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A roadmap for wresting off the sit-tight leaders
By Tasie Theodore
Africa is faced with a critical challenge at the moment. It has a huge number of dictators in a world where freshness, innovation and change are acknowledged winners. If the continent is able to resolve its dictatorship challenge and move on to a new era of seamless and free-flowing leadership transition, half of its present developmental challenges may have been resolved, experts are saying.
Events across the continent however suggest that there is indeed no consensus amongst the present sit-tight leadership on the need to take this very sensible option. With the exception of Nigeria, and hopefully Ghana in the next few days, a number of the recent electoral attempts at easing off dictators have not been very successful.
In Gabon, the opposition came quite close to taking out Ali Bongo who had himself succeeded his father, Omar Bongo but narrowly missed it. It is however still in the trenches, insisting that the vote count was flawed. In the better known example of the Gabia, maximum dictator, Yahyah Jammeh is still fighting to avert being sent off power in the next few days. And he is really playing dirty!
As for the Democratic Republic of Congo, efforts are currently ongoing at getting Presient Joseph Kabila to abandon plans to rewrite the constitution to enable him rule further. It is not any better in Burundi, where the feisty former teacher and rebel, Pierre Nkurunziza is literally daring everyone and vowing to continue in office until he no longer can!
It is not yet Uhuru for political transition in the continent.
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