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dynamicafrica:

Monsieur President, Please Retire

Senegal’s recent presidential election saw Abdoulaye Wade fighting for a third term in office despite prominent protests calling for the 85-year-old to let go of his reign. The message heard around the African continent is that Africans have had enough – enough of leaders who don’t want to leave their posts when it’s time.

Counting the number of African heads of state that have come into power, after independence, and have breached or amended policies to suit their megalomaniac quests for absolute power, is far from a difficult task. Over half of the world’s top ten longest ruling non-royal leaders hail from Africa with almost no end in sight to their divine right-like presidencies.

In a continent where at least 40% of the population is below the age of 15, it’s astounding to think that many citizens in various nations have never seen more than one president in their lifetime. From the infamous and controversial 87-year-old Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe – who has been the president of that country since 1987, to the younger but just as outspoken leader of The Gambia – Yahya Jammeh – who was re-elected for the third time since 1996 and vowed to rule for another billion years (God willing).

Over in the Democratic Republic of Congo, President Joseph Kabila was controversially re-elected last year for a second term, since 2001, as the country’s head of state, with the usual accusations of voter fraud and intimidation of opposition leaders and voters that have come to be part of the status quo surrounding elections in African nations.

read more at @OkayAfrica

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