Celebrating the demise of a continent dying comfortably

Gibson Nyikadzino

COVID-19 infections and deaths are surging in Angola, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia, South Africa and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where 32 parliamentarians and several aides to the president, Félix Tshisekedi, are among those who have died.

Africa is living in a time of terrible crisis, but of tremendous opportunities to the western world.

“The threat of a third wave in Africa is real and rising. Our priority is clear – it’s crucial that we swiftly get vaccines into the arms of Africans at high risk of falling seriously ill and dying of Covid-19,” said Dr Matshidiso Moeti, the World Health Organization (WHO) regional director for Africa.

The upsurge of the COVID-19 pandemic in Africa and other poor countries through the third wave caused by the highly virulent India’s delta variant has shaken the essence of global “humanitarianism.” With lessons from India’s delta variant cases, there are widespread fears that Africa could suffer similar or worse devastation to that seen in India, which has a more robust health system than many African countries.

Countries such as Burundi, Chad, Eritrea and Tanzania are yet to start any vaccination campaign. In Seychelles, a resurgence of infection continues despite it being the most vaccinated country in Africa, possibly due to new variants and “the relatively low” efficacy of China’s Sinopharm vaccine.

Where lives are at stake, hoarding and the desire for profits have informed decisions on how vaccines are and should be allocated. The political economy around vaccine access and allocation continues to be dominated by the wealthy and powerful. This is a deliberate global architecture of unfairness on Africa and the developing world.

Grabbing the producer to control production

There are no signs of progress in improving access to vaccines.

Zimbabwe’s businessman Strive Masiyiwa, on behalf of the African Union (AU), in December last year met all vaccine producers and said the AU wanted to “buy vaccines in cash and not asking for donations.” According to the vaccine producers, all 2021 production capacity had been sold out. “The people who bought and those who sold the vaccines knew there would be nothing for Africa,” Masiyiwa recently said.

Before a G7 meeting held in Britain last month, USA’s Joe Biden said his country is donating 500 million doses of vaccines to poor countries while a post-G7 meeting, the group pledged a billion doses in donations to poor countries before the end of the year.

At a meeting by the G20 leaders in May at the European Union (EU) headquarters, vaccine producing companies pledged to give Africa aid. The EU pledged to give Africa 100 million vaccines by the end of the year. So far the continent has received a cumulative 32 million vaccines. On the other hand, vaccine producing companies like Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Johnson and Johnson said they will avail 1.3 billion vaccines to Africa by year end at a “slight” commercial value.

There is a serious breach of trust between the “haves” and the “have-nots” regarding who is interested in eradicating the pandemic.

As the global leading economies march towards opening up their economies, schools and other facilities, poor countries have been affected and appear to be making a long march backwards. The humanitarian veil used first to calm the nerves of poor nations the world has put on access to COVID19 vaccines through the COVAX continues to tear. The face behind the facility is no longer humanitarian as first postured. It is a two-faced facility. It looks at the humanitarian and the political, with the latter ultimately emerging victorious.

The COVAX Facility, we are told, is the vaccines pillar of the Access to COVID-19 Tools (ACT) Accelerator working on the global collaboration to the development, production and equitable access to vaccines. The facility is led by the Coalition of epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI), Gavi and the World Health Organisation (WHO), alongside UNICEF. It is governed by equitable access of vaccines, and, for humanitarian purposes countries such as Iran, Syria, Venezuela, North Korea and Zimbabwe, though under USA sanctions, can access the facility.

The COVAX facility is ‘not’ exempt from sanctions. Recently, the government of Venezuela (under USA sanctions) made a US$109 million dollar purchase of five million doses of vaccines under the COVAX facility. But so far the country has received none, although most regional neighbors from Nicaragua to Colombia having already received hundreds of thousands of doses under the facility. Venezuela received a letter from WHO signaling that the sixteen transactions processed by Venezuelan banks could not be processed.

Last Thursday, US officials issued an exemption to its sanctions on Venezuela, as well as on Syria and Iran, clarifying that financial transactions related to COVID-19 treatment and testing were permitted. With a population of some 30 million, Venezuela has only received 3.5 million vaccines from allies, Russia and China.

Dying in comfortable agony

According to French President Emmanuel Macron, in June, one in six Europeans had been vaccinated, one in five in North America but just one in 100 in Africa.

“It’s unacceptable,” he said.

In Feb. 2021 Africa reached the 100 000 death mark of known COVID-19 deaths. In this picture, a health worker disinfects family members during a burial of a person who died from COVID-19, in Harare, Zimbabwe. The continent had earlier been praised for its early response to the pandemic, but is now struggling with a dangerous resurgence. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has repeatedly denounced inequities in vaccine distribution and urged wealthier countries to share excess doses to help inoculate health workers in low-income countries. The idea of humanitarianism in this complex global order is as detestable as misfortunes, especially in the context of COVID-19. What the vaccine manufacturing companies are doing is to promote the vast network of European and American commercial interests. The current situation is also a promotion of western foreign policy and corporate commercial interests. It is driven by greed rather than the desire to make life better for the majority of global citizens.

