Compaore’s exit refocuses spotlight on African leadership

Blaise Compaore’s sudden exit from Burkina Faso as the country’s president at the end of last month has once again placed the spotlight on leadership in Africa.

Mr. Compaore was forced from power after young people took to the streets in Burkina Faso to protest against his plans to re-write the country’s constitution so that he could extend his presidential term – after already being in power for the past 27 years.

“There is much speculation about the wider implications for Africa – where a number of other presidents also appear to have designs on relaxing constitutional term limits,” noted Chatham House, a major think tank on international affairs in London.

Indeed, when Rwandan President Paul Kagame addressed a Chatham House meeting at the end of last month, he dropped hints about constitutional changes to extend his stay in power.

In the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), of which Burkina Faso is a member, member countries have committed themselves to respect constitutional democracy.

The African Union, which many Africans have viewed as a club of dictators, also now frowns on leaders tinkering with constitutions to perpetuate their hold on power against the wishes of the people.

The authorities in Burkina Faso have now taken steps to return the country to the path of democracy by appointing former Foreign Minister Michel Kafando as transitional president until next November.

But the impact of Mr. Compaore’s removal from power is being assessed across the continent by leaders who have hinted at extending their hold on power through constitutional changes.

In the ECOWAS region, before the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone, there was talk in the country of President Ernest Koroma going for a third term in power, contrary to the constitution, which limits presidential power to two terms.

His supporters had been calling for a constitutional change to facilitate the extension of Mr. Koroma’s term although he himself never came out publicly to support the idea.

In Niger, when President Mamadou Tandja tried to make a third bid for president in 2010, he was removed by the military.

In Senegal, President Abdoulaye Wade succeeded in running for a third term by amending the constitution but the electorate voted him out of power in 2012.

Ghana, on the other hand, has been seen as a country of political tranquillity in an otherwise volatile region.

It has had six relatively peaceful elections since 1992 and this has been noted by investors, as they turned out in force at last month’s UK-Ghana Trade and Investment Forum, which the organisers, Developing Market Associates, said “was the most heavily over-subscribed” event they had “organised for some years, pointing up the continuing interest in a country which remains one of Africa’s success stories”.

Another part of Africa where the events in Burkina Faso have had the greatest effect is in the Horn of Africa, especially in Djibouti where young people in the country took to the streets to support their counterparts in West Africa.

Members of the Opposition Youth Movement carried placards, which read: “For a democratic nation in Djibouti.” They called for transparent democratic elections in the country.

President Ismail Omar Guelleh has been in power in Djibouti since 1999 and in 2010 he contrived to make constitutional reforms that allowed him to have a third term in office.

Given that President Guelleh’s party, People’s Rally for Progress, has been in power for the past 34 years, observers said they understood why young people in Djibouti backed the changes in Burkina Faso.

“As seen from Djibouti, I can say with certainty that the members and supporters of the Uguta-Toosa [Djiboutian] opposition political party support the just struggle of the people of Burkina Faso,” wrote Djiboutian blogger Houssein Ibrahim Houmed.

The opposition to President Guelleh is founded on claims of his disregard for democratic principles. Human Rights Watch reported that just before elections in 2011 the government banned demonstrations and arrested protesters and opposition politicians.

Given Djibouti’s strategic position in tackling terrorism in Somalia and beyond, opponents have accused President Guelleh of using this to hang on to power, since the US, France and now China are using the country as an important military base in fighting terrorism.

But for how long will this arrangement last, is the question many are asking, especially in light of President Guelleh’s seeming intention to run for an unprecedented fourth term.

Blogger Houmed noted: “The end of the Guelleh regime will be effective and consumed only when the rule of law is firmly established in the Republic of Djibouti.”

He then called on the US, Japan and France to “favour the advent of democracy” in Djibouti and not to “condone an extension of… [Guelleh’s] reign…”

As observers pointed out, despite ex-president Compaore’s pivotal role in fighting terrorism in the Sahel region, when the people’s revolution took off, he did not receive support from his traditional allies, France and the US.

“It appears now that the game plan has changed,” noted one strategist in London.

“African leaders such as Presidents Guelleh in Djibouti, Museveni in Uganda and Biya in Cameroon should no longer expect Western support if people’s power is activated in these countries, especially if those leaders are no longer seen as stable and trusted allies.”

Sheriff Abba Drammeh of the Stone Centre for Black History and Culture at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in the US said the fall of Mr. Compaore “is the latest signal of a paradigm shift taking hold on the continent”.

He added: Sub-Saharan Africans have had enough of perpetual presidencies and, like their northern counterparts who ushered in the so-called Arab Spring, will rise for greater rights and freedoms.

“History tells us that we have not heard the last of such organic voices of change and resistance.”