Les ateliers MANSSAH – Edition Conakry : Quel modèle de gouvernance en Afrique ?

Faut-il se passer du Président de la République ? Par qui doit on le remplacer ? Devant le constat d’échec de la démocratie électorale, quel modèle de gouvernance pour l’Afrique francophone ? Et si on osait un système institutionnel propre à nous qui tienne compte de nos réalités, de nos valeurs, de nos traditions ? Osons inventer l’avenir comme le recommandait Thomas Sankara. Les pistes de solutions de MANSSAH.

Réalisation : Sébastien Faye
www.manssah.com

Before we begin, I would like to invite each of you, depending from the corner of the room, to look, either to your left or to your right. We have there, majestically enthroned his Excellency Colonel Mamadi Doumbouya, president of the CNRD, president of the transition, head of state, supreme leader of the armed forces.

I ask you the question Isn’t there something bothering you? I’m waiting for an answer. Isn’t that a lot? for one man? I say that, but hey, I hope that I will be able to take my plane back tomorrow. But I, sincerely, there is something that bothers me. But what must be noted,

It’s not his fault. We were put in this mold. President is omnipotent, omniscient, he is president of everything. In these conditions, what model can we have that is effective? This is the central question to which we are going invite you to respond this afternoon. It’s time for a coup d’état, it’s the fashion.

The soldiers have become real stars. Something that just a few years ago might have seemed abnormal has become normal. In Mali, Niger, Burkina Fasoo and here in Guinea, people took to the streets to celebrate coups d’état. And I have to tell you that I, all these coups d’état made me happy.

I was happy. Not because I’m in favor to the seizure of power by the military, but because it was a unique opportunity to finally settle down the real questions. Instead of acting like a coy virgin as I see some people doing, saying this is not normal.

The role of the army is not in power. We must ask ourselves what have we done? so that the army becomes the solution and not the problem? Remember that before, when there was a coup d’état, rarely was it unanimous. Today, coups d’état are carried out like a letter in the post, without bloodshed.

In reality, elections kill more than coups d’état. Constitutional revisions for third terms kill more than military coups. Look at the latest coup in Gabon. We didn’t even slap anyone. It’s still curious let’s get there. All this to say what Madam Sir, the democracy that was imposed on us was a huge fraud.

And this is what these coups teach us today. And to fully understand why it was a scam, I invite you to turn to history because unfortunately, since at least slavery, we have always been fooled. Slavery did not stop because the slavers, suddenly, found an ounce of humanity and thought that they

Was no longer good to treat human beings like animals. If we must recognize that people fought so that slavery ends, we must never forget that the real reason of the end of slavery, it is the industrial revolution. Having created machines we no longer needed men in the fields because the machines

Could do ten, 20, 1000 times what men did. Except that once the machines arrived, unlike slaves, the machines do not work with a whip, the machines run on raw materials. And where are the raw materials found? As luck would have it in Africa. This is how we got from slavery

To colonization because we no longer needed men, but we needed our land and they came to colonize us to recover precisely what we have in our basement. And afterwards, we talked about decolonization, another huge scam. Because after the Second World War, the powers which did not have their share of Africa

Felt that things could no longer continue like this. It was then necessary to rethink the world. Once again we have been fooled, We pretended to decolonize, we were forced to sign leonine agreements and we were given titles and flags and anthems making us believe that we had also become states.

No, that was another lie. All those who fought for the true independence of Africa or almost, were simply murdered. We managed to put at the head of our States those who said that independence was not a necessity, that we were not ready to lead ourselves.

You remember the scenes of our brothers crying at the start of the colonist saying: we are lost, what are we going to do? It is to these people that we handed over power. Except that the world has evolved. The Cold War progressed, the world was divided.

Certain African chiefs whom they had imposed at the head of our States, since they were no longer concerned about the loss of power, had zeal, began to look elsewhere. And those who did not have their share of Africa said: here is a golden opportunity. We must stop with single parties

Because that doesn’t allow us to enter the game. The fall of the Berlin Wall has come to an end communism, capitalist ideology triumphed with its corollary affectionately called liberal democracy. And as Alain said earlier, François Mitterrand brought together African leaders in La Baule to say: things have changed.

Because heads of state like Mobutu Sese Seko in Zaire, Ahidjo in Cameroon, Houphouët-Boigny in Ivory Coast, were no longer as malleable as we would have liked. They had become so strong and powerful that they could have the presumption why did Mobutu think that they could launch a rocket? from Zaire.

This worried us and we said to ourselves how do we break all this? How do we weaken all this? And we arrived at this new model which today we pompously call democracy. What happened is that this democracy coincided with the aspirations of its leaders

Who were ready to do anything not to lose power. Reason why they adopted this model which allowed them to please more to the international community than to their own fellow citizens. Logical consequence, 30 years later, we are in a real fool’s game. We organize elections every five or seven years.

