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Ghana becomes record fifth African nation to take over from ruling party this year
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Ghana’s vote brings to an end a remarkable 12 months in African politics, which have seen five transfers of power – more than ever before. This “annus horribilis” for governments has now also brought opposition victories in Botswana, Mauritius, Senegal and the self-declared republic of Somaliland.
Even beyond these results, almost every election held in the region this year under reasonably democratic conditions, has seen the governing party lose a significant number of seats.
This trend has been driven by a combination of factors:
*the economic downturn
*growing public intolerance of corruption
*and the emergence of increasingly assertive and well-co-ordinated opposition parties.
The trend is likely to continue into 2025, and will cause trouble for leaders such as Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera, whose country goes to the polls in September.
One of the most striking aspect of the elections that have taken place in 2024 is that many have resulted in landslide defeats for governments that have previously appeared to have a strong grip on power – including in countries that have never before experienced a change at the top.
The Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) that had ruled the country since independence in 1966 was crushed in October’s general elections.
As well as losing power, the BDP went from holding 38 seats in the 69-strong parliament to almost being wiped out.
After winning only four seats, the BDP is now one of the smallest parties in parliament, and faces an uphill battle to remain politically relevant.
There was also a landslide defeat for the governing party in Mauritius in November, where the Alliance Lepep coalition, headed by Pravind Jagnauth of the Militant Socialist Movement, won only 27% of the vote and was reduced to just two seats in parliament.
With its rival Alliance du Changement sweeping 60 of the 66 seats available, Mauritius has experienced one of the most complete political transformations imaginable.
Senegal and the self-declared republic of Somaliland also saw opposition victories.
In the case of Senegal, the political turnaround was just as striking as in Botswana, albeit in a different way.
Just weeks ahead of the election, the main opposition leaders Bassirou Diomaye Faye and Ousmane Sonko were languishing in jail as the government of President Macky Sall abused its power in a desperate bid to avert defeat.
After growing domestic and international pressure led to Faye and Sonko being released, Faye went on to win the presidency in the first round of voting, with the government’s candidate winning only 36% of the vote.
Even in cases where governments have not lost, their reputation and political control have been severely dented.
South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC) retained power but only after a bruising campaign that saw it fall below 50% of the vote in a national election for the first time since the end of white-minority rule in 1994.
This forced President Cyril Ramaphosa to enter into a coalition government, giving up 12 cabinet posts to other parties, including powerful positions such as home affairs.
The recent elections in Namibia told a similar story. Although the ruling party retained power, the opposition has rejected the results and claims the poll was badly manipulated after it was marred by logistical problems and irregularities.
Even with the flaws, the government suffered in the parliamentary election, recording its worst-ever performance, losing 12 of its 63 seats and only just holding on to its parliamentary majority.
As a result, a region that is known more for governments that manage to hold on to power for decades has seen 12 months of vibrant, intensely contested, multiparty politics.
The only exceptions to this have been countries where elections were seen as neither free nor fair, such as Chad and Rwanda, or in which governments were accused by opposition and rights groups of resorting to a combination of rigging and repression to avert defeat, as in Mozambique.
Three trends have combined to make it a particularly difficult year to be in power.
In Botswana, Mauritius and Senegal, growing citizen concern about corruption and the abuse of power eroded government credibility.
Opposition leaders were then able to play on popular anger at nepotism, economic mismanagement and the failure of leaders to uphold the rule of law to expand their support base.
Especially in Mauritius and Senegal, the party in power also undermined its claim to be a government committed to respecting political rights and civil liberties – a dangerous misstep in countries where the vast majority of citizens are committed to democracy, and which have previously seen opposition victories.
The perception that governments were mishandling the economy was particularly important because many people experienced a tough year financially.
High food and fuel prices have increased the cost of living for millions of citizens, increasing their frustration with the status quo.
In addition to underpinning some of the government defeats this year, economic anThis is not an African phenomenon, of course, but a global one.
Popular discontent over inflation played a role in the defeat of Rishi Sunak and the Conservative Party in the UK and the victory of Donald Trump and the Republican Party in the United States.
What was perhaps more distinctive about the transfers of power in Africa this year was the way that opposition parties learned from the past.
In some cases, such as Mauritius, this meant developing new ways to try and protect the vote by ensuring every stage of the electoral process was carefully watched.
In others, it meant forging new coalitions to present the electorate with a united front.
In Botswana, for example, three opposition parties and a number of independent candidates came together under the banner of the Umbrella for Democratic Change to comprehensively out-mobilise the BDP.
A similar set of trends is likely to make life particularly difficult for leaders that have to go to the polls next year, such as Malawi’s President Chakwera, who is also struggling to overcome rising public anger at the state of the economy.
With the defeat of the NPP in Ghana, Africa has seen five transfers of power in 12 months. The previous record was four opposition victories, which occurred some time ago in 2000.
That so many governments are being given an electoral bloody nose against a backdrop of global democratic decline that has seen a rise in authoritarianism in some regions is particularly striking.
It suggests that Africa has much higher levels of democratic resilience than is often recognised, notwithstanding the number of entrenched authoritarian regimes that continue to exist.
Civil society groups, opposition parties and citizens themselves have mobilised in large numbers to demand accountability, and punish governments that have failed both economically and democratically.
International governments, organisations, and activists looking for new ways to defend democracy around the world should pay more attention to a region that is often assumed to be an inhospitable environment for multiparty politics, yet has seen more examples of democratic bounce-back than other regions of the world.
BBC
BUA Cement Plc has distributed agricultural inputs valued at over N108 million to 211 farmers from its host and resettled communities in Sokoto State under its Resettlement and Sustainable Livelihood Restoration Programme.
