Citizens of Africa are the drivers of Presidential term limits and not the Presidents!

Following President Obama's visit to the Africa Union early this week, one of the salient issues he noted was the fact that African leaders want to stay in power for eternity and they have further repealed term limits from their constitution to cement this deal! Much as his comments are timely especially where we see most African states grappling with the term limits issue with others lifting it all in the name of people, African presidents will not deliver Obama's message home instead it is the Citizens of Africa.

It is not in issue that term limits are core to democratic governance and as such, they are a must. In Uganda, the term limits were allegedly traded for five million shillings by the Parliament in 2005 who are peoples' representatives and the removal of the term limits was not in any way the peoples' view. To this end, therefore, various citizen organisations through their documents such as the Citizens' Manifesto, the Citizens Compact have demanded for the restoration of Presidential term limits to put a cap on how long Presidents can serve and also to facilitate the exit of Longevity in Africa.

Therefore, citizens of Africa, and Uganda in particular should demand for the restoration of term limits from their Parliament since they have the mandate to do so and until the Citizens of Uganda and Africa wake up and put a demand on their leaders, the enticing Obama's speech on term limits will be in vain.


Michael Aboneka Jr.

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