Replacing the presidency with a congress is the best solution for African nations

Exchanging the office of the presidency for a congress is the best solution for African nations

By Stephen A. Sutherland (MD), USA

Introduction

Thursday, April 4, 2019 (PW) — Recent events in various African nations demonstrate a pattern that repeats every year. The nations I am referring to include South Sudan; the Democratic Republic of the Congo; South Africa, Liberia & Sierra Leone; Cameroon; Haiti; Central Republic of Africa; Zimbabwe etc. In most cases – the single point of failure has been the office of the PRESIDENCY. 

Based on the pattern of problems, we conclude that political office of the PRESIDENCY is not appropriate for African nations – for 6 reasons listed below. The Office the PRESIDENCY should be replaced by a CONGRESS that offers equal representation to every tribe regardless of size. This will guarantee safety, stability, prosperity & justice for all. 

Description of the problem

The fundamental problem of a PRESIDENCY is its single point of failure – by way of bribes, corruption, coups & tribalism. The office of the PRESIDENCY comes with 6 Risk Factors, which become a reality of Africa nations every single year.

Risk #1: The Risk of State or Corporate Capture With Bribes

State or Corporate capture is when a foreign corporation or foreign nation bribes the president to pursue an economic strategy, which impoverishes the nation – while enriching foreign corporation or foreign nation. With only 1 person in the office of the PRESIDENCY, state capture is easy. 

For example – it is public news that South Africa was recently captured & held hostage with the bribes of a foreign corporation. They controlled every aspect of government, political appointments and looted the government’s treasury. They even hired a PR firm to launch a propaganda campaign to stir up tribal tensions to hide their activities. Their list of harmful actions is long.

The result of state/corporate capture is always mass poverty, under-development of the people & the infrastructure, and very often the pollution of water etc. to meet the goals of the foreign nation/corporation.  The list of corporations most responsible for these bribes is stunning – which accounts for magnitude of poverty & under-development. But be encouraged – we have the solution. 

Risk #2: The Risk of Presidential Tribalism

Tribalism on the part of a 1 person in the office of the PRESIDENCY has often resulted in preferential financing of his tribe -& war/oppression of ‘another tribe’. This was seen in the presidency of Idi Amin – and most recently in South Sudan. One single person with almost unlimited power of the PRESIDENCY is the source of this vulnerability.

Risk #3: The Risk of National Elections Fraud

A national presidential election presents a single point of failure to hijack control of the entire nation. Since the office of the presidency invests almost unlimited powers to 1 person – it is always highly contested. As a result – Africans are killed   PRESIDENTIAL Elections – almost every single year.  The solution is described at the end.

Risk #4: The Risk of Military Coups

With a 1 person president there is a single point by which the leadership of an entire nation can be hijacked.  The military coup might be public or in secret. The security risk to 1 person in the PRESIDENCY is therefore always high.

Risk #5: The Presidential Mental Instability

History demonstrates that 1 person in the office of the PRESIDENCY can be mentally unstable and enforce his will on the nation in very abusive ways — for a very long time.  There are many examples like the 1st president of the Central Republic of Africa.

Risk #6: The Risk of Secret Action

With 1 person in the office of the PRESIDENCY there is more risk of secret actions/deals which can damages the nation. Very often the president will fight for extra terms in office to hide his secret actions. This tempts dictatorships. 

Why do African Nations have these Risks in the office of the PRESIDENCY? For various reasons – African nations do not have long-established systems of “checks and balances” to counteract dictatorial ambitions. Therefore, a vote for a president is a vote for 1 person with almost unlimited power – and unknown motivations. Regardless this political model of PRESIDENCY always comes with these 6 risks.

The Pattern of Warring Generals:

Additionally, generals at war for many years – are not psychologically appropriate for a democracy. As soon as they begin the office of a presidency – they behave as though they are still at war. Mass murders of civilians are standard and consistent pattern to be avoided by the solution below.

Here are the solutions in 2 easy steps:

STEP #1 We can easily resolve these problems & risks by ELIMINATING the political position of PRESIDENCY and REPLACE it with a large CONGRESS which grants equal representation to every tribe – regardless of tribal size or economics.

