International IDEA's Africa and West Asia Office Regional Director, Proffesor Adebayo Olukoshi's interview with Globewatch on CRTV

During the Pan-African Conference on African Integration that was held in Cameroon in August 2017, Proffesor Adebayo had a short interview with CRTV on the status of democracy and democratic institutions and processes in Africa. Accordingly, he briefly stated that democracy has deep and long historical anticidents on Africa as elsewhere in the world.  

Democracy in Africa has been introduced in multiple forms, and that these forms are in constant evolution. Therefore, there is no single and universally applicable model of democracy and that there is no endpoint in the process of improving democracy. However, he critically emphasized on the notion that the building of democracy is essentially a homegrown process carried out by citizens at the local and country level.

Proffesor Adebayo further pointed out that, nowadays, there is a positive trend in Africa where there is a willingness of an incumbent government to relinquish power to the winning party after free, fair and regular elections. He attributed this trend to the existence of independent electoral management bodies in some African countries and technological advancements, particularly the use of social media that made it much easier for country's citizens to know the results of an election in real time. He also gave a detailed explanation on the essence of International IDEA's mission to support sustainable democratic change through providing comparative knowledge, assisting in democratic reform, and influencing policies and politics.