POLITICS-AFRICA: President-for-life Syndrome

By Ali Idrissou-Toure Reprint | | Print |

Analysis by Ali Idrissou-Toure

COTONOU, Aug 20 2003 (IPS) - Africans are fighting a new war: president-for-life syndrome.

While Nelson Mandela of South Africa has stepped down voluntarily just after one term of office, his colleague Robert Mugabe, who has been in office since 1980, shows no sign of retiring from active politics in neighbouring Zimbabwe.

In Zambia, it took the fury of the public to force Frederick Chiluba to climb down from seeking a third term of office in 2001. Malawians, shackled for 27 years by dictator Kamuzu Banda, also rejected Bakili Muluzi’s bid for a third term early this year.

But such successes are rare, particularly where the civil society is weak. A point in case is Namibia, where Sam Nujoma is trying to change the constitution to allow him to run again. Even where the civil society is strong like in Uganda, President Yoweri Museveni, who has ruled the East African country for 17 years, is still trying to bulldoze his ways and seek another term of office.

Ugandans, opposed to Museveni’s third term, remember the reign of Idi Amin, who died, aged 80, in exile in Saudi Arabia last week. Amin appointed himself president-for-life during his chaotic rule between 1971 and 1979.

Heated debate is also in progress in Benin where the public is resisting attempts to change the country’s constitution to allow President Mathieu Kerekou to run for a third term of office in 2006.

”We must fight with all the means at our disposal for change in Benin and the rest of Africa,” says Albert Tevoedjre, former minister of planning in Benin.

Benin’s 1990 constitution provides “for a five-year term, renewable only once”. It also sets out 70 as the maximum age for a person to run for the country’s highest office.

Kerekou, whose two terms of office ends in 2006 when he will be 73 years old, has ruled Benin for 28 years, including the period he seized power in 1972.

Those who have joined the debate in Benin include former president Emile Derlin Zinsou, 85, as well as former ministers Theodore Holo and Kouboura Osseni.

Much of the Beninois press also opposes changing the constitution.

In Gabon, the constitution has just been revised so that president Omar Bongo may run as long as he likes. It will be up to the voters to decide whether to retain or vote him out of office.

Bongo has ruled the oil-rich Gabon for 36 years.

The constitution of Togo has also been changed to allow President Gnassingbe Eyadema to run next year, after 36 years in office.

Some Togolese argue that ”no one else can maintain stability in Togo except Eyadema”. Others, however, wonder ”what would happen if Eyadema should die?”.

In Guinea, President Lansana Conte has also been ‘granted’ opportunity to run as long as he likes.

The problem is the same in north Africa, where Tunisia’s constitution has undergone modification to allow President Zine Abidine Ben Ali to run in 2004 for a fourth term. This is the same Ben Ali who promised, upon defeating Tunisia’s first president, Habib Bourguiba in 1987, to put an end to the practice of ”president-for-life” syndrome.

The ruling parties in Africa hardly pay attention to the opposition, since they enjoy the monopoly of the state-owned media.

To justify their claims to power, African governments often refer to former colonial powers Britain and France where no limitations exist on the number of terms of office the president may serve, nor the age of the candidates.

But African leaders also ignore the fact that even if French President Jacque Chirac runs for a third term in 2007 in spite of his advanced age (he will be 75), he cannot count, certainly, on automatic re-election.

When Eyadema, Bongo, Conte, Ben Ali, or Kerekou campaign for constitutional reforms, they are always sure that they will be re-elected. Their supporters will employ ”election technology to insure their victory”, including the illegal use of government resources, according to a columnist in the privately-owned Beninois daily, La Nouvelle Tribune.

The electoral processes in most African countries are flawed.

The practice of ill-timed constitutional reforms weakens and discredits Africa’s young democracies, and poses the risk of violence and attempts at coups d’etat. As UN Secretary General Koffi Annan recently warned, there can be no democracy without a change of power.

This is a challenge for South Africa’s President Thabo Mbeki and his Nigerian counterpart Olusegun Obasanjo who have committed themselves, through the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), a blueprint for Africa’s recovery, to sell Africa to investors in exchange for better governance.

Last week the two leaders persuaded Charles Taylor of Liberia to step down and go into exile in Nigeria.