Africans must vote with minds, not hearts

Anver Versi Correspondent
With over 20 African countries scheduled to go to the polls this year, while heavyweights South Africa and Nigeria will also expectedly launch campaigns for 2019 presidential elections, most Africans can already feel the elections fever.

And our editor’s early take is, Africans should vote “with minds, not hearts”.

With 55 countries making up Africa, there always seems to be an election taking place somewhere, or in the works, or someone trying to postpone one or dealing with the aftermath.

In one way, we can claim that Africa is basking in an orgy of democracy.

Yet, after the brief public jubilation, or disappointment, depending on whether your party or the personality you favour has won or lost, dissatisfaction begins to set in once again.

For most people, whatever hopes of a better life were raised during the campaigning, the drab reality of trying to make ends meet returns with a vengeance.

While the political elite, of all colours, claw and clamber over each other to get their hands on the spoils of office or move up the greasy pole of political power, the condition of the ordinary people remains the same – a lifelong struggle to survive with some form of dignity and with superhuman effort and sacrifice, try to give their children the hope of a better life.

While the income disparity between the super-rich and the rest has never been greater the world over, the gap between the haves and the have-nots in Africa is becoming obscene.