When the citizens of a particular state wake up early on election day to vote for the leader of their choice, they practice their right to participate in decisions that affect them directly. Once the leader is in power, some rules guide a country, primarily found in a country’s Constitution. In the Constitution, there is a limit to how long a particular leader should govern a country. After that, he or she leaves the way for another person to rule, hence allowing change and growth in a state. However, some leaders have decided not to leave power. They want to live and die in power. They tend to cling to power and serve for the longest time without any plans of leaving the seat.
The citizens in such countries get angry as such leaders are violating their rights. They even go to the extent of carrying out uprisings to remove the leaders in power by force. Here is a list of African heads who are infamous for threatening democracy in their respective countries.
Robert Mugabe
Robert Mugabe was born to a Shona family. He got an education at Kutama College and the University of Fort Hare. Robert Mugabe embraced Marxism and joined African nationalists calling for an independent state that the black majority controlled. Robert Mugabe got incarcerated between 1964 and 1974. On release, he fled to Mozambique, established his ZANU leadership, and oversaw its role in the Rhodesian Bush War, combating Ian Smith’s white government. In the late 20th century (1980) general election, Robert led ZANU-PF to victory, becoming PM when the state gained internationally-recognized independence later that year. Robert’s government expanded education and healthcare.
Pursuing decolonization, Robert emphasized the redistribution of land that white farmers controlled to landless blacks. Angry at the slow rate of redistribution, he encouraged black Zimbabweans to take white-owned farms violently. Food production got impacted, resulting in famine and economic decline. The opposition to Mugabe increased, but he was re-elected in 2008, 2013 and 2002 through campaigns that violence and electoral fraud dominated. In 2017, his party members overthrew him in a coup, replacing Mugabe with Emmerson Mnangagwa. According to history, Robert Mugabe dominated Zimbabwe’s politics for over three decades. Critics have accused Robert of being a dictator accountable for economic mismanagement and widespread anti-white racism, corruption, and human rights abuses.
Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo
Teodoro Obiang Nguema is an Equatoguinean politician who has been the second President of Equatorial Guinea since August 1979. He overthrew his uncle called Francisco Nguema, in a military coup in August 1979 and has overseen Equatorial Guinea’s emergence as a vital oil producer, starting in the 1990s. Teodoro Obiang was the Chairperson of the AU (African Union) from 31st January 2011 to 29th January 2012. Teodoro Obiang is the second-longest consecutively serving current non-royal national leaders in the globe.
People have accused Obiang of human rights abuses, abuse of power, and corruption. In contrast to the trend toward democracy in most African countries, Equatorial Guinea is a dominant-party state in which Teodoro Obiang’s PDGE (Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea) holds all governing power in the country. The Constitution provides him with sweeping powers, including the right to rule by decree, making his regime a legal dictatorship.
Teodoro undermines democracy in that by; first, overthrows his uncle and gets in power without the citizens’ willingness. Besides, we see an ironic aspect in his government: it practices dominance and dictatorship, yet his party starts with the word ‘Democratic.’
Joseph Kabila
Joseph Kabila Kabange is a Congolese politician who served as President of the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) between January 2001 and January 2019. He took office 10 days after his dad’s assassination. His father was known as President Laurent-Desire Kabila. Kabila got elected as President in 2006 and re-elected in 2011 for another term. Since stepping down after the 2018 election, Joseph Kabila will be a senator for life according to the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Constitution.
Kabila’s term was due to expire on 20th December 2016, according to the Constitution’s terms adopted in 2006. Officials proposed that elections would occur in November 2016 but on 29th September 2016, the country’s electoral authority announced that the election would not happen until 2018. This was a ploy for the President to remain longer in power hence breaking the trust between him and the citizens. In August 2018, Joseph Kabila declared that he would step down and not seek re-election in the December 2018 general election.
