Guinea’s military leader Mamady Doumbouya told the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday that the Western model of democracy does not work for Africa, as evidenced by a recent wave of coups.
“Africa is suffering from a governance model that has been imposed on it… a model that is good and effective for the West but is difficult to adapt to our realities, our customs and environment,” he told world leaders gathered in New York.
“It is time to stop lecturing us and stop treating us with condescension like children,” he said, adding that Africans were mature enough to design their own models of governance.
Doumbouya said that African countries were being unfairly placed into boxes and forced to take sides in an ideological battle from the Cold War era, which was not relevant to their current-day relations.
Africans are neither pro- nor anti- American, Chinese, French, Russian or Turkish, he said, they are “simply pro-African”.
“Placing us under the influence of this or that power is an insult. It is contempt and racism towards a continent of more than 1.3 billion people.”
Doumbouya took power by overthrowing Alpha Conde, Guinea’s then 84-year-old president who had changed the constitution to run for a third term, sparking widespread protests.
“The real putschists, the most numerous and those who avoid any condemnation, are also those who plot and scheme… in order to stay in power eternally,” Doumbouya said.
Peoplesmind
