AFRICA-POLITICS: Civil Society Grows Stronger And Stronger

By Toye Olori Reprint | | Print |

Lynne Muthoni Wanyeki and Toye Olori

HARARE, Dec 27 1996 (IPS) - No longer content to let African governments continue to rule without consulting the people, the continent’s civil society is poised to play a more active role in governance.

Human rights, gender, environment, housing, children, and land rights are just a few of the plethora of issues that civic groups have banded together around in order to keep African governments accountable.

“There is increasing awareness among people that we have the right to have a say in matters of national importance and that our say doesn’t have to be through our MPs(members of parliament) or parliament,” says Atsango Chesoni of the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), Kenya chapter.

“We are gradually legitimizing citizens’ rights to play a role in politics and whatever’s happening,” Chesoni adds.

In countries like Nigeria where the military has ruled for the majority of the country’s 36 years of independence, civic organisations have become the main channel through which the people can air their views.

“They (NGOs) are the only group that can speak out for us since most of us have been cowed by the military,” says a Nigerian civil servant who declined to be named.

According to Ola Akagbosu, a researcher at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, Africa’s civil society has strengthened, because it is the true representative of the people’s views.

Unlike governments which wantonly make policy without consultation, civic groups “hold seminars and workshops and receive inputs from the different segments of society for their policy formulations,” Akagbosu says.

“They are forced by circumstances to voice the views and opinions of citizens, as well as champion the course of the people. In a way, they are the voice of the people,” she adds.

Non-government organisations also have taken on this role, because the majority of Africa’s people are often too tied down in the daily struggle of survival.

“…Ngos and civil society are in the vanguard of campaigns against constitutional violation of lives and the freedom of the citizens,” says Kolawole Olaniyan of the Constitutional Rights Project in Nigeria.

“More often than not, the citizenry cannot respond to these violations because of many reasons. Among them are poverty, fear of repression by the gun and lack of education,” Olaniyan adds.

During the 1970s and early 1980s in many African countries, the challenge to African governments came mainly from student movements and the trade unions.

According to analysts, the changes in Africa’s political and economic scenario during the past 10 years have opened up more space for people’s participation.

“Many people from civil society moved into the new political parties and those who remained re-defined civil society’s role out of frustration with the political party system,” says Maina Kiai, executive director of the Kenyan Human Rights Commission.

“We are now finding solutions in the churches, in NGOs, even in business, but not in government. We now know the government is not all-being, all-knowing and all-powerful,” Kiai adds.

The economic reform programmes which swept across the continent have also created a climate where governments were forced to take a back seat and civil society stepped in to fill the void.

“This is not to say that liberalisation is a good thing, but it has had some positive impact,” Kiai says. “Before the government was everywhere. Now, the reduction of government’s role in all areas of life, the fact that the government has had to scale down, has enabled people to empower themselves.

“We are more self-confident, self-assured, more responsible for our own lives,” Kiai says.

According to Kiai, the people’s power and confidence to change their own situations is evident in many ways.

“Aviation workers going on strike and taking their employer to court, farmers refusing to pick their coffee because they believe the Kenya Coffee Board to be corrupt, members of the Kenyan Creameries Cooperative voting in their own board not just once but twice in defiance of presidential interference, parents challenging education costs and the running of government schools are all examples,” the Kenyan human rights activist says. “People are becoming aware that they hold the solutions”.

Analysts agree that the trend will continue, and that African governments must confront not only the challenge from the international community to be more transparent and democratic, but also the challenge from within.

“Civil society has an energy that the State cannot control. There are symptoms of a healthier, more vibrant civil society…,” Chesoni says.