The Rt. Hon. Raila Odinga, a former Prime Minister of Kenya, has urged African nations to strengthen democracy amid growing populism in the West, closing the global democratic space.

Odinga spoke on Tuesday, July 23, 2025, at the International Conference on Africa?s Democracy, held at the NAF Conference Centre and Suites in Abuja.

Odinga observed: ?We live in an age of discontent. We live with vigorous agitation and substantial challenges to our government and institutions.?

He added: ?Throughout the world today, many old systems are either under severe stress or are in decline. Democracy itself, as we have known it for sev?ral centuries, is being rejected even in its cradle in Europe and North America. In Africa, where political democracy is an import from the West, regimes are clawing back hard-won gains. In this charged atmosphere, the youth bulge threatens to overrun governments.?

Raila Odinga stated that, despite the challenges, African nations must develop indigenous systems to strengthen their democracies. They will do so as they face even more threats.

He stated: ?Democracy and its role in Africa?s development are set to gain even more significance as transactional and inward-looking regimes emerge and directly ask to access Africa?s natural wealth in return for security and other forms of support. We have seen an increasing appetite by countries outside Africa for the continent?s natural resources, including oil, gold, iron ore, manganese, and rare earth minerals.

Several African countries have recently signed mineral extraction agreements in exchange for security assistance. Lewis Mudge, the Central Africa director of Human Rights Watch, has called it ?a mineral deal first, an opportunity for peace second.?

Odinga identified growing populism in the West as an additional threat to democracy in Africa. He noted that ?Populists are approaching power in several European countries. They may just seize power and implement their isolationist and transactional imaginations of the world.

These shifts come at a time when a majority of Africans express support for democracy but feel that democracy has failed to deliver socio-economic liberation. We have seen some of our citizens, especially the youth, celebrate new military rulers who have taken militant postures against former colonial and other external powers.?

The way forward for Africa is for its nations to build inclusive democracies and work together as a continent.

?Vibrant democracies are not built in a single moment of voting; instead, they are sustained through continuous, inclusive dialogue between governments and the people?, Odinga stated. He added: ?True democracy is about leaders engaging beyond the ballot box, fostering trust and participation through open, ongoing communication. We must strengthen our multiparty political systems and help our countries develop genuine alternative platforms with competing and realistic visions for the future.?

?PHOTO: L-R; Convener of the International Conference on Africa, Amb Chris Iyana, Former Prime Minister of Kenya Raila Odinga, and H.E. Ambassador Arikana Chihombori-Quao, former African Union Ambassador to the United State

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