How African leaders subvert democracy to hold on to power for life

Many Africa leaders resist stepping down because they fear prosecution for their crimes in office

“We cannot allow Museveni to continue being president. We have to force him out of the office,”

  LOMÉ, Togo — Protesters in this west African capital have been burning tires and barricading roads to force political change in a country ruled by the same family for five decades.

“He must go! We don’t need him anymore,” demonstrator Henri Alifoe, 35, said of President Faure Gnassingbé, who succeeded his father in 2005. "We demand change. He must step down to give others opportunity.”

Such long reigns in Togo reflect a common problem throughout Africa, where ostensibly democratic societies seem stuck with aging leaders or family dynasties who cling to power through fraudulent elections or constitutional changes forced on their people.

That has been the case in Zimbabwe, Uganda, Cameroon, Mozambique, Sudan, Chad and the Democratic Republic of Congo for decades despite laws prohibiting their leaders from holding power for so long.

Many Africans unhappy with their leaders holding onto power for so long are pushing for term limits and free elections monitored by international observers to force out incumbents. These reformers chalked up a victory in Gambia in January, when Adama Barrow defeated Yahya Jammeh, who had ruled the small country on Africa's western coast for 23 years.

Gambia's political success has given hope to reformers elsewhere:

Democratic Republic of Congo: President Joseph Kabila, 46, who has been in power since 2001, sparked a backlash when he moved elections scheduled for December 2016 to 2019. The opposition has staged mass protests in the capital Kinshasa to push Kabila out of the office. The protest has left more than 100 people dead, according local human right groups.

“We will not accept Kabila clinging onto power. We are going to mobilize people to remove him from the office,” said Felix Tshisekedi, a Congolese opposition leader.

Uganda: President Yoweri Museveni, 73, could become president for life after lawmakers from his party introduced a bill in late September to abolish a constitutional provision that bars anyone 75 or older from running for president. Museveni has been president for 31 years and his current term ends in 2021.

The proposal has triggered civil unrest, including the fatal shooting by police of two protesters in a southwestern town this month.

“We cannot allow Museveni to continue being president. We have to force him out of the office,” said Hillary Bwire, 22, a student at Makerere University in the capital, Kampala. “We need change in our country.”

Liberia: Unlike many colleagues, this country's leader is abiding by constitutional term limits. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, 78, who has been president since 2006 is stepping down following elections this month to replace her in the country's first democratic transition in 70 years. The winner will be announced after a runoff on Nov. 7.

Many other African leaders, such as Paul Kagame of Rwanda, Burundi’s Pierre Nkurunziza and Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe have successfully changed their constitutions to remain in power for life despite broad opposition in their countries.

Kagame, 59, has been in power since 2000 and Nkurunziza, 53, has ruled since

Mugabe, 93, who has run his country for 37 years as a virtual dictator, was embroiled in a new controversy over the weekend when the World Health Organization named him a "goodwill ambassador" and then rescinded the title after global protests about his poor human rights record and inferior health care in Zimbabwe.

“Although the democratization push seems to be paying dividends in some quarters, we are seeing reversals in several African countries,” said Peter Wafula Wekesa, a political scientist at Kenyatta University in Nairobi, Kenya.

Many Africa leaders resist stepping down because they fear prosecution for their crimes in office, added Wekesa. That’s why many go into exile after they reluctantly quit.

Former Gambian president Jammeh went into exile in Equatorial Guinea after he lost re-election. Joyce Banda of Malawi has been in a self-imposed exile in South Africa since losing the presidential election to Peter Mutharika in 2014. Amadou Toumani Touré of Mali also has been in Senegal since he left the presidency in 2012.

“First is the fear of losing economic and political privileges associated with the presidency,” said Wekesa. “Secondly is the fear, real or imagined, of retribution from political opponents who they have mistreated when in power."

In Togo, President Gnassingbé is fighting back against his opponents, banning further protests across the country and shutting down the Internet at times to limit dissent.

Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets in the past month to demand that he re-impose presidential term limits and leave office when his term expires in 2020.

A 1992 law had limited the president’s term to two five-years terms, but Gnassingbe's father, the late President Gnassingbe Eyadema, who ruled for 38 years, scrapped the limitation in 2002.

The protests are the largest against Gnassingbe's rule since his ascension to power. At least four people have been killed and hundreds injured in the rallies.

“We are going to continue demonstrating until the president steps down,” said Alifoe. “We are not going to get tired. No one needs him. He must go!”