Old crocks wallow in gravy
2004-01-13 14:37
The Togolese leader Gnassingbe Eyadema tops a long list of African heads of state who find it difficult to give up power.
Tunisian voters decided in a referendum in 2002 to allow President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to bid for a fourth, five-year term. Ben Ali came to power in a bloodless coup in 1987, in which he deposed what he said was the senile leader of 30 years, Habib Bourguiba.
With the end of his mandate looming this year, Ben Ali decided he wanted to stay on, and his supporters argued that the north African country needs his guidance to take it to full democracy.
Madagascar
In Madagascar, Didier Ratsiraka, who was president of the Indian Ocean island state since 1975, except for a brief hiatus in the early 1990s, refused to hand over to his rival Marc Ravalomanana after an election in December 2001.
Ravalomanana insisted he had won the vote outright but Ratsiraka said their tussle for power would have to be decided in a second round.
Ratsiraka eventually fled into exile in France after international powers recognised Ravalomanana as Madagascar's president.
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was re-elected in March 2002 in a vote the opposition and some international observers said was fraudulent and marred by violence and intimidation.
Mugabe has now spent 24 years at the helm of Zimbabwe and some of his policies - in particular a controversial land reform programme - have been blamed for the serious economic crisis and famine in the southern African country.
Angola
In Angola, President Jose Eduardo dos Santos has been in power since September 1979, while the leader of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, has held his country's highest office for just one month longer, having first seized power in August 1979.
Obiang was re-elected in December last year, winning more than 97 percent of votes cast in an election his opponents denounced as fraudulent.
Egypt's Hosni Mubarak has led his country since 1981, Paul Biya has been president of Cameroon since 1982 and just behind Eyadema in the African longevity stakes is Gabon's President Omar Bongo, in office since November 1967.
But there are among African leaders a few rare examples who bow out gracefully at the end of a long run, such as Kenya's Daniel arap Moi, who ruled his country since 1978 and was unseated in December 2002 by an opposition coalition led by Mwai Kibaki.
Kibaki swept to power in Kenya just days before Togo's parliament announced it would jiggle the constitution to allow Eyadema to run again.
Reacting to the news from Lome, Kenya's best-read newspaper denounced Togo's leader as one of Africa's "few remaining political dinosaurs".
"What Mr Eyadema has done has pushed Africa back to a bygone era when life presidencies were the norm," wrote the Daily Nation.
"It is time the rest of the continent actively discouraged this trend. For it encourages megalomaniacs," it added.