With African leaders known for their reluctance to leave office, Masisi added that he never understood why anybody wants to be president for so long. “Speaking from the privilege of being a president this thing alters your life completely and if you long to get your life back you would want to do your bit and get out of that. I need to get into the minds of these other colleagues of mine who do crazy things. I haven’t met the crazy ones yet. Perhaps I have met the ones who would be crazy and I haven’t discovered that they are going to be crazy yet,” he pointed out. Masisi said it really disturbs him that some countries have attempted to put in place incentives meant to convince presidents to leave office. “I find that unacceptable. You have a pension scheme by which you can get comfort beyond your service and it really ought to be enough,” Masisi further said. He emphasised that part of the reason why they have these conflicts in Africa is because of a lack of respect to the constitutions which made it possible for presidents to go into power. “We need to find more partners to help us make these values more of equity in Africa. It is not in Africa alone but we have realised that some of those that we look up to seem to face similar challenges. When we cast the net and look at everything we must be deeply and unapologetically objective. A backslide in democratic dispensation is backslide and it doesn’t matter where it is dispensed and it is concerning.”
Masisi told the gathering during the lecture that Botswana remains deeply concerned about the backsliding of democratic practice in Africa no wonder they we partnered with institutions like National Democratic Institute to grow a coalition of likeminded leaders across Africa to deliberately interrogate this democratic backsliding in the continent. He said in interrogating it, they will promote the values that they think work best for people. “In Botswana we remain steadfast and we are deeply committed to term limits, constitutional and democratic practice. That is what we preach as what works,” he further stated. The lecture was held under the theme: “Merging conservation, democracy, and sustainable development in Botswana”.