We know very well that very often, the one who is proclaimed The winner didn’t win, but we make do with it. I come from a country called Cameroon where in 2018, we organized a presidential election in front of the whole world. Everyone was unanimous that the main winner of the election,

It was fraud. Unsigned minutes, opposition activists beaten, imprisoned, the authorities even went so far as to bring in false international observers who were tramps that we picked up here and there to lend credibility to an election. Despite this, the president was still re-elected according to the Constitutional Council of Cameroon,

With this painting, ladies and gentlemen, how can we be surprised that the military become stars in most of our countries? The other consequence of this model of democracy, of this Africanized model of Western democracy, is that it created totally illegitimate leaders. We can safely say

That most of those who run states in French-speaking Africa are not the fruit of the expression of the will of the people. This is a totally inappropriate model. because the political system is supposed to advance society. From you to me, 33 years later, show me just one country in French-speaking Africa

Whose progress can be linked to the political system. We all have the feeling that our countries have regressed and we can also say it for this country in which we are, namely Guinea. This morning, at university, someone reminded us what school was like in Guinea at the time by Sékou Touré.

All this, Madam Sir, to say this model is not ours. We will no longer spend time defining ourselves in relation to the aspirations of others. There is no single management model for the Universal City. Why Africa is going to be the only continent on whom we are going to impose a model.

Even in Europe, or in the West, democracy is not done in the same way. British democracy is not the same as French democracy. German democracy is not the same than Belgian democracy. We will tell you some countries are not democratic. So what ? You sincerely believe that if Qatar had chosen

The same mode of mimicry as us, would they be at this level of progress today? You sincerely believe that China would be the leading commercial power in the world today if it had agreed to have its governance model imposed on it? We at MANSSAH believe not.

We are convinced that the salvation of Africa requires the reform of our governance and our institutions. This model of imported democracy led to something terrible: our denial. We no longer know who we are and we have chosen to marginalize what once made us strong, namely our traditional legitimacies.

And to convince you of this, I want to introduce here Master Fatoumata Sidibé Diarra who will develop it for you. Thank you. Thank you Jules Hello everyone. Indeed, we have a choice. We have the choice to take responsibility for ourselves. We have the choice to continue to consume ourselves, to let ourselves die

Slowly and slowly let what makes up our identity die. Speaking of our identity, no African is unaware of the place of our traditions, of our values, our leaders and traditional legitimacy. Yet we all put them aside, we marginalize them. Now, ladies and gentlemen, old Africa speaks to us

Everything is word, everything seeks to communicate to us knowledge. And let’s remember, let’s all remember, that a piece of wood no matter how long it lasts in the water, it will never become a crocodile. Let’s return to what constitutes an essential part of our being our chiefdoms and our traditional legitimacies.

We all recognize their legitimacy. They are essential in our lives, whether it is legitimacy recognized on the basis of notability, knowledge or even that recognized in relation to the exercise of a specific profession, whether it concerns political or land leadership for example. But we know all this and we ignore them.

We keep them away from making important decisions concerning the life of the nation, although there are a few exceptions or traditional chiefdoms that have survived and remain strong. I am thinking in particular of northern Cameroon or in the case of Moro Naba, in Burkina Faso who acts, is respected

And gives his point of view during political crises. We have, ladies and gentlemen, quite simply perpetuated, the principles of annihilation of our traditions which were initiated by the settler, the negation and systematic destruction of our cultures, of our traditions and our values. At the advent of our independence, we ourselves continued

This weakening by self-will saying modernization of our societies. We remember the existence of our chiefdoms and legitimacies only at election time, when each political actor jostles within their gates to try to exploit them or obtain their moral support. It is therefore normal today, with the negation of who we are,

Where we come from and without knowing where to go, that we are lost between our reality, our realities and the desire to copy others. We end up wondering how, in 70, 80 years of colonization, we were able to erase our thousand-year-old history.

However, a country is built on the basis of its knowledge and its values. Apparently we forgot that, we Africans. Alongside our legitimacy, the citizen who should normally be at the center of the game is also marginalized. We only remember its existence at election time.

The other actors in the management of the city are also discredited, whether it is civil society which does not play its role, political parties of which there are hundreds as if we could have hundreds of political offers in the current situation of our States. Moreover, most do not have a credible political offer.

When people call you a politician today in Africa, this is not always a compliment. Faced with all this, instead of taking a break from this impasse in which we find ourselves and try to find solutions, we continue to do what the so-called international community expects of us,

That is to say organizing elections which are very often a facade serving not only to maintain an elite in power, knowing for example that in 29 out of 47 African countries, opposition parties have never been represented in power. And the way these elections are taking place is completely

Disconnected from traditional methods of appointing leaders. Because the historical and cultural context are far from those of the West that we try to copy. The electoral meetings are therefore for the international community. It is the one who will benefit from the title of best student of democracy,

Synonymous with financial aid from famous technical and financial partners. However, not only these electoral cycles are misunderstood by the majority of the population, but they give rise, as has just been said by Jules, to post-election violence, losers refusing to admit defeat

With the aim of negotiating a deal and taking advantage of the power when the protagonists do not organize conscience shopping open air or methodical stuffing of ballot boxes despite the presence of so-called international observers. Everyone wants, pardon the expression, to eat their share, whatever the consequences. Not only are we holding mock elections,

But after this costly masquerade, we then engage in the term limits debate with all the cycles of electoral violence and coup constitutional state with which this notion is accompanied. Today we must move beyond this debate and ask ourselves the real problem which is not that of the duration of the mandate

But of its exercise, by leaders who will govern and will work in service of a vision. As I like to say, it’s not the mandate that counts, but what we do with it. I spoke to you quickly about the different political actors involved in the management of the city.

