At Toyin Falola Interview Series, Richard Joseph gives reasons for coups in Africa

For Emeritus Professor of Political Science, Richard Joseph, Africa’s lack of leadership has continued to thwart the progress that should have been the hallmark of the continent, saying that this has been the reason for the repeated coups in some parts of the continent.

An obviously worried Joseph made this a significant part of his observations while reacting to questions during the Toyin Falola Interview Series on Sunday. In the series, Professor Toyin Falola, alongside a panel of eminent Africans, interviews politicians, policymakers, scholars whose work and research are particularly relevant for the African continent and its peoples including the Diaspora. Religion, culture, politics, women’s rights, history, development are discussed during the interviews.  In this edition, the panel included Professor Olajumoke Yacob-Haliso, Professor Tunde Adeleke, Professor Ayo Banjo, Professor Niyi Osundare, Professor Nuhu Yacob, Professor Femi Osofisan, Professor Celestin Monga, Professor Attahiru Jega, Dr. Tokunbo Awolowo Dosumu, Governor Kayode Fayemi, Professor Femi Mimiko, Abena P.A. Busia, Professor Nuhu Yaqub, Adam Mayer, Olabode Ibironke, Michael Vickers, Femi Owoseni, Uzoma Osuala, Elias Bongmba, among others.

While making his point, Joseph asked: “What do the African people want? They want to have a democratic system. When you have these coups, it is not because the people have lost it but because the people are thoroughly fed up with those regimes in place. It is like ‘Yes, remove them’. Then you find these soldiers showing up in their new khakis and reading from the scripts. That doesn’t mean that the people are voting for these guys.

“The idea about democracy is that it is continuous; the institutions will be continuous, and it does not have to be the same all over the world. You have travelled across the world and seen democracies in many countries but these countries don’t have a queen like England; they don’t have a House of Lords like England. Democracy must continue to refract itself; it must continue to be inclusive. It also nourishes itself from the institutions and cultures of the particular countries. Right now, I am fascinated with the cultural repertoires that we have in Africa. This is what we need in our institutions.

“Let me take two countries that I was involved in: Ghana and Zambia. At Zambia, we were involved in that process of opening up the country in terms of election and all those processes. Much of what we did is really unknown. The whole process of getting involved in Ghana, Rawlings was not ready to have the kind of system that has taken roots in Ghana. It took a real process. Making space for those voices to be able to speak up and then for the leaders to start listening was important. Sometimes, they don’t listen.”

In his response to Professor Yacob-Haliso’s inquiry on the place of theory and  Africa’s development, Joseph opined: “The theories haven’t failed us. In fact they are ways of understanding perceptions and they are important now than they ever were. Your generation and the others are the work of conceptualising. I’ll just summarise it in three things. We’ve talked about the state, which is needed to have a whole number of things like security and others. The second thing is leadership. This is something I’ve not really spoken a great deal about specifically but I’m much more conscious today about leadership. We see the leadership of Professor Falola.  Interviews and so on from my research is what I call access to knowledge. I’m sharing with you that the time has come now not only for me, but for everyone to make sure that all of the knowledge we have shared in these ways, in physical ways should also be shared in digital ways. There should be complete access to knowledge, just like there should be access to artworks that the people of Africa produced, which shouldn’t be locked away in museums. I think this philosophy should be brought to our world.”

Sharing his thought on the role of women and youth in nation building, he cautioned: “I attended a meeting just this week and we worked on countries like Nigeria, South Africa. I attended a meeting on the costal African states, the Benin, Ghana and so on and it was striking to me that almost every speaker when they were discussing their idea of progress all brought up the issue of governance. It’s for this generation to say why are we not well governed? Why are we not included? Part of good governance is inclusion. I like the idea of amplifying, amplifying voices and institutional development. We need to do both. We have to be democratic. I use two terms together: democratic development. It means development along democratic lines and it means developing democracy.

Also, gender is very important to me because if not because of that, I won’t have the mother I have and the aunties and all of the rest. When I was doing my research on the Nigerian transition from 1976 all the way through, I had a folder and it was going to be on women in politics and when the time came for me to put together my book, the reason there’s no chapter on women in politics in 1978, 1979 is because it was so embarrassing what I had experienced. The roles women were playing. This is going to change but there were exceptions. And one can’t develop without including over 50% of your population.

“I think young people have become impatient with the current situation of things across Africa: from South Africa to Sudan, to Senegal, to Nigeria. In the last handful of years, there has been widespread protest led by young people advocating for fundamental change to government, governance and the structure of the society. Unfortunately, that has opened the space, I think, for military intervention again.

“The other noticeable trend is the accelerating migration of young people from the continent which frankly has not always been this dramatic too.  How do we deal with failure of democracy and development and at the same time not embrace authoritarianism and the trolls of underdevelopment? This is a very important topic. In my writings, I refer to the fact that a concept was used: “a futureless youth.” I think that our youths are really been deprived of a very fundamental right and that’s a right to an education. Education was as important as what you’re having for breakfast and dinner. We don’t joke with education. I was part of the independent movement that there should be education. Chief Awolowo and his colleagues ensured free education at all levels. Education was seen as a very fundamental part of the liberation. We have over 13 million children in Nigeria who are not in school. I mean that’s a crime. All children should be entitled to schooling up to a certain level. We have hundreds of millions taken away for all kinds of processes and not educating our children. I just feel like we’ve got some fundamental work to do. If the children are not being educated, what’s the prospect of them going forward? It is a loss to the society if they cannot function at a certain level. I wouldn’t be here in front of you if it was not for an insistence on education.”

Asked by Professor Osundare on his hope for a better Africa, Joseph submitted: “Part of the hope is that I have been able to live and experience what our people are.  We must bring in all of our Diasporas. How do you really bring the resources, not only in the continent but in that greater Africa? I was born in the Caribbean, had my education in America and have been part of the African story. We are such a mighty people.”