United States President Barack Obama has warned African leaders against holding on to power.
According to him, the continent will not advance if the trend continues. The American President, who was speaking at the African Union (AU) headquarters in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, the first time a sitting US president would ever address the body, chided African leaders for their refusal to step down from power, saying nobody should be president for life.
Calling on the AU to ensure that leaders respect their constitutions and step down when their term ends, Obama specifically mentioned Burundi, whose president, Pierre Nkurunziza, has controversially been re-elected for a third term.
“I’ll be frank with you, it can’t just be America that’s talking about these things. Fellow African countries have to talk about these things.
"Just as other countries championed your break from colonialism, our nations must all raise our voices when universal rights are being denied. For if we truly believe that Africans are equal in dignity, then Africans have an equal right to freedoms that are universal — that’s a principle we all have to defend. And it's not just a Western idea; it's a human idea.
“I have to also say that Africa’s democratic progress is also at risk when leaders refuse to step aside when their terms end. Now, let me be honest with you — I do not understand this. I am in my second term. It has been an extraordinary privilege for me to serve as President of the United States.