Professor emeritus of Political Science in Massachusetts,U.S.A. and co-author of the book: “25 Issues That Shapes American Politics,” Michael Kryzanek has credited the U.S. judiciary as the ultimate saviour of America’s democracy.
Speaking on Thursday 21 January, 2021 as guest on the program House of Justice on HOJRADIO TV Nigeria, Kryzanek who was on the show along with Donald Omondi Deya Esq, the C.E.O. of Pan-Africa Lawyers Union, Arusha- Tanzania, and Prof. Yusuf Dankofa, a professor of Public Law at the Ahmadu Bello University Zaria-Nigeria, said that democracy in the U.S. had never been so challenged since the 1830s as it was under the Donald Trump administration.
Describing the invasion of Capitol Hill as a violation of the sacred, Kryzanek deemed as unfortunate the chaos and loss of lives caused by Trump’s heating of the polity through his refusal to accept the results of the presidential election. “Thankfully, as President Biden said, Democracy prevailed.”
Kryzanek commended the U.S. military and security services who he said remained professional, the media which was steadfast and internet providers who did not shut down. “However, the U.S. judiciary takes the biggest credit for saving democracy because for each case that came before them, they were resolute, decided them on the merit and in time and gave no reason for their integrity to be questioned and this includes judges who were appointed by the Trump administration.”
The topic for discussion which was “Trump’s Presidency, Uganda’s Elections & the Future of Democracy” had Prof. Dankofa in lament over the Nigeria situation where people who are appointees of political holders including some judges in Nigeria have more allegiance to those who appoint them than to the Constitution and people. “The greatest mechanism for democracy is not necessarily the parliament but the people to whom belong the right to public accountability”. Dankofa said.
Decrying the Uganda elections as ‘no elections at all’ and ” …the most violent in the history of East Africa”, Deya asserted that what happened in Uganda on 14 January,2021 was an outcome of ‘ continuous forceful hold on power’ by President Yoweri Museveni who had clutched on to the leadership saddle since 1986. Deya described as disappointing the unusual African Union’s Expert Mission Preliminary Statement which said ” Elections Come and Go but Uganda Remains…”
The statement, Deya said, suggests that elections were not that important and all the people were required to do was just to accept and be peaceful. On Africa’s judiciary, Deya said Africans could not afford to give up hope yet. He glowingly recalled how the Kenyan judiciary rose to the mark when it annulled August 2017 elections between Uhuru Kenyatta and Raila Odinga, how Malawi’s Supreme Court upheld the cancellation of Peter Mutharika’s re-election in April 2020 and that even the Africa Union saved the day with its decision in 2017 to not recognise Gambia’s long term dictator, Yahya Jammeh after Adama Barrow won the elections.
“… For Africa’s democracy to thrive, partnership among African states, continental and international solidarity is required;” said Deya.
The House of Justice program is a weekly program that provides a platform for national and international discourse from the lens of laws and justice. It is hosted by Gloria Mabeiam Ballason, a lawyer and civil rights activist . The program airs every Thursday on the global airwaves of HOJRadio/TV.