At one point, the USA spent over US$87 billion dollars conducting its war in Iraq while the United Nations estimates that for less than half that amount it could provide clean water, adequate diets, sanitation services and basic education to every person on the planet.

Africa is being pushed into poverty and citizens dying comfortably if the situation is not addressed.

A recent report by the US Pew Research Center found that about 494 million people in sub-Saharan Africa, out of a total population of 1.14 billion, were expected to be living in poverty before the pandemic in 2020. That total has risen by 40 million, the report estimated.

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Africa and the failure of post-colonial autonomy

Gibson Nyikadzino

ELECTIONS in Africa since 2016 have continued to give further indications that democracy is showing cracks in the continent as new leaders and those established 'authoritarianly' are gaining strength. 

 

In that year, Djibouti, Chad and The Gambia held elections whose results came largely as expected. In Djibouti the incumbent Ismail Guelleh won a fourth term and in Chad Idriss Dèby. In The Gambia, Yahya Jammeh (the incumbent) lost to challenger Adama Barrow who today is keen to be a sit-tight leader breaking democratic promises he made before the elections in 2016. 

 

At his inauguration in early 2017, he promised to stay in office for only three years. He has since changed his mind, much to the disgust of his former allies. 

 

Questions continue to be asked whether continental democracy is dying? 

 

This appears to be the problem of what analysts say “third-termism” where leaders extend their presidential terms beyond constitutionally reasonable limits. 

 

This has been visible in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) where Joseph Kabila, instead of leaving the presidency in 2016 after serving his two five year terms, held on to office for two more years. Zimbabwe’s Emmerson Mnangagwa, whose mandate is set to expire in 2028 after serving a maximum two five year terms, is working on amending the constitution after signaling in 2019 that “in 2030 I will still be around.” A similar development occurred in Burundi in 2015 when the late Pierre Nkurunziza amended the constitution and stay in office for more years led to civil disturbances. In Rwanda, Paul Kagame is set to be at the helm until 2034, since 1994. 

 

Leaders who had been arrested during their strong campaigns for freedom, liberty, access to health and all other democratic elements turned their back on such once they got in office. Last year Guinea’s Alpha Conde became a “third termist” after soiling the sanctity of the constitution.

 

How did the continent, so promising in youth, become a comfortable bed for undemocratic exercises?

 

During the industrial revolution, European powers colonized ninety percent of Africa and had local politicians who acted as proxies to keep pressure on the population, exploiting human and natural resources on behalf of the colonizers. This created an authoritarian top-down approach and birthed the idea that the only way to rule was by force.

 

Decolonisation, though spoken glossly today, has not helped building democracy in Africa, but has blocked efforts to have a sustainable democracy. 

 

Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo has ruled Africa’s richest country per capita since 1979 amid persistent accusations of corruption, nepotism and electoral fraud. His son is the country’s vice-president and has all governing power. 

Although colonialism is gone, it has had a negative bearing on the continent.

 

After Ghana attaining independence in 1957, Guinea was the sole French West Africa colony in 1958 to opt for complete independence rather than membership in the French community. Soon after Guinea’s declaration for complete independence, France withdrew all aid to the new republic and dismantled all government structures, destroyed all paper-work and left the new government with no structural record of government operation.

 

The issue of an uneducated and illiterate population comes to mind. 

 

When the DRC (then Zaire) got independence from Belgium in 1960, it only had sixteen college graduates in a population of a little over fifteen million. From the dawn of Africa’s independence, an uneducated leadership and population proved a hurdle to democracy. It is said democracy is a horrible form of government if the people are not educated.

 

The biggest worry the continent faces today is sliding back to colonial authoritarianism in post-colonial Africa. Democracy is in reverse. Today there is an unprecedented pressure applied on ‘free media’, free speech, independent judiciary, legislature and electoral commissions. 

 

Recent developments in Uganda’s election reveal that the continent’s mark on democracy is off tangent. Incumbent Yoweri Museveni was declared the winner for a sixth term. 

 

These leaders were only interested in power. Zimbabwe’s (late) Robert Mugabe, a teacher by profession, came to power without administrative experience came to power in 1980 and ruled the nation for nearly four decades. Uganda’s Museveni, a rebel army commander whose noted ‘profession’ has been involvement in rebellions that toppled Idi Amin and Milton Obote’s governments before he captured power.

 

While many African “liberators” claimed democracy is “one man, one vote,” evidence seen today points that Africa was not ready for democracy coming through all elements. When European and American countries became democracies and/constitutional monarchies, they too had a large uneducated population. They promoted citizen education and political involvement, unlike bordering on “literacy.”

 

Winston Churchill’s said: “The best argument against democracy is a five minute conversation with the average voter.” This is one against democracy in Africa, too. 

 

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