Why African Dictators Overstay in power

Feature Topic: 12 reasons why African Presidents overstay in power

23 September 2022

Introduction

I was watching the documentary No U Turn – BBC Africa Eye and realised how many people want to leave Africa at all cost and how the leaders have neglected their people as they live in guarded opulence. It gave me the idea to write about why dictators overstay in power. Well, Africa is a continent where 1.4 billion people (UN, 2022) call home constituting close to 20% of the world population. It is also what Abdoulie (2012) called the ‘youngest continent’ among all the continents with a median age of just 19.7 years of age. It would have made sense if the youngest continent was ruled by younger presidents who understand their plight, but alas not. According to Cel (2021) the average age of African presidents is 62 with the average years in power of presidents where democracy is barely practiced is more than 10 years. A list of African presidents who ruled more than 10 years is very long and longer is the list of Presidents who oversaw the amendment of their country’s constitution to accommodate their greed and insatiable appetite for uninterrupted power. This discussion tackles the 12 reasons why African Dictators overstay in power.

1.    Power Drunkenness

In most cases, a president enters the presidency with a vision to transform the lives of his/her people and does well in the first 5 to 10 years. After 10 years they become power drunk and do not want to embrace the thought that they should leave the opulence of power to someone else. They therefore begin to do solidarity marches to fool themselves that they are still loved by their people yet in essence they just want to feed into their political babalaas. Their continued stay in power is often accompanied by their amending the constitution to make room for them to continue ruling beyond their stipulated term of office. This often does not bode well with citizens and opposition politicians, who when they voice their discontent becomes the subject of state sponsored violence and intimidation to silence them. That becomes the onset of dictatorships which may spiral into military coups, political unrest, economic turmoil and migration crisis such as has been seen in Zimbabwe.

On his only visit to Kenya as US President, Barack Obama once said “No matter how good my presidency has been, I can’t run again for a 3rd term because the US Constitution does not allow me to do do.” If African presidents were guided by this same principle, we will not have such instability of proportional levels as those we are experiencing across Africa.

2.    Benefits of power

Besides power corrupting, there are innumerable benefits of being in power such that if one is to think about leaving those benefits, they would rather stay on and continue to enjoy the perks that are attached to the presidency. Power has many benefits including many servants, being driven around in bullet proof cars, surrounded by armed-to-the-teeth soldiers, immunity from prosecution, unlimited access to the national purse to use as one wishes, free air travel across the world especially to the UN General Assembly where all Presidents even those who are under sanctions can also travel to. There is also unlimited access to the country’s resources such as minerals like gold, diamonds and many more. They also stay at the state house where they can eat whatever they want at their command and at the service of waiters and waitresses. These benefits will immediately cease when the person leaves office so they will not want to lose those perks as a result, they hang on as long as circumstances permit. Mugabe ruled Zimbabwe for 37 years until his erstwhile comrades removed him through a military coup in 2017. The other benefits of being in power is the access to state tenders and loans that are borrowed on behalf of the country which politicians corruptly pocket. Former Angolan President Dos Santos left power after ruling Angola for 38 years with her daughter once being regarded as Africa’s richest woman. She was rich because of her father being in power and her having unlimited access to government tenders and other state related perks.

3.    No succession plan

African leaders overstay their welcome on the throne because when they assume power, they do not even think of leaving such that they do not even invest on succession planning. If ever there is any succession planning, it is to put their son or daughter on the throne to protect their illgotten loot. From Theodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea to Yoweri Museveni of Uganda they do not have any succession planning because they have told themselves that they will be presidents for life. If at all the succession discussion is spoken of, it is to see who is interested in taking power so that they become the target for purging and persecution. Some Dictators claim that they can’t choose a successor because there is just no one within their party who is capable to take state power. They have sold this lie to their supporters and they took the bait. 

4.    Weak power transfer protocol

The power transfer policy for US presidents is such that when a president is elected on the 4^th November of the election year, within a week, the results are announced. After which the inauguration will be done on the 20^th of January the following year giving both the outgoing and the incoming administration time to pack up or set up. It also allows the two presidents and their administrations to interact on matters of state interest. This gives a very clear indication that power must change hands. This feature is not there in most African dictatorships because they have told themselves that they are there to stay. Current Zimbabwean President once said that “2030 he will still be around” insinuating that Zanu pf will still be ruling the country which it has done so uninterruptedly since 1980. Imagine Barack Obama saying in 2030 he will still be President. It is a travesty of justice and rule of law as it shows that there is no regard for democratic processes or the will of the people. If people vote for change such as they did in Zambia, how will the “Still be around” mantra work? By making those pronouncements the president will be insinuating that it is not the voters that count but those who count the votes that matter.

5.    Little or no incentive for leaving power

The cases of Robert Mugabe and Eduardo Dos Santos are classic examples of no incentive after leaving power. Robert Mugabe was reduced to a mere resident. In fact, when they removed him from being president they also removed the P and he became just an ordinary resident without even state security. His Gushungo Dairy Farm began to suffer as clients dried up flocking to the new center of power. Furthermore, access to the national purse - which he had prior to Nov 2017 where he withdrew USD10 million from the Central Bank - also dried up. So African Dictators hang in power because there is just little or no incentive for leaving power and they can easily alter systems for their continued stay in power. Even if they were to be given retirement perks, it is not the same as being in power where they have unlimited access to state resources.

