African leaders who won't stand down
Posted Sunday, December 20 2015 at 13:53
Even the fate of Blaise Compaore, who was ousted after a bloody uprising in 2014 after 27 years as president of Burkina Faso, has not been enough to deter other African leaders from clinging to power long after their constitutions demanded they go.
In 2015, two African presidents amended their constitutions to allow them to seek another term -- or more.
In neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo, Joseph Kabila is due to stand down in 2016 after 15 years at the helm, but fears are mounting he too could stay on as the country endures a period of uncertainty.
The situation deteriorated when Nkurunziza was re-elected in July, on a ballot that was boycotted by the opposition. The country has since spiralled into violence and there are fears in the international community this could break out into genocide.
"It was a lesson drawn from (the results of) autocratic regimes and presidency for life," he told AFP.
Constitutions in Angola, Djibouti and Cameroon have also been changed to allow incumbents to stay in power, as well as in Zimbabwe, where 91-year-old Robert Mugabe has been president since 1980.
"Civil wars and peace agreements have not changed the way of doing politics in these countries," he added.
But this has not been the case everywhere on the continent.
In Burkina Faso, it was Compaore's attempts to change the constitution which led to a popular uprising and pushed him into exile in October 2014.
In Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation, Muhammadu Buhari's victory in March presidential elections led to the first democratic transfer of power in the country's history.
In a recent note, however, strategic consulting firm Control Risks said it was "unlikely" the changes in Burkina Faso and Nigeria would bring about others elsewhere in Africa in 2016
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Posted by: Alfred Nganzo <alfrednganzo@yahoo.com>
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The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.
I have loved justice and hated iniquity: therefore I die in exile.
The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.
When the white man came we had the land and they had the bibles; now they have the land and we have the bibles.
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