By Alpha Amadu Jalloh
In Africa, the tragedy is not that we lack leaders but that we have institutions that pretend to protect democracy while quietly burying it alive. The African Union, an organisation that should stand as the guardian of democratic principles, has become an accomplice to tyranny. It has mastered the art of applauding mediocrity and legitimising fraud.
Recently, the AU congratulated President Samia Hassan Suluhu of Tanzania for her so-called electoral victory, an election that many across the continent and the international community have described as fraudulent. Instead of standing with the people who risked their lives to vote, the AU stood with power, manipulation, and the dead spirit of democracy it was created to defend.
Across the continent, we are witnessing elections that are nothing more than theatrical performances, scripts written by ruling parties, directed by security forces, and applauded by institutions like the AU. In Cameroon, Paul Biya has been in power for more than four decades, ruling a nation as though it were his personal inheritance. He rarely appears in public, yet his shadow still manages to “win” elections. In Côte d’Ivoire, Alassane Ouattara extended his stay in power through a manipulated constitutional process, effectively electing himself a third time against the will of the people.
These are not isolated incidents. Africa has become the continent where the dead are elected, both literally and figuratively. Leaders who have long lost their moral legitimacy continue to “win” elections from their graves of corruption and failed governance. Their ghosts hover over ballot boxes, their names printed on ballots not by will of the people but by the greed of the elite.
│ Emperor Haile Selassie I:
“Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, and the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most that has made it possible for evil to triumph.”
The AU, instead of intervening or condemning these absurdities, sends messages of congratulations as though betrayal is now the official language of diplomacy.
The AU’s silence in the face of Africa’s democratic decay is deafening. It remains mute while soldiers overthrow governments under the guise of restoring order. In Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Sudan, and now Madagascar, coups have replaced constitutions. The AU’s response? Suspension and a weak press release, followed by quiet rehabilitation of the very regimes it condemned.
In Sudan, the situation has degenerated into one of the worst humanitarian crises in modern history. Entire cities have been reduced to rubble, thousands displaced, and countless civilians slaughtered. Yet the AU acts like an institution on vacation, waiting for instructions from Washington, Brussels, or Beijing. It is as if the African Union has forgotten its own name; it no longer unites Africans, it unites their oppressors.
Today, Africa has become the playground of foreign interests. From the Africa China Summits to the Africa America and Turkey Africa Forums, our leaders are treated like schoolchildren on excursion trips, bused from one capital to another to be lectured about governance, trade, and diplomacy. They nod obediently, smile for the cameras, and return home with empty promises wrapped in ribbons of aid. The AU participates in this circus not as a leader but as a servant.
How can a continent so rich in natural and human resources be so dependent on external validation? The AU’s annual events are often funded by non-African donors. From summits to conferences, the bills are footed by Europe, America, or China. This economic dependence has crippled the AU’s political voice. A beggar cannot demand respect from his benefactor. Thus, the AU bows its head and claps hands even when democracy is being strangled before its very eyes.
│ Kwame Nkrumah:
“The independence of Ghana is meaningless unless it is linked up with the total liberation of the African continent.”
Why wouldn’t outsiders dictate our way of life when we have surrendered our dignity for per diems and photo opportunities? Africa’s poverty is not only economic; it is moral and institutional. We have built bureaucracies that celebrate power but neglect justice. Our institutions have become echo chambers for the same elites who steal elections and then steal the applause meant for the people.
When former U.S. President Donald Trump described Nigeria as a “country of concern” for killing Christians, a statement detached from the complex reality of Nigeria’s religious and ethnic tensions, the African Union should have spoken. It should have stood firm to defend Nigeria’s sovereignty and reject the dangerous narrative that portrays Africa as a monolithic continent of chaos. But the AU said nothing.
Silence in diplomacy can sometimes be strategic. But silence in the face of falsehood is cowardice. The AU’s refusal to confront such misrepresentations exposes its lack of courage. Even President Bola Tinubu’s response to Trump was weak and reactionary, as though he were a bullied child forced to defend himself without support.
Every major continental institution under the AU’s umbrella, from the Pan-African Parliament to the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, has become a monument of inaction. They exist to justify budgets and travel allowances, not to defend justice or human rights. Their conferences produce long communiqués filled with recycled rhetoric, while ordinary Africans continue to drown in poverty, war, and corruption.
│ Nnamdi Azikiwe:
“As long as we remain disunited, so long will foreign nations dictate to us, dominate us, and exploit us.”
Where are these institutions when journalists are jailed, opposition leaders are poisoned, or citizens are massacred during protests? Where are they when constitutions are rewritten overnight to accommodate tyranny? The AU’s failure to intervene decisively has emboldened dictators. It has become the certificate of legitimacy for electoral thieves.
Africa’s political instability today is not only a product of bad leadership but of institutional betrayal. When the people rise to protest economic hardship, corruption, or injustice, the military waits in the shadows. They exploit chaos to seize power, promising reform but delivering repression. The AU condemns such coups publicly but eventually recognises the regimes privately, a hypocrisy that erodes any moral authority it might claim.
The irony is painful. While citizens fight to reclaim democracy from corrupt politicians, the AU and its member states collaborate to maintain the very systems that oppress them. This unholy alliance between politicians, generals, and bureaucrats has turned Africa into a battlefield of broken promises.
The AU must reinvent itself or dissolve. Africa cannot continue to waste resources on an institution that behaves like a ceremonial choir. The first reform should be independence, financial and political. No meaningful change can occur when an organisation is funded and influenced by foreign powers.
Second, the AU must establish and enforce clear democratic benchmarks. Member states that manipulate constitutions, silence opposition, or rig elections should face collective sanctions, not token suspensions. There should be consequences for deceit, not congratulations.
Third, the AU should empower the African Court and regional blocs to take binding actions on electoral disputes. If democracy is truly our chosen system, then we must defend it with courage. The people must trust that their votes count for something.
The greatest tragedy of Africa today is not colonialism but the post-colonial betrayal of the African dream. The generation that fought for independence envisioned a continent governed by principles, unity, and justice. Instead, we have become a continent governed by ghosts, the ghosts of failed leaders, fraudulent elections, and forgotten ideals.
│ Ahmed Sékou Touré:
“Without dignity, there is no liberty; without justice, there is no dignity; and without independence, there are no free men.”
The AU’s complicity has turned democracy into a performance rather than a practice. The people are spectators, not participants. And as long as we keep electing the dead, those morally decayed leaders who live only to preserve power, Africa will remain politically lifeless.
The dream of Pan-Africanism has been hijacked by the politics of convenience. From Addis Ababa to Abuja, from Nairobi to Niamey, the story is the same: leaders who preach freedom while building prisons for dissenters, and institutions that preach democracy while feeding dictators.
Africa does not need another summit. It needs a resurrection of conscience, of accountability, of courage. The AU must stop acting as a social club for presidents and start behaving as the defender of African people. The day it congratulated President Samia Suluhu for a fraudulent victory marked another nail in the coffin of Africa’s democratic integrity.
If the African Union continues down this path, history will remember it not as the guardian of Africa’s sovereignty but as the undertaker of its democracy.
As an African, I am tired of seeing our leaders waiting for instructions from abroad to act at home. I am tired of the empty speeches, the recycled promises, and the grand declarations that produce nothing but dust.
It is time to stop electing the dead and start electing the living, those who live for justice, integrity, and the future of our children. Only then can Africa rise from the graveyard of its own institutions and reclaim the dignity it has lost.