For example, if an African nation has 10 tribes, 15 representatives from every tribe would make up a total of 150 congress members. Each representative would have 1 vote.

If the nation has 300 tribes, then a smaller representation from each tribe such as 2 members per tribe – would create a congress size of 600. In communities where primary groups are identified by language – then representatives should be organized by languages – to ensure equal representation.

Equal representation by language for example would have eliminated the current war between Cameroon’s Anglophone & Francophones.

If groups are separated and identified by religion such as Muslim, animist, Christian etc. then religions should be used.  Granting equal representation to historically tribal groups would provide the greatest satisfaction with this improved political model. (I’m available to assist).

If tribes are not the primary group identifier – locale may be used. Whatever they wish to use. Tribe should be the priority due to the history of tribalism. But the objective is not to segregate people into groups by tribe or religion – just historically tribal groupings.

REPLACING the position of PRESIDENCY with a CONGRESS granting Equal Representation for all tribes would eliminate the problems would lead us into   a new period of safety, stability, incorruptibility, justice & prosperity.

State/corporate capture by BRIBES would be far more challenging if they consider bribing various tribes.  Separated individuals with different goals would easily expose their bribe attempts – and bribing officials is illegal by international law. The price gets too high for them to attempt these bribes when the decision makers are a group in congress. 

Additionally bribes that are not in the interest of the nation would not work well when all tribes are voting with equal representation. Also smaller tribes would be and must be protected by equal representation. – regardless of their size or economic position etc.

STEP #2 Additionally – the military & police should have equal representation from every tribe * in mixed units *.  This will reduce the risk of tribal warfare by the military / police.

Integrity & safety in voting is another advantage of this political model.

Instead of 1 National Election for ultimate power over the nation – elections would occur in tribes/groups – for their CONGRESS representatives plus an equal number of alternates. This is safer than high stakes of national presidential elections. It would be less likely to result in violence.

Voting in CONGRESS would be transparent. With raised hands – all members can count to ensure the vote is secure. Wise & thoughtful discussion would form the basis of decision-making – instead of the whims or perverse incentives of 1 presidential strong man.

Understand the obstacles to implementation

This system of governance would provide the greatest stability, safety, representation, prosperity and satisfaction for African nations. However – please understand that foreign nations & corporations will offer numerous bribes, weapons & Incentives – to maintain the current single person PRESIDENCY. – Because the 1-person PRESIDENCY offers the easiest control of your nation by foreign nations/corporations.

For example – It has been common for a foreign nation or foreign corporation to offer the president a bribe/loan that appears like a lot of money to ab individual – in exchange for the nation’s resources valued at 1 million times more than the bribe – and plunder the whole nation.  

For example one president accepted a 10 million dollars for weapons and gave away mining rights valued at 10 BILLION DOLLARS  – the wealth of the nation. 

One Official took bribes of a few thousand dollars and allowed a foreign companies to mine and destroy agricultural lands, pollute the water, kill all the fish in the water -and poison the people drinking the water. To 1 president a bribe of 1 or 10 million dollars might be tempting but CONGRESS AS A GROUP looking out for the advantages of their Entire NATION – should easily reject scams and bribes that would be tempting to an individual. 

Persistent Efforts would be necessary to implement this change to the constitution – since there will be resistance from foreign corporations & nations & existing presidents seeking to support their interests. Placing this in the constitution before the next election is wise – so that you can elect your new congressional representations at your next elections.

Also – please do not blindly follow the political models handed to you through colonization. The goal of colonization was the extraction of your nation’s wealth, labor and resources at the expense of your nation. Therefore evaluate the gifts and advice of past colonizers very carefully.

Researchers state that by 2030 – 90% of the world’s extreme poor will be living on the continent of Africa. Our goal is to make wise improvements to make our 10 years outcome be one of great prosperity and success.

 Let’s put this solution in your constitution.

You can the author, Stephen A. Sutherland, who is a graduate of Howard university college of Medicine (2014) and founder of GOG, via his email: Stephen Sutherland <stephensutherlandmd@gmail.com>

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