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[AfricaRealities.com] The arrogance of power

 

The arrogance of power

All over the world there are some leaders who are reluctant to give up power.
The most striking current example is Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza who, amidst violent opposition, is campaigning for a third term in office despite the constitution saying he can only have two.
He argues that he was appointed, not elected, to his first term so it doesn't count.
Many believe President Paul Kagame in neighbouring Rwanda is also looking to breach his two-term limit.
But that would be a mere dot in time for President Yahya Jammeh of The Gambia. "If I have to rule this country for one billion years I will," he told the BBC in 2011.
Hanging on does not always work.
The President of Burkina Faso, Blaise Compaore, was overthrown by popular protest last year for trying to change the constitution so that he could seek re-election.

'Let him continue'

While some presidents attempt legalistic tactics to get around term limits, others reject them outright.
Seven-term leader President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe says they are undemocratic: "We put a rope around our necks and say leaders can only have two terms," he told a summit of African Union leaders earlier this year
 
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Posted by: Samuel Desire <sam4des@yahoo.com>
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The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people. And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.
I have loved justice and hated iniquity: therefore I die in exile.
The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.
When the white man came we had the land and they had the bibles; now they have the land and we have the bibles.
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