Burkina Faso's transitional government struggles

Burkina Faso's transitional government was appointed in November last year and given a year to redress some of the institutional rot that had settled under the 27-rule of Blaise Compaore. In his later years, after his regime had been shaken more than once by protests and paralyzing strikes, Compaore became a fairly benign autocrat who maintained his grip on power by using the classic divide-and-rule tactic of allowing dozens of political parties and one-man NGO's to flourish. It's one of the reasons that Burkina Faso has an energetic, engaging 'civil society' -- for lack of a better word -- which exercises considerable influence on the post-Blaise political negotiations. University professors and human rights activists are part of the transitional leadership, and when I was in Ouagadougou in March, here's what one such delightfully straightforward cabinet minister had to say:      

"There's been a misunderstanding from the beginning. People thought we could just wave a magic wand and completely change Burkina Faso, that we could take the country back to the golden age, so to speak. It's good to have dreams, to have ideals, of course, but I also think that people don't understand there's a lot of work to be done. People want us to go faster than we're able to. The government is more like the conductor of an orchestra in which everybody has to play his part. We're trying to install the rule of law. That takes time."

"I have a case of someone who embezzled a serious amount of money three years ago. This is just one of the cases I'm dealing with. This person's only sanction was that he got transferred between ministries. He has admitted to stealing, and he has even promised to return the money. So I asked, has he ever been heard by a disciplinary council? Well, no. Why not? Well, because we don't have a disciplinary council. So I fought for a month and a half to make sure we get a disciplinary council. Then, I receive the first report from the council, expecting that they heard the person in question about the error he has made. But instead, they say: we don't really know how this works, this is a first for us, can you organize a seminar to educate us? So I said, okay, I'll educate you in five minutes. I had someone read out to them the governing text of the disciplinary council."

"Of course, I understood by then that they weren't at all keen to hear him, and I proposed we lodge a complaint directly with the justice department. And they're like, no no no, the treasury's judicial agent already has his file. So I asked, does this mean the justice department has started legal proceedings? And you know what the answer is? No, in fact, they're trying to reach an amicable agreement."    

"I mean, this is just one concrete case. Sometimes I think that people just don't like change, you know?"