Pierre Nkurunziza
Pierre Nkurunziza was a Burundian politician who served as the ninth President of Burundi for more than ten years from August 2005 until his death in June 2020. According to the Burundi Constitution, a President should hold the position for a maximum of two terms each five years. Nkurunziza had already ruled for his full years and was planning to violate the Constitution by seeking a third term, for which he held the post, hence threatening the country’s democracy. According to his allies, Pierre Nkurunziza sought another term as the first five years were useless since the Parliament was responsible for selecting him and not by a popular vote.
Pierre Nkurunziza was a member of the Hutu tribe. He taught physical education before becoming involved in politics during the Burundian Civil War as part of the rebel CNDD-FDD. CNDD-FDD stands for National Council for the Defense of Democracy – Forces for the Defense of Democracy. Pierre Nkurunziza became the leader of the CNDD-FDD in 2000. Here again, we see an ironic aspect of Nkurunziza’s government in that he pretends to strive for democracy, yet he violates the principle. The National Council for the Defense of Democracy – Forces for the Defense of Democracy became a political party at the end of the Civil War (2005), and Pierre became President.
Pierre Nkurunziza announced his intentions not to stand for re-election in 2020 and instead yielded power to Evariste Ndayishimiye. Pierre Nkurunziza was the longest-ruling President in Burundian history.
Blaise Compaore
Blaise Compaore is a Burkinabe politician who was President of Burkina Faso from 1987-2014. Blaise was a top associate and ally of President Thomas Sankara during the 1980s, and in October 1987, he led a military coup during which Thomas Sankara lost his life. He introduced a rectification policy, overturning the leftist and Third Worldist policies that Thomas Sankara pursued. He won elections in 2010, 2005, 1998, 1991 in what people considered unfair circumstances. Blaise’s attempt to change the Constitution to extend his twenty-seven-year term resulted in the 2014 Burkinabe Uprising. On 31st October 2014, Blaise Compaore resigned and fled to the Ivory Coast.
Abdoulaye Wade
Abdoulaye Wade is a Senegalese politician who was President of Senegal for more than ten years (from 2000-2012). He is the Secretary-Gen of the PDS (Senegalese Democratic Party), having led the party since it came to existence in 1974. He ran for President more than two times, starting in 1978, before he got elected in 2000. He won re-election in 2007 with a majority in the first round. However, in 2012, he got defeated in a controversial bid for a third term.
Abdoulaye Wade was born in Kebemer in 1926. Wade studied and taught law at the Lycee Condorcet in France. Abdoulaye Wade holds more than a single doctorate in economics and law. Wade was the dean of the law and economics faculty at the Dakar University in Senegal.
Yoweri Museveni
Yoweri Kaguta Museveni is a Ugandan politician who has served as UG President since 1986. Yoweri participated in rebellions that toppled Ugandan leaders Milton Obote and Idi Amin before seizing power in the late 20th century. In the mid-to-late 1990s, the West celebrated Museveni as part of a new generation of African leaders. During his presidency, UG has experienced peace and success. The involvement in the Congo wars, the Rwandan Civil War, and other Great Lakes region wars have marred Museveni’s presidency.
On 16th January 2021, Uganda’s electoral commission declared that Yoweri Museveni won the re-election for a sixth term with more than half of the total votes, despite allegations of electoral fraud, human rights abuses, and violent suppression of the opposition.
Yoweri Museveni is an Evangelical Christian and has preached a few times at the Miracle Center Cathedral. Museveni is engaged to Janet Museveni, with whom he has more than two children (four). They are Lt. General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, Natasha Karugire, Patience Rwabwogo, and Diana Kamuntu.
As mentioned earlier, African leaders should pave the way for other leaders to encourage the African continent’s overall growth. Leaders should not be greedy for power but focus on the people who chose them. Current African leaders who strive for democracy should mentor upcoming leaders so that when they leave the seat, the incoming leaders will continue in the democracy’s footsteps. The African continent has the potential of being great as or greater than the United States only if our leaders decide to stop clinging to power and embrace the democracy principle 100%.
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