Term Limits in Africa: Essential or Expendable?
Wednesday, 15 November 2023
12pm Washington D.C.
5pm London
6pm Paris / Kinshasa / Lagos
7pm Johannesburg / Cairo
8pm NairobiAdd to your calendar:
Google | Outlook | YahooIn a growing number of countries across Africa, term limits have been removed, and they are actively under threat in many more, including in Benin, Senegal and Sierra Leone.
But while term limit evasions and their removal garner consistent headlines in Africa and beyond do they really matter for governance and development?
For citizens in countries such as Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, Togo, Uganda, and many more the removal of presidential term limits was a pivotal nail in the coffin for democracy. By creating “presidents for life," their removal -- often introduced in the early 1990s to ensure that power could not be consolidated under an individual -- slammed the door on the notion of peacefully changing a government through the ballot box. Instead, established autocrats and newly minted coup leaders have used their ability to remove term limits to assert their political dominance while utilizing repressive strategies to hold and manipulate sham elections.
Nevertheless, while countries where term limits have been respected are on average far more democratic and prosperous than their counterparts, some leaders –- and citizens – seem to believe that they are a hindrance at best, or a 'western imposition' at worse.
Supporters of the Rwandan president Paul Kagame, for example -- who is running for a fifth presidential term in 2024 -- argue that forcing a change of leadership will undermine continuity and encourage short-term thinking at the expense of long-term development. And after all, why should African countries limit how long a leader can stay in office when this is not the norm in the United Kingdom or Germany?
This show will ask whether term limits are expendable or essential for political and economic growth in Africa. In doing so, we'll bring together a brilliant panel of activists, researchers, and journalists who are experts on the issue. We will interrogate how leaders try and successfully remove term limits and whether the lifting of such restrictions leads to more effective governance, or just more oppression and corruption.