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CAMEROON – vote for Biya, or else…
Paul Biya, would you believe it, is so popular he has three-quarters of the entire Cameroon people behind him. Now he is in power for another seven years since being re-elected again in 2004, with a much disputed 75 per cent of the vote: and yet he enjoys widespread support despite being notorious for jailing anyone who does not share his love for power. His regime is described by Freedom House as one of the most repressive in the world. Opposition parties are suppressed, meetings bans, and political activists and journalists jailed. In November the UN Committee against Torture expressed grave concern about systematic torture by police and gendarmes after the arrest of suspects, with perpetrators almost always enjoying impunity. It highlighted reports of severe overcrowding in prisons with life-threatening conditions amounting to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.
PAKISTAN – home of the general
‘The General’, as affectionately known by George W. Bush, was appointed by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 1997 but soon fell out of favour. Instead of making a silent exit, Musharraf’s generals offered to take over the airport, where they welcomed back Musharraf and placed Sharif under house arrest, and later exiled. Musharraf did however manage to “legitamise” his position in a referendum which extended his term to 2007 with a voter turnout of less than 30 per cent. As peace-loving as a nuclear warhead-wielding Commonwealth member: Pakistan, a key US ally in the so-called war on terrorism, has some 40 HEUs (highly enriched uranium) warheads.
NIGERIA – like, so corrupt
Olusegun Mathew Okikiola Aremu Obasanjo served twice as head of state, once as a militrary ruler and again as elected president since 1999. Obasanjo was reelected in 2003 but whilst defeated candidates claimed that the election was fraudulent, the Commonwealth’s international observers accepted that whilst there had been incidents of fraud on both sides, Obasanjo’s margin of victory was so huge that electoral malpractice would not have changed the result. A leading statesman against corruption, Nigeria is still notorious for corruption, ranking second according to Transparency International.
THE GAMBIA – media hell
Former coup leader Yahya Jammeh won a second five-year term in the October 2001 presidential elections, which earned the approval of foreign observers. Despite declared aims to investigate corruption and recover pilfered public funds, he has been criticised for harassing opposition activists and journalists. Private media face severe restrictions, with radio stations and newspapers having to pay large licence fees. A media bill passed in March 2002 set up a commission with wide-ranging powers, from issuing licences to jailing journalists. Further legislation in late 2004 provided jail terms for journalists found guilty of libel or sedition. Deyda Hydara, one of the press law’s leading critics and the editor of private newspaper The Point, was shot dead days after the law was passed.
MALDIVES – their president is really popular
Much-loved Maumoon Abdul Gayoom is so popular he was elected President with 92.9 per cent of the vote, and since then re-elected through a referendum in 1983 with 96.62 per cent and is today in his sixth five-year term. Good old democracy. Gayoom has been harshly criticized by many for his autocratic rule, with several family members, in-laws and close relatives in high posts in his government and cabinet. According to Amnesty International, in the year 2003 “there were severe restrictions on freedom of the press, and political parties were unable to function.” Opposition to the president has come in the form of the Maldivian Democratic Party. Political prisoners are often banished to remote atolls.
SWAZILAND – land of “umchwasho”
Since 1986, King Mswati III has ruled over a country with the worst rate of HIV-AIDS victims, a third of pregnant mothers testing positive. Solution: he placed all unmarried women under the chastity rite of “umchwasho“ between 9 September 2001 and 19 August 2005 in an attempt to curb the spread of HIV and AIDS. King Mswati III is often criticized for living so lavishly in a nation that is afflicted by one of the world’s highest HIV infection rates. His fleet of luxury cars, millions spent towards refurbishing his numerous wives’ luxury mansions, are at odds with the approximately 34 percent of the nation that stand unemployed, nearly 70 percent of which live on less than a dollar a day, and with around 39 percent of adults who are afflicted by HIV. Africa’s last absolute monarch rules by decree, and is unsurprisignly opposed to democratiation. Lavish spender of his nation’s wealth, he has a fleet of royal limousines, a luxury jet that cost a quarter of the nation’s annual budget, and has also restricted civil and media freedom of speech.
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