We cannot talk about them today not to mention the army. In west Africa it has just been said today, it is the military who hold the reality of power, whether in Mali where I come from, in Burkina Faso, Gabon, in Niger or Guinea. What roles should we envision for this army?

Because what is certain is that these missions must be clarified. We must regulate our participation in the political game. I give back for this A word to Jules who will surely edify us on this point. Thank you. You will have understood that my colleagues from MANSSAH I’m looking for trouble.

Why is it always me who will speak complicated things? More seriously, the army, let’s talk about it. I don’t see many men in uniform in the room, but I am convinced that there are many of them in civilian clothes given that we are here in the heart of a military power.

What should the army do? What is his role ? At the end of the day ? I would like to tell you, dear men in uniform and I dare to believe that we are among ourselves. We can’t give you the power. This is not the place of the army,

This is not the place of the army. The exceptional power is only relevant because it has a tense. The exception cannot become the rule. The Army must intervene exceptionally. The reason is simple and I am sure that even the military will agree with me. Why can’t we give you absolute power?

Because you hold the firepower and if you decide to twist, no one can stop you. It’s just for that. It’s not because you’re less intelligent, no. on the contrary. The proudest leaders, the leaders who made Africa proud, they were soldiers. Jerry Rawlings from Ghana, Thomas Isidore Sankara from Burkina Faso. They were soldiers.

This is to say that in reality, as I said earlier, the military is not the problem. They can be part of the solution, but only if power doesn’t stop power We’re screwed. This is why, Madam, Sir, I say no. Army Square cannot be in supreme power.

That said, what place are we going to give it? Are we going to give it to the army? at the end of the day ? The problem we have today, it is that we have totally misrepresented our army. The Army is no longer what it was supposed to be.

We all say: we want a republican army. But do we even know what a republican army is? We managed to convince ourselves and make people believe that a republican army is an army in the service of a tyrant, of a leader. When it was necessary to kill Guineans here for the third term

We called in the army. This is not the role of the army. An army does not shoot at its population. We have completely misused the role of the armies in our countries, to the point of entrusting them with law enforcement missions for the sole preservation of power.

The problem we have with our armies, is that we managed to make them believe, sometimes by gentrifying them let’s not be afraid of words by corrupting them that they are there to watch for a leader to stay in power forever. And that’s the problem. This is why, ladies, we must

Gentlemen of the military, that we give you your real role which, in my opinion, is that of the last rampart. Because since you have the firepower, you are the only ones who can be scary. When we see how Bazoum fell in Niger, we actually understand that being president has no meaning

If the army is not with you, you sleep president and you wake up in the morning you are excellently unemployed locked up with your family and unable to give the slightest order. And why is that useful? Because if a leader can go off the rails,

As seems to have been the case in several countries, the army can do what it did. But let’s imagine for just a moment that Bazoum was a soldier. What situation would Niger be in today? This is why, once again, Madam, Sir, that we cannot make the exception the rule. The power must

Can stop the power. This does not mean that we must send all the soldiers back to the barracks. This means that we must now think about the army like a power, an autonomous power. All that is needed is the head of state, Mr. Prime Minister, be the supreme leader of the armies.

It’s not possible, it’s giving him too much power. All that is needed is the president or the head of state or whoever is proposed, or the one who appoints to civil and military positions. In most countries, he is head of state, supreme head of the armed forces,

Head of the supreme judiciary, head of heaven and from the earth of the mother of oceans, whatever you want. In these conditions, how do you want that people don’t lose their minds? It is fundamental that we integrate it. He who names commands. If you submit people

To the power of appointment of a single man, they feel eternally indebted and think that they serve man and not the Republic. It’s so many things, Madam, Sir, that we wanted to evoke with you tonight. I still insist on this: the Army must be the last defense.

The Army must stand alongside the people because when the people run out of options, when institutions can no longer do the regulatory work, then only the army will remain. But if this army is corrupt, if this army is in the service of an individual, then the people are screwed.

This profession is so noble and dignified that we can no longer continue to overuse it as is the case in most of our States. What is happening today in Mali, Burkina Faso, in Niger, here in Guinea, I prefer not to talk about Gabon because it is a fairly atypical case

I’m still having trouble understanding what’s going on there. is more of an opportunity. It should that these soldiers fight to be Jerry Rawlings, Thomas Sankara, only in this way will they give meaning what they did to liberate their country. But if they fail in this mission, I think their responsibility towards history

Will be indescribable. They have, voluntarily or not, raised hope, created from dreams. They have no right to disappoint. Here you go, Ladies and Gentlemen, what I wanted to say about the army, while reiterating to the authorities of this country

That I did not have the entry visa, I was told to go get it. I hope I can go out. Thank you. Having said all this Madam Sir, you will certainly ask yourself a question that makes sense: what do we do? What do you offer ?

It’s very good everything you said, it’s an observation. I am sure that some of you, if not the vast majority, you share this point of view, this observation. But as Alain said, rejection cannot constitute a project. What do you offer MANSSAH? And for that, I want to introduce Alain Foka, who is also

The coordinator of this governance and institutions commission, to open up the field of possibilities with you. How do we see the political system we think at our level, with lots of ambitions and unpretentious, be able to lead us to look in the direction of progress. Alain Foka, please. I have to reassure Jules

If we are here it is not a coincidence. We have an extraordinary shooting window and I’m not giving away a secret by recalling that the discussion we are having, we had it with the authorities of this country, with the head of state, who also sees an opportunity to project oneself.

