Idris Derby and Africa’s vainly grip on power

By Ikenna Osuoha

Idris Derby’s death at the battle field, occasioned by his greed for power and the vainly strive to retain and even subjugate Chad to unending or generational fiefdom, has remained the political idiosyncracy of average African tyrant.

Desperation for political power without authority or legitimacy is indeed the fancy of the African tyrant who, despite losing popularity and mandate from the people, preferred to hold on to power without the consent of the people, hence celebration of charades, shams in the name of election.

Derby,like Samuel Doe and Gaddafi, has paid the price of foolhardiness triggered by avoidable insipidity. Contrary to the words of Abraham Lyncon, “No one person has the power to rule over another without his consent,” the Derbys have thrown the tenets of genuine democracy to the wind, having embraced coercive and authoritarian approach.

African tyrants have continued to feign deaf ears to words of wisdom that has overtime, explicated power as a transitory privilege which ordinarily, supposed to be managed within the circumstances surrounding it.

Ideally, integrity demands that one ought to leave the stage whenever ovation is high. But in Africa, seat tight syndrome and its lures have veiled the mindset of these men and women of disrepute to manipulate the state’s paraphernalia by imposing selective justice and suffocating meritocracy aimed at furthering their inglorious reign.

Unfortunately, these progenitors of the ridiculous or caricatured African disposition came with messages of hope and change to hoodwink and deceive the people.

Derby, like Blaise Campaore of Burkina Faso,held on to power for as long as he lived;forgetting that power is not only transient but subject to the people’s choice. In as much as Africa perceives leadership from the perspective of stronger individuals as against stronger institutions, sit tight syndrome would continue thereby ushering total illusion and making true democracy elusive.

In essence, Derby’s self styled leadership like Samuel Doe and others who preferred to die in power is a statement that many of African tyrants are on the highway to self immolation in the name of preserving their non existent fiefdom.