When the Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza chose to join the club of other African leaders who have changed their country’s constitution so that they can hang on power, little did he know that the so called sweet chair will turn sour.

Other  African presidents who have  joined this club by  changing  the Constitution so that they can hang on power include,  Denis Sassou N’Guesso, the president of Congo-Brazzaville, who recently  also changed his country’s term limits.  However, some African leaders like Tanzanian President Kikwete have surprised many by respecting their constitutions.

African presidents bending the constitution to their own purposes are nothing new. Having been in power for all but five of the last 36 years, Dennis Sassou N’Guesso’s referendum on allowing him to serve a third term as president of Congo was widely expected. President N’Guesso is not alone; recently the Rwandan Head of State Paul Kagame who has been widely idolized by the West for ending the mass killings that culminated into genocide of the Tutsis in 1994 surprised both his admirers and critics by changing his country’s Constitution.

 

Like his mentor President Museveni who in 1986 when he captured power, President Museveni criticized the African leaders who stay long in power, “the problem of Africa in general, and Uganda in particular, is not the people but leaders who want to overstay in power.”

In an infamous U-turn in 2005, he secured a change to the constitution allowing him a third term. He is now, at the age of 71, serving a fourth and standing for another term which will push him to the Third place of the top list of African leaders like the Angolan President and Zimbabwe who ascended to power in 1979 and 1980 respectively.

President Kagame too was one of the admired leaders on the  continent and considered one of the new breeds of African leaders by the Western leaders like former American President Bill Clinton and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, cunningly Kagame promised to hand over power after his constitutional mandate expires in 2017.

According to Kagame  of that time, clinging to power was a personal failure by leaders; having listened to the opinions of those calling upon him to remain president beyond 2017, Kagame said that the reason many people have given him for staying longer is the very reason he feels that makes it imperative he leaves power. “People say that I should stay because there is no one to replace me. But if in all these years I have been unable to mentor a successor or successors that should be the reason I should not continue as president. It means that I have not created capacity for a post-me Rwanda. I see this as a personal failure”. He further said that, “Our constitution is clear on term limits. I have no intention, and no desire, to disrespect the constitution”

In a surprising U-Turn, President Kagame shocked the world when he gave the same reasons he had previously criticized as being the basis his counterparts use to seek more terms and change the Constitution.

While he was answering a question from a journalist he said “I have not sought or asked anybody to change the constitution for me. No. I am not part of this exercise as you see it. So I see people writing that Kagame is seeking a third term. No, I am not seeking anything”. In contrast, he has imprisoned those opposed to his third term appetite or killed them and those he cannot reach have remained in exile and have been barred from coming back to their country like his former Prime Minister Faustin Twagiramungu.

President Kagame will not sail in calm waters despite his insistence that it’s the people who demanded that the Constitution be changed, his allies the US has vehemently opposed to this move which they call personal and selfish, “The United States has consistently called for African leaders across the continent to respect term limits,” said Rodney Ford, spokesman for the State Department’s Africa Bureau.

“We do not support changing constitutions to benefit the personal or political interests of individuals or parties.”

Washington had previously said in regard to the move to enable Mr Kagame to run again that “democracy is best advanced through the development of strong institutions, not strongmen.” The State Department added in June: “We are committed to support peaceful, democratic transition in 2017 to a new leader elected by the Rwandan people.”

Again the US Senior Diplomat Samantha Power noted that she knows that the Rwandan parliament is maneuvering the changing of the Constitution for Kagame to stay after 2017, but warned that US will not support this move because they believe, it has been the cause of the chronic conflicts on the Continent.

“President Kagame has an opportunity to set an example for a region in which leaders seem too tempted to view themselves as indispensable to their own countries’ trajectories,” Ms Power told a news conference.

Jakaya Kikwete, whose two terms as Tanzania’s president ended last month, has already presented such an example by “giving up power peacefully,” Ambassador Power noted.

Whether Kagame will heed to the calls of his allies or honor his commitments he had previously made remains to be seen, with the new Constitution in force allowing him to run for the Third term, it’s most likely that little or nothing will change his appetite, why then Nkurunziza has not managed to swim in the same waters his counterparts have been swimming with low tides?

Jacqueline Umurungi

Brussels