Two speakers argue that African political systems are rigged to exclude honest people without money. They compare it to a monopoly: politicians have seized democratic power as a private asset, leaving citizens with poor representation and no real say in governance.
It's difficult for people who worked hard for their money to get into certain political positions. First, the amount you must have, the forms and everything. What do we say about these structures that are deliberately built locally to restrict those who don't have corruption money to get into power?
Well, it's, um, it's the, it's a case of, um, asking Why would— why is a monopolist not being nice and reducing the price of his product?
Hmm. Yeah, true, true.
What incentive does a monopolist have to reduce the price of his product? They have monopolized power. So what you have is an Africa where democracy no longer belongs to the people because the people frankly have not shown themselves to appreciate and understand their duties and responsibilities in democracy. Okay. So what has happened is that the politicians have now held them to democracy India, your own definition of it. Yes, as that which belongs to them.
Yes.
And so politicians now own Africa's democracy. True. To the utter disengagement.
Yes.
Or poor representation of the people, of the people. Now they are taking all the, all the spoils of Governance.
Yes.
And the lack of the collective engagement of the people in saying this is not right. We collectively say that what you've done is not right. We collectively use what the instruments of democracy give to us to call you to order for doing the wrong thing. That doesn't happen. So what do you think the monopolist politicians assume— not that they assume— what do you think they play out? They play out the conduct of the monopolist. Exactly. Which is that there's no incentive to do anything because there's no consequence for not doing anything. The monopolist in an economic model, yes, is a price giver. He gives you the price that you pay. Yeah. Is not a price taker. Yes, the monopolist does not care about quality because whatever quality they give to you as a consumer, that's what you have, you take it. Yeah, they don't care about the value, they don't worry about competition because their position is well entrenched. So this is what Africa is dealing with.
