The Council for Afrika International, a think-tank based in the UK, has congratulated Egyptians for bringing to an end the 30-year rule of Hosni Mubarak through people’s power.
“In particular, we make special mention of the hundreds of unarmed youth, women, children, the elderly, who combined with armed troops in unity to avail themselves of an historic opportunity for freedom in Egypt,” says a statement signed by Dr Koku Adomdza, President of the council and copied to the Ghana News Agency.
“Pressuring a President out of power and leaving the entire political machinery largely intact appear to be a step in the right direction,” it said.
The council wished the Egyptian people a smooth transition to nothing less than an enhanced democratic dispensation that consists of political, economics and human rights.
“At the same time, our hearts go out to the bereaved families who lost loved ones and whose lives would never be the same again as a result of the void created.
“The uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt at the beginning of the second decade of the 21st Century, justify our campaign over the past two years that the causes of instability on the African Continent is awareness through increasing suffering, abject poverty, the widening gap between rich and poor, lack of corporate governance where political office is misunderstood to mean an opportunity to get rich through corruption, increasing unemployment… mass graduate unemployment, the victims of whom are equipped and empowered by technology – social networking sites which are outside the control of repressive governments.
“The Council for Afrika International has cautioned repeatedly that Africans in Leadership still had it in their power to embrace the reality of an enhanced democracy, beyond the cyclical term-time cosmetic electoral politics and rule of law, without proportionate inclusive economic participation.
“It is critical for global stability, that political democracy transforms rapidly into economic democracy where the national commonwealth is ethically distributed so as to manifest meaningful citizenship rights – through the eradication of poverty.
“This is a mission unaccomplished of the post-colonial era and must be attained after some 50 years of political independence,” the statement said.
The council said it was clear that there were common problems that beset not only African Countries, the Middle East or the Global South, but the whole world, consequent to the global economic recession.
“Given the enlightenment of global citizens through the power of technology, the spotlight is now firmly on the ruling elite to ensure that poverty, unemployment, corruption and old school parochial democracy, swiftly give way to sustainable, tangible prosperity for all citizens as a matter of principle and practice.
“This is the sure paradigm for stability. Anything less portends a recipe for self-inflicted tension, instability, protests, uprisings and a radicalising probability for the triumph of people power, as a consequence of the slowness of officialdom to respond to the new reality of the 21st Century.
“Leadership mindset change in understanding, vision, mission, purpose and responsibility of public service to the electorate has become imperative for stability in this century,” the council said.