Distorted Democracies and the Development Puzzle in Africa

The high turnover of elections conducted in African States has consistently failed to translate into wholesale democratisation of most of the States on the continent. Elections are periodically conducted and manipulated by desperate political leaders who struggle to acquire political power and in turn access economic power for primitive accumulation of wealth for themselves, family members and cronies. The scale of corruption that envelopes the prototype of democracy being practiced in most African States accounts significantly for the prevalent insecurity, poverty, revolutionary actions and other challenges plaguing the continent today. This version of skewed democracy awaits a befitting burial if it consistently fails to address socio-economic, political and other prioritized needs of the people. A number of scholars such as Cheeseman (2018) have opined that democracy without development will soon be excavated from the sands of governance. The objectives of this study were to; conduct comparative analysis of African Democracies; identify factors impacting them; and proffer pathways for democratic consolidation, strengthening and development. The study utilized the qualitative research method in the generation and analysis of data. The ‘Structural Functionalism’ theory was employed to analyze the independent and dependent variables in the study. In achieving the study objectives, the following were recommended; All African States should review their legislations by infusing life imprisonment as sanctions against perpetrators of electoral malfeasance; and digitalize their electoral processes and systems amongst others.