I don’t have the feeling that the military in the barracks dream of taking power. We give them power through our mistakes. They take power as was the case in France in 1958, when we went look for General de Gaulle who actually carried out a coup d’état, he became the most famous man,

Most famous politician of the 20th century. So no, I don’t believe we are breaking any law. In any case, the one who invites us knows that we are disruptive, that we will say what we think and that this is an opportunity for us to draw conclusions and also draw plans. Guinea is

At a crossroads at a historic moment in its history like Mali, like Niger, like Gabon, like Burkina Faso and many other countries Africans to say to themselves what do we do now? In MANSSAH, we worked about the fact that for you to go somewhere, you must have defined the destination.

When we look at our countries, those who come to business promise us mountains and wonders. And there is never a vision, no vision. I look around the room despite the light, I see some people arriving from China, India, and some other countries. They defined their vision, no matter how strong you are,

Whatever your allegiance, you respect the vision who was arrested. They decided one day to become the first power economy in the world, to become the factory of the world. Whoever is in charge Chinese who comes into business, he respects this objective. This objective is cardinal. He must respect

The vision that has been arrested. The vision in Singapore has been much the same. Today in India, they have decided that they are going to be the first coders in the world at a time when digital is key. They are becoming the world’s first coders. What is our vision? The time has come.

Together, beyond political colors, beyond movements of thought, to define what we want to be. What is our vision? If you get up in the morning from home and you go out, you don’t know where you’re going you will never get there. It is not possible. Where are we going ?

What do we want to be? Apart from saying that we are democracies? What is our project? We don’t have any, let’s have the courage to look each other in the eye saying: we don’t have any. We are ministers, we are business leaders, we are university teachers, but actually, it’s for us,

For our family, for our ego. But what is the objective? What is vision? I had this debate with a few chefs. Believe me, they were a little embarrassed. I had it with people from the African Union, they were embarrassed. Is that to be able to have a good trip,

Shouldn’t we define where we’re going first? Don’t we have to decide what we want to be? so that we can adapt our strategy to this project? Time in Africa is to the vision and this goes far beyond political battles and contests. This is what we must agree on. Maybe that’s why

That we are in these endless endless wanderings. In China, they know where they are going, yet they only have one party, the Communist Party. The battle is happening inside the party, but we respect vision. They have become the leading economic power in the world. The United States can chat, the Europeans can chat,

And so on. When China closes the door everyone is bad. It is the heart of the world. We insult them all day long But everyone turns and goes to see them and they are also with us. In their projects we were also a place where we had to go to find raw materials.

It was in a vision, whoever takes the helm of the Chinese state he respects that. Ladies and gentlemen, dear compatriots, dear brothers of the continent, this must be our priority. Who do we want to be? Where do we want to go? What do we want to become? The day we answered this question,

We will become the first power in the world. Let’s define our vision, that’s the key, that’s the key. And then comes the mode of governance. I’m not going to go over everything that everyone knows, on the models that we have adopted and which show their limits every day.

We are not saying that democracy is bad, it works for others, but it is the fruit of their history is the fruit of their history, of their civilization. Maybe we need to think to our model, to us. We worked on it within MANSSAH to make you a proposal.

This proposition, if it seems violent, forgive us. We are in reflection, a deep reflection that you will enrich, that you will improve, you will chase us, beat us. But we want to discuss ideas, for once that are ours not those of others. So we looked at how the executive works.

Jules, with his famous manner, said in the form of a joke that you can’t be that powerful and not lose your mind. There is only God to keep me from losing our heads when you have that much power. But the human that we are is imperfect.

He loses his mind when he has all the powers. We no longer want the omnipotent, omniscient president. The president who has all the powers, we want more, it doesn’t work. The Almighty President becomes a slave to flirts, bullshit, those who come to tell him in the evening

That he is especially intelligent even though he needs to be advised. It’s not because we once swore on the Koran or the Bible that suddenly you became smarter than you were yesterday. You are the same person so we can’t give you all the powers. We in MANSSAH,

We are campaigning for the disappearance of this position of President of the Republic. So what, what happens to the main position? Who holds the main position? We want a strong man, very strong because strong institutions are only built with strong men, I have not yet saw a weak man build strong institutions,

And even our leaders who are given so much power are not strong enough to make changes. Just see when they move a little, when they wink one eye and that Paris, London or Washington calls them to order to see how quickly they are back to square one. The one we want

He is a strong leader, but a leader who governs, not who reigns. We have presidents who rule, who are powerful, overpowering and who report to no one. They are not accountable to any institution. Once they are elected for five years, they will do the five years and they will renew.

No one can overthrow them. No, it’s not serious. Do you agree with me ? It’s not serious. A leader must govern every morning, He must go before the people, he must answer for his actions before the people. He must go to Parliament, explain what he does. He must be held accountable,

He must be accountable so that everyone can judge the work they have done. He must be accountable, he must respect the vision which has been previously defined. It must be at the service of vision, not his own service and the people must judge him. The people must be able to remove him.

