The problem of course is that Congo, as a political entity, is an illusion. The country is too large, diverse and riven by durable differences to be managed from a single center. It is time to explore a truly federalized Congo that might over the next 10 to 20 years peacefully “devolve” into a several nation-states. Eastern Congo would be especially well-served by “devolution,” since the region – today the least stable in the current Congo – has natural economic, social and geographic links to neighboring Uganda and Rwanda. If Scotland can engage in a process of “devolution” from Britain, why cannot eastern Congo engage in the same process? Colonial maps cannot forever burden the serious and expensive efforts to develop regional integration, whether in East Africa or the sub-Saharan generally. The double-standard – whereby European countries can split themselves apart based on democratic processes but African countries are eternally bound by the borders of their former European masters — ought to end. That European governments often quickly oppose any talk of redrawing African are examples of both hypocrisy and stupidity. European governments spend billions of dollars holding together unwieldy African countries and in the end sustain only the fiction of real sovereignty. The Congo is perhaps the best example of this. Congolese elections, which cost European donors a hefty sum, accomplished the little more than to highlight the folly of holding this vast territory together under a single political rubric. Maintaining the fiction of the Congo, in short, is dangerous and ultimately futile.
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Africa's Borders
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Ayittey on African Borders-We don't need 2000 little Djiboutis
George Ayittey on the issue of African borders via G. Paschal Zachary's Africa Works
"...the issue or artificial borders and the potential for break-ups are real but the issue is not being handled properly. I opposed the split of Ethiopia into Ethiopia and Eritrea, just as I oppose the secession of South Sudan because if we take self-determination of a people to its logical limit, we may end up with over 2,000 little Djiboutis all over the continent — each with a Swiss bank account for the president, a one-plane fleet and a state-controlled television station. Nigeria alone has 250 ethnic groups. The source of the problem is not artificial borders but rather strong centralized rule that is produced by the unitary state system — a colonial relic. Remember, in pre-colonial Africa, Africans of different ethnicity have lived peacefully together in large polities — the Ghana Empire, Songhai, Mali Empire, and Great Zimbabwe. All these were confederacies which were characterized by a great deal of decentralization of power and devolution of authority. They allowed local autonomy to maintain their own distinctive ethnic identities. The solution, to me, is a confederation of African states, not secession.”More here
Decentralization and Nigerian Corruption
Jeremy Weate writing in African Arguments:
...the underlying cause of corruption is the structure of Nigeria’s quintessential “petro” state. There are a number of characteristics of the petro-state we can point to. Firstly, it features a broken social contract in the form of a rupture in the relationship between taxation and accountability. Royalties and taxes paid by international oil companies are direct contributions to the federal coffers, by-passing the citizenry. As the government has no need to rely on internally generated revenue, it has no incentive to engage with accountability actors such as civil society organisations. It is therefore close to impossible to apply accountability pressure into the system of governance. In Nigeria ministers never resign.More here
The obvious developmental solution to the stultifying fiction of the petro state is a systematic decentralisation of fiscal arrangements, supported by constitutional devolution. This would be the Nigerian ‘third way’ between an enforced unitary status quo and an unrealistic appeal for a once-and-for-all break up. This would include rigorous checks and balances placed against presidential and state governor discretion; it would also ensure that local governments are funded independently of state governors. Finally, it would include the mandate that oil windfalls over the benchmark price are saved rather than squandered (replacing the Excess Crude Account).
Reforming African Institutions
Gumisai Mutume writes about the progress being made in reforming institutions throughout the continent:
While repressive governments are yet to be eliminated across the continent, significant change is taking place in a growing number of countries. Civil society is growing and applying pressure for better performance, the media are demanding transparency across all sectors of society and governments are realizing that the days of coercive politics are numbered...In a growing number of countries, citizens are calling for independent judges, effective parliaments, measures that address corruption and the devolution of power from central to local governments. "It is expected that proposed laws will be subject to public dialogue and debate before enactment and that those representing the people will regularly consult and seek the people's views,",Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. In a nutshell, Africans are demanding what is known among development practitioners as "good governance."...Narrowly defined, governance means the exercise of political power to manage the affairs of state. In a broader sense, it can refer to the various processes relating to leadership, such as policymaking, transparency, accountability, the protection of human rights and the relationship among the public, private and civil sectors in determining how power is exercised.
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