At his first inauguration in 1986, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni famously blamed Africa’s problems on leaders who stay in power for too long, notes Boniface Dulani, director of surveys for Afrobarometer and associate professor of political science at the University of Malawi. Thirty-five years later, he’s settling into his sixth term in office, he writes for the Post’s Monkey Cage blog:
Museveni is just one of many African presidents who have maintained their hold on power by circumventing, modifying or eliminating constitutional clauses limiting presidents to a maximum of two terms. Just last year, Alpha Condé of Guinea and Alassane Ouattara of Côte d’Ivoire followed the well-trodden trail blazed by Azali Assoumani of the Comoros, Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Paul Biya of Cameroon, Denis Sassou Nguesso of the Republic of Congo and Ismail Guelleh of Djibouti, among others.
National Endowment for Democracy (NED) partner Afrobarometer’s 48,084 face-to-face interviews in 34 African countries in 2019-2021 indicate that in principle, leaders who stay for more than two terms are not what the people want, Dulani observes. RTWT
