The same wind of change that toppled of former Tunisian president Ben Ali and Egyptian president Mubarak from power has spread to Algeria, Morocco, and Libya.
The Algerian and Moroccan governments are trying to deal smoothly with their protesters by offering them some concessions. The worst situation remains in Libya, were Gaddafi is now regaining and consolidating his powerful army in several towns which were previously taken by the opposition forces.
If the strong message from UN and world leaders can ease Gaddafi’s reign, others dictators will learn lessons, and be discouraged to cause suffering to their people.
The same wind of change could also spread to Central African countries. Despite a relative calm here, people still have the same problems of lack of civil liberties and arbitrary arrests.
For instance in the Democratic Republic of Congo, last February the presidential palace at Kinshasa was attacked by a group of soldiers trying to kill the Congolese president, who was absent from the scene. Hundreds of innocent people have been arrested in DRC and f no more progress is made, this country is risking another civil war.
Democracy in African countries is simply filling the papers in the ballot during the election. The situation remains the same after the election as before the election and most governments don’t feel accountable to their people.
It’s time for the UN and powerful world leaders to push African leaders to install the real democracy in their countries to prevent situations like in Libya. Let’s take a look at countries like Ivory Coast, Zimbabwe and Congo Brazzaville; the UN has to put suitable mechanisms in place to discourage African dictators, who are causing suffering to their people by stealing money and saving it abroad without any justification to their people.
