Traorism Fever and the Crisis of Democratic Governance in Africa

IOL News

4 days ago

Burkina Faso's Captain Ibrahim Traore (left) and Niger's General Abdourahamane Tiani at the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) summit held in Niamey, Niger on July 5, 2024.
Image: AFP
Boikanyo Nkwatle
Across Africa, a new political wave is capturing public and media attention, the rise of what can be termed Traorism Fever. Named after Captain Ibrahim Traoré, the military leader of Burkina Faso who seized power in 2022 through a coup d'état, this phenomenon reflects growing public admiration for his unconventional leadership style.
Traoré has emerged as a central figure in Africa's ongoing struggle for economic justice and sovereignty. He champions beneficiation – the local processing of Africa's raw materials – as a key strategy for reclaiming control over national wealth. Under his leadership, Burkina Faso has begun to assert greater authority over its natural resources, insisting that the benefits of extraction stay within the continent and serve African populations first.
By challenging exploitative mining contracts and resisting external influence, Traoré is positioning himself at the forefront of a new generation of African leaders committed to breaking from the status quo. Many have drawn parallels between Captain Ibrahim Traoré and Thomas Sankara, both in ideology and action.
Like Sankara, Traoré has captured the imagination of a generation disillusioned with slow-moving democratic institutions, external interference, and deep-rooted inequality. What sets Traoré apart is his governance style – swift, centralised, and action-oriented. In a context marked by insecurity and institutional paralysis, his decisiveness has resonated with citizens frustrated by sluggish government progress.
Most strikingly, Botswana's President Duma Boko recently expressed open respect for Traoré's governing style. Speaking candidly about the procedural delays within his administration, he observed: 'While Traoré can wake up, dream it up, and the next morning it is law and action follows, in my context, initiatives are bogged down by layers of procedure, tenders, evaluations, and interdicts that can delay implementation for years. My predecessors did not fail due to a lack of ideas, but because they were unable to act swiftly within structures designed for checks and balances. You need to subvert some of these rules and processes unapologetically, and I will do it, within the confines of the law.'
This statement underscores a growing tension in African governance, the friction between ideals of accountability and the pressures of urgent delivery. While institutions were built to constrain excess and ensure due process, they are increasingly viewed even by elected leaders as impediments to reform and action.
The 'Traoré Effect' highlights a deeper governance dilemma facing postcolonial states grappling with insecurity, economic stagnation, and popular frustration. Can systems built on liberal democratic ideals function effectively in contexts demanding rapid response and centralised control? And when leaders favour speed over process, what are the implications for long-term stability, the rule of law, and civic space?
There is no denying the appeal of quick results, especially in fragile contexts. But history cautions that unchecked executive power, no matter how well-intentioned, can quickly erode the institutional fabric essential for sustainable peace and democratic resilience. Traoré's model may deliver now, but whether it can endure or be emulated without consequence remains to be seen.
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Leaders like Boko Duma rightly point to bureaucratic bottlenecks as obstacles to swift action, but implementation is not only hindered by red tape, checks and balances, or the need for political inclusion and transparency. The reality is that many African states face serious limitations in technical, institutional, and operational capacity, making it difficult to translate decisions into action.
For Traoré and others, the real challenge lies not just in making bold, decisive decisions, but in ensuring those decisions are implemented effectively and ultimately, in assessing whether they produce the intended results. Without addressing the capacity deficit alongside political will, meaningful progress will remain elusive.
Traorism Fever, at its core, reflects widespread frustration with the failure of policy implementation across democratic Africa. In democratic systems, implementation often spans years, frequently outlasting electoral cycles. This leaves elected leaders unable to deliver on promises, damaging their credibility and fuelling public disillusionment with democratic governance. Opposition parties and civil society organisations, acting within legal frameworks, often challenge rushed or irregular government decisions in court. While these challenges uphold the rule of law, they also slow down governance.
A recent example is South Africa's 2025 budget controversy, where allegations surfaced that the parliamentary committee, in its budget adoption, had bypassed key constitutional and parliamentary procedures in its approval. A parliamentary committee was accused of ignoring constitutional prescripts, leading to legal challenges by opposition parties such as the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and the Democratic Alliance (DA).
These parties took the matter to court to stop what they called an 'illicit' budget, asserting that constitutional violations had occurred. While this intervention was necessary to preserve legal integrity, it underscores the governance dilemma: how to maintain constitutional fidelity without paralysing the state's ability to act.
The growing admiration for Traorism Fever is a symptom of deeper systemic issues in African governance. It exposes a gap between democratic ideals and administrative reality. When people see authoritarian leaders delivering services or taking action while democratic leaders are bogged down in red tape, their trust in democracy erodes.
However, embracing military or autocratic leadership as a solution sets a dangerous precedent. While such regimes may offer short-term decisiveness, they often lack transparency, accountability, and sustainability. Moreover, unconstitutional changes in government undermine the rule of law and create long-term instability.
Africa made significant democratic progress in the 1990s and early 2000s. Many nations transitioned from military or one-party rule to multiparty democracies, embracing constitutions, electoral systems, and governance reforms.