Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda touring the country

One party system has a tradition of producing aging leadership in Africa. For example the late Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda of Malawi ruled since independence until he was over 80 years. Siad Barre (over 80 years) ruled Somalia until he was just over thrown in 1991, Houphuet Boigny ruled Ivory Coast from independence to his death in 1993. Jomo Kenyatta ruled Kenya from independence to his death in 1978 at the age of 88 years, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere of Tanzania also ruled from independence until he retired in 1985. Tunisia’s life president Habib Bourguiba was 85 years when he was ousted by the army. Even Senegal’s Leopold Senghor and Sierra Leone’s Steven Siaka voluntarily retired in old age.

There is usually dictatorship as top party officials hold excessive powers and do not allow alternative views on state policy.

There is no peaceful change of government since an election rarely dislodges the ruling party from government. The solution is violence through military coups.

The dictatorial method used for creating a single party state lead to people’s suffering. This involves imprisonment for example in order to declare UPC as the only party in Uganda DP leaders like Ben Kiwanuka and Paul Semogerere were imprisoned.

Silencing of open opposition by the government lays grounds for the emergence of rebels and guerrilla movements.

Malpractice such as corruption, mismanagement of government funds by government officials go uncriticized. When someone criticizes, he can be dismissed from the party.

Human rights abuse is rampant since the ruling party does not allow criticisms.

Since most nations in Africa are heterogeneous, there is need for providing people with a clear forum to air their different opinions. A single party restricts the citizens’ freedom and liberty of choice.

Leads to abuse of state power for example former president Kamuzu Banda of Malawi had absolute power that he misused.

Single party limits the choice of the people because in most cases only one candidate stands for presidential elections.

It does not cater for the interests of the minority who are ideologically opposed to the ruling single party.

It does not groom alternative leaders since there is always no room for the shadow government led by the opposition.

Misleading ideologies and laws can easily be accepted and followed by the citizens resulting into absolute poverty. This is because there is no official opposition party in the government. The best example is how Nyerere used Ujamaa in Tanzania that produced catastrophic results. People did not oppose the ideology because of single party.

There is limitation in ideas because of a single manifesto by one party leader.

Single party is associated with communism and promotion of state ownership of resources. In Africa this resulted into mismanagement, corruption, inefficiency, scarcity of goods and production of poor quality products.