Sam Amadi: Poverty, underdevelopment responsible for failure of democracy in West Africa

Sam Amadi, director of the Abuja School of Social and Political Thought, says poverty and underdevelopment are at the root of the failure of democracy in West Africa.

Amadi, a former chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Agency (NERC), spoke in reaction to the exit of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger Republic from the Economic Commission of West African States (ECOWAS)  and the postponement of the presidential election in Senegal.

Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger Republic have recently witnessed coups that toppled the democratically elected governments.

Addressing a press conference organised by the Abuja School and the Save Democracy Group West Africa in Abuja on Tuesday, Amadi said the West Africa region should focus on curbing poverty and economic stagnation.

“For us, the Abuja school and Save Democracy Group West Africa consider the travail of the democracy group in West Africa as serious because of three factors; the West African sub-region is probably the poorest part of the world. Some of the poorest countries in the world, you will see some of them coming from West Africa,” he said.

“Secondly, it is one of the terrorized – fragile states. If you look at the Sahel, which is where some of these countries are, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso. If you look at the Gulf of Guinea, it is also troubled – ISWAP, Boko Haram. It is really a fragile region.

“If you factor in the high poverty rate, and underdevelopment as seen in the GDP of West African states, they are very depressed.

“It means the failure of democracy in West Africa is the failure of development, human wealth. We are worried as a school – and this is not to spite the Nigerian government, this is a serious challenge to the sustainability of livelihood in West Africa.

“So these triple actions, rising poverty, rising fragility and violence, and of course economic stagnation means that these should be places to focus.

“The Abuja school doesn’t just want to condemn but seek explanation, why is democracy failing in West Africa?”

Amadi said the West African democracy observatory has been set up to understand the issues and develop policies that could address them.