He governs, let’s have leaders who govern please. We have seen presidents coming, they won the elections and we appoint a prime minister, the president decides what he wants to do, when it doesn’t work, it’s the Prime Minister’s fault, we fire the Prime Minister and we start again at the same place,

It has a fuse, it blows whenever it wants he knows he’s going to be five years old because he is not responsible. We elected him and he has his fuse. No, we don’t want a fuse anymore. The chief executive we will find his name.

We can call him Prime Minister, but we don’t want to these names which have made their history and which have shown their limits. The chief executive must be the leader of the majority party that won the election. The chief executive, who must go to Parliament, who must answer for their actions,

Who must govern with significant powers, must be the one who is the leader of the majority party in the National Assembly. He must answer for his actions. He can’t win the election and choose a fuse that will be governing and which he will replace as soon as the people become angry. Non.

He falls, he falls with his government. We must be able to dismiss him when he has done something that doesn’t work. No more unaccountable leaders. The responsibility must be what makes it effective. Which makes him hardworking. If he is not responsible why? Do you want him to be bored?

Why do you want him to make decisions? Why do you want him to be under pressure? We don’t want this boss. And next to him, we no longer want ministers who are friends. Oh yes, I’m taking a friend he becomes minister, minister uh I don’t know about the civil service?

Minister of Agriculture, et cetera I am not targeting anyone, it is my friend, the Minister of Agriculture. The minister must now be an elected official. It has to be close at least part of the population. He has to be elected by someone to create proximity with the people he governs.

This minister must be responsible in front of an institution, it must be an elected official. There may be two or three technical ministries such as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs or the Ministry of Finance, or you don’t necessarily need to be an elected official, but the rest

Members of the government must be elected and when they fall, they fall with their prime minister and their parliament. It is mandatory. We think so at MANSSAH. This is our model. A party president who is Prime Minister or whatever we want chief executive, it can happen today

In power and be dismissed the following month because he did something stupid. We are for that. He must not be convinced that he will live five years and that we will endure it for five years because if we are going to suffer it for five years,

Some will go get the military to chase him away. And there, we will once again enter the cycle by saying yes to the military, yes the military, the military are the consequence, not the cause. Let’s work on the causes. Let’s stop incriminating the military and know that if they are there,

We are the ones who made them there. And we were even very happy that they arrived as Jules Domche just said saying when we saw them overthrow certain regimes secretly in our rooms or in our living rooms, we drank champagne. We said to ourselves: ah anyway! Because I knew a few leaders,

Especially in this country, who were great intellectuals… Anyway, in short, I’m not going to get into it. Which means we want accountability. That’s the key. Fatoumata Sidibé Diarra said it earlier: political parties in all of that ? What happens to political parties, to paraphrase Grand Marshal Mobutu Sese Seko

What happens to the political parties in all this? There are so many political parties. There are even some who don’t have a seat. The seat is in their wallet. Because he is the great helmsman of his family, he said to himself: I am going to create my party because in his village,

He distributed a little rice he created his party. In some countries we have reached 732 political parties, 732 extraordinary ideas, 732. And the state must finance all of this. You have to give them some money, we have to give them 4x4s. When the elections come, it’s the kings

And they don’t hesitate to buy consciences to buy votes. Je pense qu’il faut arrêter cette mascarade, cette vaste comédie dans laquelle nous sommes entrés. Nous pensons à MANSSAH que deux ou trois partis politiques maximum, ça suffit. Et qu’à l’intérieur, à l’intérieur de ces partis, les idées vont s’affronter,

Les idées vont mûrir et on sera plus matures on ne passera pas le temps à aller de case en case, à faire le nomadisme politique, comme on dit au Sénégal. Oui, deux ou trois partis politiques sérieusement encadrés qui sortent de ce système où c’est des systèmes tribaux

Ou c’est des systèmes de telle ou telle région ? Nous, on n’a pas besoin de ça parce que nous avons encore cette faiblesse de ramener les choses aux questions tribales. Je suis soussou, je suis Malinké, je suis Bamiléké, je suis Bantou, je suis Akan. Je suis Bété, je suis Dioula.

Est ce que vous n’avez pas un peu honte quand vous dites ça dans un monde qui est si ouvert ? Est ce que dans vos familles, vous avez une seule région ? Tout le monde se marie les uns avec les autres. C’est fini ça. Quand vous avez ça, vous êtes obsolète.

Pourquoi est ce qu’on laisse prospérer tout ça encore chez nous ? C’est les politiques qui le font. Ils n’ont pas d’idées et puisqu’ils n’ont pas d’idées, il faut ce qu’ils se cachent derrière leur origine qu’ils ne connaissent souvent pas, vous avez des gens qui sont nés à Conakry

Ils n’ont jamais mis les pieds dans la Haute Guinée mais puisque leurs parents sont venus de la Haute Guinée, ils vont se faire élire sur le fait simplement qu’ils sont de la Haute Guinée. Escroquerie. Aujourd’hui, le monde a changé et le monde qu’on veut donner à nos enfants

Doit être débarrassé de ses considérations qui sont d’une autre époque. On ne dit pas de renier votre identité, mais ces identités doivent être utilisées dans le bon sens, pas dans le sens de diviser. Je suis du Cameroun, Bamiléké, du Cameroun. Ma femme est un mélange que je ne peux pas vous dire de