The initiative is targeted at farmers affected by the company’s quarry operations and is aimed at restoring livelihoods, improving agricultural productivity and supporting food production.
Speaking at the distribution ceremony, the Managing Director of BUA Cement Plc, Engr. Yusuf Binji, said the programme reflects the company’s commitment to sustainable community development and economic empowerment.
Represented by the Assistant Director of Corporate Services, Alhaji Sada Suleiman, Binji said the intervention was designed to help resettled community members rebuild their livelihoods through agriculture.
“We believe that supporting agriculture is one of the most effective ways of empowering rural households and improving their economic well-being,” he said.
According to him, the company is focused on creating sustainable opportunities for affected communities beyond compensation and resettlement.
He added that the intervention would help improve beneficiaries’ incomes while contributing to increased food production in Sokoto State and across the country.
The company’s Director of Health, Community, Safety and Environment, Engr. Ali Gumel, urged beneficiaries to make effective use of the farm inputs, noting that they had received training on their proper application.
He said the company expects the inputs to translate into higher crop yields, improved household incomes and sustainable agricultural development.
Also speaking, the Programme Manager of the Sokoto State Agricultural Development Programme (SADP), Alhaji Abubakar Danmaliki, described the initiative as an example of effective collaboration between the private and public sectors in promoting rural development.
He said the programme would support farmers in recovering from the challenges associated with resettlement while boosting agricultural output.
Danmaliki added that beneficiaries would continue to receive extension services and technical support to encourage the adoption of improved farming practices.
The company’s Social Performance Specialist, Alhaji Rabiu Maska, said the package included NPK, urea and liquid fertilisers, improved maize, sorghum, cowpea and groundnut seeds, as well as pesticides, herbicides and other farm inputs.
According to him, the intervention was tailored to meet the farming needs of the beneficiaries and improve their harvests.
Some of the beneficiaries commended BUA Cement for the support, describing it as timely in view of rising production costs.
They pledged to utilise the inputs for the intended agricultural purposes to maximise the benefits of the programme.
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has emerged victorious in all the 24 chairmanship seats and 240 councillorship positions contested in Saturday’s local government elections in Gombe State.
Chairman of the Gombe State Independent Electoral Commission (GOSIEC), Abdullahi Garba Talasse, who announced the results on Saturday in Gombe, declared that the ruling party won in all the local government councils and Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) where elections were conducted.
Talasse described the successful conduct of elections in the newly created LCDAs as a milestone in the state’s democratic development, noting that Gombe had expanded from 11 local government councils with 114 councillors to 24 councils and LCDAs with 240 councillors.
He said the commission worked closely with the State House of Assembly to secure the legal backing required for elections to be held in the LCDAs.
“We did not struggle for the enabling law in vain. Today, we have successfully conducted elections across the 24 councils and LCDAs, which is a significant achievement for the state,” he said.
The GOSIEC chairman attributed the poor showing of opposition parties to their limited participation in the polls.
According to him, the African Congress (AC) fielded candidates in only three chairmanship contests, while the Democratic Liberation Alliance (DLA) contested in six councils.
He added that the New Nigeria People’s Movement (NRM), Youth Party (YP) and Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) each sponsored candidates in three chairmanship elections.
For councillorship positions, Talasse said AC contested in eight wards, while DLA, NRM, YP and ZLP each fielded candidates in 11 wards.
“That explains why some parties recorded zero votes in several areas because they did not participate across all the councils and wards,” he said.
Talasse explained that although chairmanship results were declared at the various local government collation centres, the commission considered it necessary to present a statewide summary to journalists, observers and the public.
“From the results before the commission, APC has won all the 24 chairmanship seats and all the 240 councillorship positions,” he declared.
He commended political parties, election observers, civil society organisations, security agencies and other stakeholders for contributing to the peaceful conduct of the elections.
The GOSIEC chairman also appreciated party leaders, government officials, non-governmental organisations and other guests from across the country who monitored the exercise, describing their participation as crucial to the success of the electoral process.
Former President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, has attributed global warming to human greed, selfishness, and reckless exploitation of the environment, warning that such actions continue to disrupt the natural balance of the ecosystem.
Obasanjo made the remarks in Kano during an event organised in honour of former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Abubakar Mahmoud, and his Environment and Sustainability Initiative and Trust Fund.
Speaking at the event, Obasanjo acknowledged the reality and growing impact of climate change, stressing that human activities remain a major driver of global warming.
“God created our world in balance, but we, as human beings, out of selfishness and carelessness, have done more harm than good to our environment, and we need to do more in the safekeeping of our environment,” the former president said.
Obasanjo also revealed that he has personally planted more than 3.5 million trees as part of efforts to combat climate change, stressing that protecting the environment is a collective responsibility and a global public good.
The Kano State Government commended the initiative and pledged its support to ensure its sustainability.
The Commissioner for Environment and Water Resources, Dahiru Hashim, described the initiative as a significant step towards environmental protection and sustainable development.
“In recognition of this laudable initiative, the Kano State Government has approved the donation of 10,000 seedlings for the Mahmoud Environmental and Sustainable Trust,” Hashim said.
In his remarks, Abubakar Mahmoud said the initiative seeks to promote environmental sustainability and preserve the ecosystem for the benefit of both present and future generations.
“I started a small project that has grown into something quite formidable, providing protection to villages around and to preserving various species of plants,so what we are trying to do is to continue with this legacy,” he said.
The event attracted several dignitaries, including the vice presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Rabiu Kwankwaso, former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Attahiru Jega, officials of the Kano State Government, and other stakeholders.
Participants at the event called for deliberate and collective action to address climate change and environmental degradation.
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