reality, past and present, always with a futuristic perspective, having this experience its advantages, disadvantages and mitigations.
Since an early stage, on the fifth of July of nineteen seventy-five, the independence day, following the teachings of the great thinker of the freedom fights in Africa, AMILCAR CABRAL, the issue of democracy was made present. In order to reach the necessary maturity to that aspiration, foundations and formal mechanisms of the independent state had to be built and, in counterpoint to an inherited colonial institutional order, uncertainties and resistances as to the viability of Cabo Verde as an independent country had to be faced.
The good governance was the strategic path adopted from this early stage, to ensure a good management of the great sums invested, highlighting the fact that the correct application of the Public Help for Development, at the time, allowed strong investments in health, forestation, mobilization of hydric resources, as well as education with a vigorous effort to eradicate illiteracy and a strong investment in the democratization of basic education throughout the country, that would come as a result of the civic progress of the society, being that civic rights are instrumental to assure the sustainable and continuous economic growth.
This effort resulted in an evolution to new dimensions of citizenship, meaning the evolution of citizenship in the legal, political and social scope.
The understanding of the developments and transformations that education produced in society, and at the same time, the analysis of the signs of a new era at a global level, led to the end of the one party regime by PAICV which announced a new phase of the exercise of citizenship and the opening to a multiparty regime, in which the exercise of citizenship, through elections, contributed to the public wellness.
In a dynamic process of political and social transition, citizenship reached a mature state and the ability for the exercise of democratic political power through the election process.
So being, in January nineteen ninety-one, after the logistics, institutional and legal conditions were created, the first democratic elections in the country took place. The PAICV, even though having acted as a protagonist in this process, lost the elections to the emerging political party – MpD- after fifteen years of political exercise. After this, a new experience took place in the following 10 years, which allowed us to better know our new socio-cultural reality under the new development phase, thus reformulating the ways and methods of doing politics in the face of new relevant factors of the political cultured posed by diffuse powers and micro-policies produced by the community, particularly by the youth of the new era, naturally irreverent.
It was a period of firm opposition, critical and blunt, in which we retried and reconfigured our political capital that is characteristic to us, so that, in two thousand and one, the voters could renew their trust in PAICV for three consecutive mandates, of a governance that produced profound social, economic and political transformations in the capeverdean society.
A time of positive marks to good governance, that is highlighted by Cabo Verde’s graduation to the level of Country of Medium Development, as recognized by the UN in two thousand and eight.
However, in 2016, on the legislative elections, the voters chose our opponent to govern the country – MpD. Could it be that this happen due to the so-called political cycle phenomenon?
Did we not incur in the necessary political pedagogy regarding the new perceptions that resulted from the social dynamics forged through the new development indexes, in education, health, unprecedented economic infrastructure and access to first necessity goods like water, energy, housing, etc?
The results were unexpected given the high expectations generated by the dimension and quality of the development attained, which on one hand, gave room to multiples questioning in the midst of the party, as well as the need for new internal elections of the managing bodies of PAICV, aiming its renovation and new political directives, aligned with the new responses given by the society in the new era.
We questioned ourselves, learning with our mistakes and forcing ourselves to adjustments on our historical experience, prarcticing a new proximity to the population and the development of a new quality of democracy and citizenship.
Hence the PAICV is bringing for debate the principle of participative democracy, through the existence of mechanisms that can ensure the popular participation in the public arena, not as an exclusive modality of the exercise of democracy but as a hybrid modality complemented with representativity in order to avoid, that its exercise isn’t constricted to the electoral moments. We cannot forget, however, that the participative democracy isn’t a magic wand capable of solving everything for it has its flaws and its virtue hence mitigations will always be needed as well as mechanisms to reinforce the virtues of positive feedback.
Ladies and Gentlemen!
Allow me to be optimistic and stating that democracy is, in fact, possible, for, as we mentioned befored, it is a process in constant progress and regeneration. It is not, by any means, a finished product but a constant exercise of citizenship.
We must know ourselves better! We must know, in depth, our reality with its own specific vulnerabilities and diverse nature so that, as partners, we may fully comprehend the plurality and strength of our differences, to share e strengthen or common points and, through dialogue and cooperation, confident among our social and political stakeholders, position ourselves at the same level of our responsibilities, in the present, in the future, in Africa and in the world.
With reciprocal availability, we all are for an alliance of generous principles and values, characteristic of the progressive side of Africa and Humanity, for we have a word of peace to bring, through dialogue, economic stability and social stability.
We have a non neglectable role to play in this world marked by crisis and conflicts, regarding cooperative diversity, without arrogance or presumptuous superiority.
Once more, I address the organizers for this happy opportunity of a healthy confrontation of opinions, that is, afterall, converging in its objectives, always respecting our political traditions and the perspectives we hold for the future.
Thank you very much.
