Forum to examine state of democracy in Africa

Political experts from across Africa will, on Wednesday, gather in Arusha, Tanzania, for the Pre-Eighth African Governance Forum (AGF-VIII) with an aim of assessing the state of democracy and elections on the continent.The two-day meet will examine and deliberate the state of democracy, elections and diversity management, in all the five regions that comprise the continent.The sub-regional forum is jointly hosted by the East African Community (EAC), African Union Commission (AUC), United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).In an interview with The New Times, the CEO of Rwanda Governance Board (RGB), Prof. Anastase Shyaka, said Africa needed to develop a foundation for the democratic leadership that’s based on economic development.He said the continent stills lagged behind in terms of good governance due to failure to shake off the colonial legacy.“Africa was not given a chance and time to build a proper foundation for democratic governance and political growth.“We must come up with our own solutions to achieve political stability as well as considering democracy as an engine for economic development,” he said.“We need to respond to the challenges with our own approach instead of copying the western world”.The Dean of Faculty of Law at the National University of Rwanda (NUR), Dr Emmanuel Ugirashebuja, observed that though Africa is still besieged by undemocratic tendencies, there were significant strides in democratic governance.“The fact that people gather to discuss democracy in Africa shows that there is the will to achieve it,” he said.The don cited Botswana and Rwanda among countries that had demonstrated “some good leadership based on political and economic growth.