Governance: Africa’s Achilles' heel :: Mmegi Online

On Monday, in news that anywhere else in the progressive world would be viewed as a poor joke, a 92-year-old was elected to an eighth term as President. In fact, Paul Biya of Cameroon was re-elected, an 'achievement' that allowed him to continue his unenviable reign as the world’s oldest president.

Why this particularly distasteful and embarrassing phenomenon appears to especially plague Africa is the subject of many theses, tomes of literature and other studies. Simply, however, it is the normalisation of aberrant politics on our continent, a blatant refusal by generations of politicians to allow the free expression of their citizens’ aspirations in governance and development.

To be clear, this is not about race: even in the world’s richest democracy, the United States, the leader there has tested the waters about an unconstitutional third term.

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