La région d’Afrique de l’Ouest il y a tellement de mélanges dans elle que quand je regarde mes enfants je me dis : et si je dois me battre pour les Bamiléké est ce que je ne suis pas incohérent ? Parce que ces enfants ils ne sont pas vraiment Bamiléké,

Et pourtant, quand je parle on voit un Bamiléké, c’est la même chose ici. J’ai un ami ici parmi nous qui est guinéen, rwando, je ne sais plus trop combien et qui est sénégalais au passage, dans quel camp on le classe ? Hein Cheick ? S’il vous plaît, s’il vous plaît,

Ceux de ma génération et mes aînés arrêtons d’intoxiquer notre jeunesse et laissons leur la place pour construire leur monde. Essayons un autre mode de gouvernance. Oui, un chef de l’exécutif fort qui puisse installer des institutions fortes. Nous sommes en guerre et il faut un chef fort pour installer des institutions fortes.

Un chef responsable, un chef qui réponde de ses actes, un chef destituable. Destituable comment ? Dismissible by the assembly, but also dismissible by the populations. I want to leave this section there of dismissal, of counter-power to Master Fatoumata Sidibé Diarra who worked on it because counter power is the key.

You have to be able to stop someone when they slip. Right now, we can’t stop anyone if they slip up. I have an affection that I do not mask for the head of state here, because it allows us to come here to debate without having asked us

What are we going to talk about since he told me personally that we need to change the rules, we need to change paradigms. I have the weakness to believe it. That’s why I brought a curious guy like Jules Domche here to speak as he spoke because we all think so, it’s a lot.

I think he thinks so too, but the circumstances want it to be like that. Now that we want to change, now that we have a window of change, a window of opportunity for a change, maybe we need to look each other in the eye and

Let us say it to ourselves: we no longer want an all-powerful leader, ruler of heaven and earth, of the sea and waters, birds and elephants. We want a leader who, if he messed up to use a young term at the end of the day he can go home

By being relieved of the functions of governing ourselves. And for that, we need counter-powers. Fatoumata Sidibé Diarra whom I ask you to welcome Please. Thank you so much. Within MANSSAH, we actually think that power must stop power and the key words must now be: transparency, accountability and control.

When I spoke to you earlier about returning to the sources accountability is nothing other than the reflection of our ancestral values what is respect for the word given, of public affairs, the sense of honor and its preservation for his lineage called accountability today,

It is therefore important to give ourselves the means, to control the executive which today, unfortunately, in most of our States, is above the law and the leader acts as he pleases. Things must change now, leaders must serve the people and not the other way around. For that,

The citizen, first of all, must take his responsibilities. It’s over today, time to stay spectator facing the management of the city. We must no longer as a citizen, renounce this share of power that is ours due and granted. Among the counterpowers we have analyzed within MANSSAH

We offer you the possibility of popular initiative triggered by citizens facing the leader who deviates from his trajectory through a referendum including the number of signatories, required the number of votes will be specified and will allow the referral to Parliament with a view to dismissal

Of the head of the executive who will not have respected his commitments. Above the citizen we will have Parliament, a unicameral parliament whose mission will be, not only to vote for laws, to represent citizens, but also and above all to control the action of the executive.

MPs representing the people must now be aware of their role representatives of the people with whom they must be rooted, they will have to put this beyond their membership of a political party and no longer be, as is unfortunately the case, simple recording chambers. The judiciary must be transparent, egalitarian and efficient.

Above all this, Above the fight, the first institution will no longer be like this the president told you. And you wonder if we can live without a president? At MANSSAH, we think so. There will therefore no longer be a president, but a council of wise men who will be above the fray.

This council of wise men will have a advisory and guidance function, but will also have coercive power. To create an authentic political system, we believe it is imperative to recognize and value the role of our chiefdoms and legitimacies by giving them a strong influence in key areas of city management,

This requires proper organization, coherent, consensual and dynamic, with guardian authorities traditions that will be accepted and respected by all. They will be guardians of the soul of our respective peoples. Today more than yesterday, let’s give back to our traditional leaders Africans their place and their power.

Especially since they are prepared to exercise power, unlike many politicians. In our traditional societies, the chef is prepared for decades. He does not come from nowhere, he is prepared and aware of his responsibilities. Which explains what we too often forget that our ancestors managed their communities for centuries without too many upheavals.

For that, the remedy must not be worse than the disease. We must seriously and carefully identify in each country legitimacies that are authentic, and legitimate precisely. We must also empower these traditional legitimacies that we have, excuse me, tramps. Their independence and financial autonomy must therefore be ensured.

The council of elders will have rotating representatives within it nominated by their peers, allowing the representation of the entire national territory. The council of wise men will be established for a long, non-renewable period, in order to promote stability, on average ten years. The terms of their location will be determined previously and consensually.

