OPINION: West African Leaders Want To Rule Forever!

West Africa is afraid of social unrest similar to controversial Burundi elections, where acting president Pierre Nkurunziza decided to seek third presidential term causing massive protests in his own country against his rule. Nevertheless reasonable proposal at ECOWAS meeting to ban third terms to avoid possible political unrests in region met strong opposition from West African leaders themselves.

The reasonable proposal at regional ECOWAS summit to impose limits for West African leaders of running no longer than two terms in office has been met without any enthusiasm. The thing is that Togo’s and Gambia’s presidents already have been in power for more than two terms, so there’s no wonder that official representatives of these countries strongly opposed the idea.

Running for third term is a sensitive issue for Africa, causing lots of controversy in several African
countries recently.

For example, when Burkina Faso’s President Blaise Compaore tried to change the constitution in October 2014 to run a third term, he was ousted by the mass uprising. In East Africa after Burundi’s head of state Pierre Nkurunziza decided to seek third presidential term, the country immersed into chaos of mass protest and social unrest.

And leaders in Africa are afraid that this social unrest may spread to their own countries. At the same time they are not willing to limit their terms in power.

Algeria, Djibouti, Gambia, Chad, Sudan, Uganda, Congo-Brazzaville and Eritrea are among countries with presidents served at least 15 years.

Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea is Africa’s longest serving leader – he has been in power for 33 years. The leaders of Zimbabwe, Angola and Cameroon have also ruled for over 30 years. The presidents of Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda have also hinted at going beyond two terms.

Last year Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has  won a fourth term in office with 81.53 percent of the vote.


Written by Clement Ejiofor