National leaders must learn to relinquish power and to understand that they occupy those positions only temporarily, United States President Barack Obama has said, in apparent reference to African leaders who want to die in office.
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Obama, who was addressing the media during his visit to South Africa last week, said leaders should not to be misled into thinking that the fate of their countries depended on how long they stayed in office.
The US President, who is on a four-country visit on the continent also told reporters that bad governance in Zimbabwe had reduced the country to a basket case.
“And so, I think for the entire continent, for every leader — not just in Africa — for every leader around the world to think about those principles, that governance for the people has to be based on constitutions and rules in which every person is treated equally and nobody is above the law; and that we as leaders we occupy these spaces temporarily, and we don’t get so deluded that we start thinking that the fate of our countries depends on how long we stay in office,” said Obama.
President Robert Mugabe, in power since 1980, Angolan president Jose Eduardo Dos Santos, Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni, and Equitorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema are some of the longest serving leaders on the continent.
Obama said bad governance had destroyed Zimbabwe’s economy.
“If you look at Zimbabwe, it used to be one of the wealthiest countries on the continent. And that governance has led to an economic disaster. It’s now starting to come back. And thanks to the work of people like President Zuma, there’s an opportunity now to move into a new phase where perhaps Zimbabwe can finally achieve all its promise.
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“But that requires fair and free elections, and it requires those currently in power in Zimbabwe to recognise that the interest of all people have to be served there.”