6.    Fear of revenge from successor

Sometimes African President overstay in power because during their tenure as presidents, they engage in corrupt deals, kill or torture any dissenting voices. It is those atrocities and many others which discourage them from relinquishing power because of fear of retribution and trial for crimes committed while they were in office. When former Sudanese President Omar al Bashir was overthrown by the Sudanese military, he was found to have stashed millions of US dollars at his residence and he was later tried in a Court. That court would not have had the capacity to try him had he still been president of Sudan. Former Angola President Dos Santos’s daughter also faced corruption trials in court after her father left power. Former South African President Jacob Zuma of South Africa was also dragged into court over a corruption deal pertaining arms deals he was involved in back in the late 90s. This retributory behaviour on former presidents acts as deterrents for sitting presidents to stay put as they don’t want to go through such so they hang on for long.

7.    Abuse of state resources

African dictators do not want to leave power because they still enjoy abusing state resources for their personal benefit. If they leave power, they will not be able to have unlimited access to the state resources. Two of the most abused state resources are the International Loans extended by International Financial Institutions such as China’s Exim Bank, IMF and World Bank and mineral resources of the country which they can use to sell to ‘investors’ in east Asia in return for funds to fund their election campaigns, elicit activities and many more. One cannot imagine leaving those privileges at the stroke of a pen during an election. Other state resources that are prone to abuse are the security cluster and the judiciary will be used to persecute political opponents and those will be lost once a person leave power and they will be afraid for those state resources to be used against them later so they hang in there for as long as the citizens can allow.

8.    Despotic and Kleptocratic tendencies

African Dictators tend to stay in power for longer because of the despotic tendencies that they do while in power. They beef up their security 10 fold, make decisions that serve them and not the people they purport to lead, bring mobile toilets to places where they suspect may not be secure, suppress people and see people as enemies of the state yet the Dictators are the real enemies of democracy and freedom. For these tendencies they end up wanting to overstay to prove a point that their policies are working even when their policies are dismally failing. When it became apparent that Robert Mugabe’s land reform policy was failing dismally, he devised a plan labelling the opposition as western sponsored yet running away from the fact that his policies failed. He hanged on because he knew if he had left back in 2002, the land reform would be reversed by the next leader. It is those despotic and kleptocratic tendencies which causes African dictators overstay their welcome in state power.

9.    Lack of respect for former leaders

African Dictators overstay in power because they feel that there is just a lack of enough respect for them when they leave. They will have enjoyed the limelight for so many years that they feel that attention cannot be left to go to someone else. They will be wanting more of the same respect they got while in power and all streets, stadia, monuments to be named after them and if they cannot guarantee that why leave power. They therefore hang in there.

10.Legacy of the Westminster Model

The Westminster model of governance concentrates all power on one individual who happen to be the Queen/King and the Prime Minister being the Head of Government reporting to the monarch. When African countries got their independence, they adopted the same system but only that instead of having a Prime Minister as the leader they had the President who does not report to any queen. This system of governance was seriously flawed because it concentrates power around one individual. This creates a scenario where actions of that individual becomes very difficult to keep checks and balances such that they end up doing what they think is right for them and not for the country. Instead of keeping the president in check, the “So long zvangu zvaita” syndrome (So long I am also eating) will kick in and breed a brood of bootlickers who will also double up as gate keepers so that they keep eating. That way bootlickers will perpetuate a dictatorship until they overstay in power ensuring that they rig elections to continue their dictatorship.

11.Ease with which to amend the constitution

Have you considered how difficult it is to amend the US constitution around the issue of gun laws in light of the recent gun violence in that country. Now imagine amending the constitution to extend a President’s term from 2 terms to 3 or 4 terms. It is very difficult not because of anything but they made it so difficult to just wake up wanting to change the constitution. If at all the constitution is to be amended, it will not benefit the sitting office bearers which will make them say “What the use.” African Dictators have seen how easy it is to change their constitution to suit their greed for power. We saw in Zimbabwe how Mr. Mnangagwa altered willy nilly the constitution to extend the term of office of the Chief Justice Luke Malaba beyond the 2023 elections. He knew that once Malaba is gone, he wouldn’t trust the next Chief Justice whose pronouncement of the presidential winner will be final so he chose to stick to the winning horse because of the history of elections in Zimbabwe which are always disputed. The ease with which constitutions can be altered in African dictatorship is what sustains them to stay longer than are welcome.  

12.Weak Institutions

Lastly though not least on this discussion on why African Dictators stay longer than are welcome is the fact that most dictatorships thrive when there are no checks and balances and institutions are weak and exposed to abuse. Institutions such as the police, the military, the electoral commissions and the judiciary and the Central Bank are the 5 main institutions that dictators mainly use to suppress dissenting voices and overstay in power. When alluvial diamonds were discovered around the Marange area, it was at the height of political turmoil in Zimbabwe and it became Mugabe’s lifeline as he apportioned some of the mining claims to the military so that they do not complain and cause instability in the country. It worked though temporarily and the dictators will say since they fought the war they are entitled to be in power for so long. Most institutions morphed from liberation movements into state institutions which becomes difficult to get rid of the dictatorship. Some institutions will become partisan such that they do not tolerate any other leader although chosen by the people because they were comrades with the leader during the war of liberation.

Conclusion

In conclusion, as a continent we are in grave danger from these dictatorships who are taking Africa backwards with their overstaying in power. This discussion tackled the many reasons why African dictators overstay in power and we have found that besides the low incentive of leaving office, there are generally weak institutions and easy constitutional amendments allowing dictatorships to thrive at will.