What exactly will be the power of this council of wise men? It will act as a guarantor of cultural and moral values of our nations, of social regulator at the national level, with a weighing opinion, but not only, he will control the action of Parliament and the head of the executive

Who must consult him on questions involving the life of the nation. His opinion could therefore be coercive and not just consultative. He will have the power to dissolve Parliament and to dismiss the next chief executive a precise procedure. We believe, in fact, that by combining our history, ancestral wisdom, contemporary perspective,

This council will be able to strengthen national cohesion and facilitate balanced decision-making. Alongside this Council, we offer an original institution, a follow-up institution and verification, the Accountability Court. In all political systems, transparency and responsibility are the fundamental pillars to maintain trust between the people and the government.

The establishment of these institutions will play a decisive role for transparent and more efficient governance. She will ensure that accounts are respected and that programs are carried out. on which the government is committed, by supervising, by evaluating the implementation of projects announced by the executive in a manner objective and impartial,

By ensuring the transparency of contracts awarded by the government, by guaranteeing the use of public resources in a manner effective and transparent in the interest of the people. Citizens will be able to closely monitor progress and ask questions in the event of delay or deviation from initial objectives. This is MANSSAH’s proposal

In terms of counter-power. So the question arises: once these counter-powers have shown their limits after the initiation of all the processes that I have just described, how to stop the trajectory of a leader who despite this deviates? It is therefore necessary that the mechanisms of dismissal, are clear, agreed, consensual,

Known to everyone and also to the leaders concerned and these methods of impeachment, it is our president, Alain Foka, who will tell us about it. Thank you. You will have understood that the new presidents will be the traditional leaders. Eh ? So, these traditional leaders that we have trampled,

Who are the guardians of our traditions, who are the guardians of our identity, must be rehabilitated. We were taught to hate them. We were taught to do that like in my country some arrest them to put them in prison, thus imprisoning thought, the culture, civilization, identity of our countries.

It is important that we put those who keep our traditions at the head, that they watch that the rules, values ​​are respected, it’s important. Before talking about impeachment I would like to say that I forgot something earlier in relation to the executive. We were taught that three mandates are too many.

That no more than three mandates should be served and that it is the cause of all our destabilizations. I want to be rude saying “bullshit”. Are three mandates too many? For who ? For what ? Who decided this? I remember because there was war, the second world war, in 1939-45

There is an American president who served three and a half terms and if he had not died, he would have served his four terms. No ? He was called… Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Why did he make them three mandates, four mandates? If that’s the question? Don’t we fall asleep inside ourselves?

Leading to things that don’t concern us? Benjamin Netanyahu has been in power for how many years? Yet he is a very, very respected leader, Prime Minister first class. Just look at what he is doing in Gaza. He remains frequentable. Finally, That’s another debate. Angela Merkel how many mandates did she serve?

It didn’t bother anyone, 17 years old. And those in power in Dubai, in the Emirates, they have been there since 1946. No. We’re going to stop this circus who distract us, which we debate all day long and which correspond to nothing. Longevity is not a guarantee of business success.

Nor is it a guarantee of, of failure. Let’s try to put some safeguards in place. When someone is not good, we make them leave. That is the most important. That’s why The issue of impeachments is important. That’s rather the debate. When someone is bad, how do you make them go away?

Other than by the army? That’s what it’s all about. Next to them, those who teach us the lesson who are the best students in Paris not far from here, They are in their third term. There, they are for democracy, democracy, democracy. But they are in a third term, yet they are democrats.

So that’s not the question. I think we have to fight to have methods of impeachment that are simple, that they are effective that they are almost automatic. When a leader has gone off the rails, let us have the courage in the Assembly to make him leave.

The Assembly must be the place where dismissals already begin. It’s happening elsewhere. We won’t have invented anything. We’re not particularly original when we say that. And there are other methods. We can simply leave by popular vote. Elsewhere, it happened too, give power to the people, and say this one Red card

By a vote by having a number, mechanisms that allow the people to say this one we want more. If we have reached this number, he must leave since the Assembly does not want to take its responsibilities because maybe it is compromised. We must also give this power to the people,

It’s important that he regains this power. It exists we weren’t original on that either. I think you are familiar with the Swiss model. But we don’t want to import it. We want to look according to ourselves. Because impeachment exists in our traditions, it exists always, even traditional leaders.

I come from a region of Cameroon, among the Bamiléké where the leader, when he is not good, he has nine wise men, they decide when it falls. If the majority is taken, he falls. Except that there, it’s stronger. The leader does not see his successor. We have to kill him.

We’re not going to get there, don’t worry, but I’m just telling you how things are going in this region of Cameroon. This means that the coup has been codified. It is codified. That is to say, we say: OK since the leader does not see his successor

We can out of kindness send him into exile, but as a rule, it is eliminated. Do you realize the responsibility that this represents? And every seven years, this leader comes to put on his attributes in the courtyard, in front of the notables who decide whether or not he can continue to govern?

There is the chief in the Bamendjou region, King Sokoudjou who has been there for 70 years yet, yet he regularly respects the fact that he has to put his chair back, his attributes in the court, and he is renewed each time. It’s been 70 years, and he’s a good leader.

So we have to work to find the mechanisms of dismissal. I’m not saying we have them all but let’s start like I asked at the beginning of our conversation, to think about the mechanisms because we have the brain and that we must be able to use it. We can’t just be sponges.

