President Mamadou Tandja of Niger has joined the club of leaders who have overturned constitutions to overstay their welcome in recent years. Following victory in a referendum held on August 4, he is the twelfth African leader in a decade to engineer a third term of office. Has the tide turned against the “third wave” of democratization in Africa?
Term limits were introduced by more than half of the continent’s states between 1990 and 1994. They came as part of a “democracy package” that included multi-party competitive elections, freedom of the press and constitutionalism. They were meant to end the practice of presidency for life, when dictators were ousted only by a coup d’etat or death, or both.
This democratic trend has been reversed in the new millennium, starting with President Sam Nujoma of Namibia in 1999. Then followed presidents Abdou Diouf of Senegal, Lansana Conte of Guinea, the late Gnassingbé Eyadéma of Togo and the late Omar Bongo of Gabon, Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso, Idriss Deby of Chad, Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda.
In 2008 Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria and Paul Biya of Cameroon joined the list of leaders ruling past their sell-by dates. Notably, Biya introduced term limits to Cameroon in 1996, only to scrap them when his own retirement loomed.
Some leaders, in Malawi, Nigeria and Zambia, have tried and failed to amend constitutions to secure a third term in office. Robust opposition from civil society, political parties and the media has seen off these attempts. Other presidents, such as Nelson Mandela and Joaquim Chissano, have gone gracefully. Mandela’s successor Thabo Mbeki promised he would not seek a third term, but was spared the opportunity to prove his good intentions.
The disturbing patterns seen in Africa’s struggle over term limits have continued as the Organization of African Unity has been reformed into the African Union (AU). When the AU signed its new constitution in 2000, it incorporated principles of democracy and provided for sanctions against unconstitutional changes of government. New institutions were set up to protect democracy, including the Peace and Security Council, the Pan-African Parliament and the African Peer Review Mechanism of the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (Nepad).
The African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance was adopted by the AU in January 2007. Article 23 of the charter defines unconstitutional changes of government as “illegal means of accessing or maintaining power,” including “any amendment or revision of the constitution or legal instruments, which is an infringement on the principles of democratic change of government”. Sanctions are to be implemented by the AU against any government that tampers with its constitution in this way.
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The immediate problem for the AU is that this charter has not yet entered into force. Sanctions have been implemented only against coups d’etat. There is no precedent yet for sanctions against an incumbent president. And it doesn’t help that Libyan leader Muammar al-Gaddafi, who has been chairing the AU this year, has expressed his distaste for democracy from this platform.
Niger’s best hope for an outcome to the crisis brought about by Tandja’s referendum is for joint action by the United Nations, the AU and the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), led by the AU’s former peace and security commissioner, Said Djinnit, who is currently heading a mission to Niger as the special representative to the UN Secretary-General for West and Central Africa.
Do Africa’s leaders really need term limits? Many would point to the Westminster system in support of the contention that they are not essential to democracy; if leaders are genuinely popular, then the people, speaking through the legislature, should be allowed to vote to keep them. The problem arises when a leader begins manipulating institutions to override democratic choices.
Since the 1990s, Africa seems to have taken two steps forward, then one backward in the consolidation of democracy. Civil society will have to be nimble to deal with the challenges.
Dr Kathryn Sturman is the acting head of the Governance of Africa's Resources Programme of the South African Institute of International Affairs.
