Paul Biya top 5 presidents have been more than 25 years in power in the world
Between 1982 and 20
10, the U.S. has had five presidents, the France has seen three of them succeed to his head, while Cameroon is still single. This sample is sufficient to show with what interest the question of time put into power by some leaders, must be addressed. Indeed, the longevity of some statesmen to lead their country even more challenges our minds today we went right into the "global village" announced by the Canadian communicologue Mc Luhan, a few decades ago. Nowadays, it is no longer possible to live in autarky, and suddenly everything is happening in neighboring binding on you and vice versa. It can not remain indifferent to the political changes taking place around the world. Whether in Africa or elsewhere in the world, the presidency for life are disappearing in favor of term limits. However, there are still pockets of resistance to these changes. In Africa, for example, we know the States which claim to be democratic, but in reality, function as monarchies. In these states, like Angola, Equatorial Guinea, Egypt or Cameroon, longevity leaders reached record hard to match by the established monarchies such as Morocco, Lesotho and Swaziland. The interest on this subject as it appears in the table shows the longevity of Heads of State power, is less a simple term business to question not only the impact but also the meaning of this tend to stay in power forever in the republics in Africa by way politically incorrect. In other words, if this life was synonymous with development in these countries, this problem would have made differently.
Moreover, should we believe that personalization and perpetuation of power and an individual is an unconscious expression of a collective desire of the historically repressed monarchisation of socio-political life? In any case, our concern in this case is more to stimulate debate.
They are among the many presidents who have spent over 25 years in power and have more than 70 years of age. But they are not thinking about retirement
"The more things lasts, the better good " . So it is with wine as political power. Both crazy. Aside from monarchies where the method of alternating the throne, is death. There republics, where men come to power with the intention to withdraw some time after missions completed or not, goals achieved or not. But between the desire and reality, the gap is large. Because no one understands Why and How, they will not or rather do not want to let go.
In 1998, for example, General Robert Guei who had come to power through a coup, when the problems of "ivoirité" was tearing his country, Côte d'Ivoire, told anyone who would listen: "I came home sweep Côte d'Ivoire and retire ... " . But as the power intoxicates some one who could enter into the history of Côte d'Ivoire as a hero, rather attempted to reinforce themselves in power after organizing in 2000 a presidential election that was losing. Had been pressure from the street, and especially the activists and supporters of the Popular Front Laurent Gbagbo's Ivorian Kudu, the current head of state, he would have stolen the will of the Ivorian people. And the rest we know ...
monarchs in the republic
In Africa, as elsewhere, some heads of state cling to power against all odds and the means used by those illiterate policies are diverse. While some remain in power because they rig the elections in their favor, others cheerfully and shamelessly alter the constitution to be able to seek re-election. Some of these, ideologically outdated by time and politically unpopular, feel obliged to defraud the elections after the constitution to cut their measurements.
So this state of affairs which leads to what everyone decries today almost everywhere around the world: an unsuccessful longevity in power. Indeed, reading the table this time brought to power by some statesmen in the world, a number of developments are worth noting. First, this table shows the longevity to power in monarchies and republics. In monarchies, the record for longevity in power is held by Europe, notably with the United Kingdom where Queen Elizabeth II was born Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windor who is 84 today, came to the throne Feb. 6, 1952, representing 58 years of reign. In Africa, this record is held by the Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi, who is head of the Libyan (ground state), for 41 years. Swaziland, another absolute monarchy, suffered for 24 years, the reign of the young and restless Mswati III.
If we can understand the longevity of the monarch to the throne, he remains, however, that in republics, several decades in power can not be explained, because in a state of freedom, where we pretend to open the democratic game, some political analysts believe that when a man passes already more than two decades at the helm of his country, he is considered nothing more or less like a dictator. From this point of view, and given the above table, Africa would be part of the world's richest monarch disguised as Democrats in the Republic. How else to understand that men like José Eduardo dos Santos of Angola and Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea have been able to do each, 32 years in power. But these two cases are not isolated. In Egypt, Mohammed Hosni Mubarak came to power 14 October 1981, already totals almost 29 years of monarchical rule. He beat only one short year his counterpart of Cameroon, Paul Biya, who parachuted into the head of state following the resignation of the first president, Ahmadou Ahidjo; "the illustrious successor" that s 'prepares to celebrate elsewhere on 6 November, her 28 years on the bench at the Supreme Head of State of Cameroon. Denis Sassou Nguesso, who was driven by election in August 1992 and returned to the business October 25, 1997, combines 27 years in power in Congo Brazzaville. In this short list of monarchs pseudo-democrats are in the right place Yoweri Yussef Mouseveni Uganda (24 years), Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia (23), Blaise Compaore, 23 years of unchallenged rule ( he poured the blood of his brother and friend Thomas Sankara to gain power), Idriss Deby of Chad (19 years), Isaias Afewerki of Eritrea (17 years), etc..
Towards monarchisation power in Africa
All these records are the average power in Africa about 20 years, while elsewhere in Europe, America or even Asia, the same average is almost half. This gap could widen further between Africa and other parts of the world since many of these devotees, came to power through the mistakes of history, do not even give a glimpse of the slightest intention to retire. Meanwhile, the pace of change in power on other continents is fast. In America, for example, the longest reign so far is that of Haitian President Rene Garcia Preval, with 14 years in power.
Introducing the table in this way, there is a risk to believe that our point of interest was simply to denounce 20, 30 or 40 years in power, yet this is to highlight the mess that so many years these men have been in power for their people. For in fact, if those countries or monarchies today could be examples of well-being, the problem would not arise at all.
Ultimately, it appears, on analysis, that Africans, no doubt influenced by their traditional political organization based on the base of power for life, are struggling to integrate or to strike a balance between a system of political governance from elsewhere and local systems of chiefdoms or kingdoms. In any case, the reflection remains open.
© Simon Patrice Djomo