We must be able to copy what is happening elsewhere, but also copy what happens in our traditions. We are the oldest people in the world. That means we have a richer tradition. Let’s make the effort to tap into it. Let’s no longer make unbeatable leaders. Let’s make leaders who can be removed

But let’s give them enough power so they can work. That’s what’s essential. Let’s stop the debates on five years in office, two terms. It could be ten years, twenty years we don’t care from the moment, from the moment it is good and if it is not good, we reverse it, period.

Let’s put in place the mechanisms to remove bad leaders Let’s not spend our time restricting the part of democracy that there is saying: well he has already served two terms. And when he was very good what do we do ? Are we going without his skills? Just to follow the rules?

I think this is not very reasonable, I don’t know. The ball is in your court to think about the issue, but think otherwise as we were told to think, think that there is another way of thinking, that there is not just one and that we are capable of generating one,

Provided you want to do it. We have the capacity to do it. It is time. Let’s stop with the great helmsman presidents, founding presidents, head of this, God on earth, Demigod, no, it doesn’t exist, we’re lying to you, Mr. President, you are no smarter than you were when you arrived at the palace

And it’s not the truth and you need to leave when you’re no good, and we gotta make you go, we must be able to make you leave because it is in your interest. Otherwise the soldiers will leave the barracks. And there, now that we have seen with Bazoum that we can have

Some problems, I’m not sure they’ll keep you alive, it is not in your interest. Let’s be reasonable. I think that was what I was asking to evoke Fatoumata, the question of dismissal. But as the young people say, a large part of This work is still downloading.

We are still working on it to refine it counting on you to refine it. Let’s think differently, but let’s think together, without insulting us, without disrespecting us, but all ideas are good. Let’s be disruptive enough so that the truth emerges from there.

It is from this discussion that the new mode of governance will be born. and we hope that the leaders who are watching us reflect on the amendments to the Constitution that they are going to make, in the changes that will develop,

Ask yourself the question of whether we should continue to go to elections under the same conditions or should we put things back flat to have things that are reasonable, who correspond to us? Consult these leaders, these wise men, to see in our traditions

What if there aren’t things we should take that inspire us? THANKS. The bird of ill omen returns. This to say in conclusion Madam, Sir, that we tried to ask us questions. We are convinced that we do not have infused knowledge, but we want to start, open the debate. Everything we offered here,

These are avenues for recommendation, avenues for reflection. Through our website, you can participate and tell us how you see the governance system who can help Africa emerge from its lethargy? Among the president’s impeachment words, I want us to add the military coup, yes, but only Coups d’état must be codified.

It should no longer be done at the will of an individual or a group of individuals. I take the scenario because it can happen: Parliament tries, it breaks its face, the people try, they fail. The council of wise men tries and fails. What are we doing ?

That’s why I said: the role of the military is central. At this moment, we think that the council of wise men can trigger the army and there, we will be dealing with what some will want to call a coup d’état, but you will see that as it is codified and it is planned,

We won’t be bothered anymore of a certain number of paradoxes. Because, as we said, the key is that power must stop power. Everything we enjoy as being strong institutional models, it is because they have succeeded to ensure that their institutions neutralize each other. When to organize elections in Africa

We spent time saying we need organizations Independent Electoral Commission, et cetera. It’s simply because our institutions are not strong and do not go beyond people. In most of these major democracies, if we take a country that we know too well, in France, it is the ministry of Internal Affairs which organizes elections.

But people are convinced they’re not there because of a man and that the Republic is above this person. This is why we don’t bother with this. So all this to say, let’s not be afraid to do things differently based on our own experiences and based on what we want to do.

I think on this we will we stop there for this theme governance and institutions. We tried to address a certain number of questions. I imagine the reactions online and in some palaces today and I also imagine the state of mind in which one may find oneself

Certain leaders who are today in a situation of transition. This is why coming here to Guinea was important because as I said earlier, in an exceptional moment, we have the possibility of rebuilding differently. If we do the same thing again and after Doumbouya, we make a mock election,

I can make the bet with you, Guinea, it’s still a country that has a reputation for being specialists in coup d’état we will meet here very soon with another soldier at the head of state. We can’t do the same thing every time and hope for a different result.

I think this is a unique opportunity for this country, as for Mali. as for Burkina Faso, as for Niger and for others to ask themselves the right questions. How do we get out of this transition? And we promise the Guineans to have a system that allows them once and for all,

To get out of precariousness and get out of instability. You have to take time to do it, but not too much time. But it takes time and this time, we need to discuss it with the Guineans. It’s not France, it’s not ECOWAS, it’s not the United States

Who must determine the time we need to rebuild ourselves. Our countries have suffered enough this way of doing things because for too long, we were forced to go to elections by making us believe that the elections solved a problem when in reality the elections are a source of problems.

And I’m going to go out this way: we all remember Ivory Coast when there was the Ouagadougou agreement which obliged us to go to elections, everyone stood up to say that it was a historic agreement. Except that after the elections, we know what followed.

We can no longer continue to do things this way. Africans must be able to talk seriously to each other and above all be transparent. I think that’s the key. And if we manage to do that, I think we will build a worthy model which will allow our countries to better exploit our resources.

Guinea has bauxite, we know it is one of the largest producers in the world. But when you look the level of misery, you tell yourself that there is a problem. This is why we are convinced that there is a correlation between governance and management of mines.

This is thus a transition to introduce the second panel who will talk to you, Madam, Sir, about natural resources. Thank you.