Barack Obama on Tuesday condemned African leaders who refuse to give up power, as he made the first address to the African Union by a US leader.
“Africa’s democratic progress is also at risk when leaders refuse to step aside when their terms end,” Obama said in a speech at the AU’s headquarters in the Ethiopian capital.
“No one should be president for life,” Obama said, adding that he himself was looking forward to handing over to his successor.
“I don’t understand why people want to stay so long, especially when they have got a lot of money,” he told the 54-member AU, an apparent criticism of African leaders who have done just that.
Calling on the AU to ensure leaders respect their constitutions and step down when their term ends, Mr Obama specifically mentioned Burundi, whose president Pierre Nkurunziza has controversially been re-elected for a third term.
“Sometimes you will hear leaders say ‘I’m the only person who can hold this nation together.’ If that’s true, then that leader has failed to truly build their nation.”
He said democracy was about more than just holding elections: “When journalists are put behind bars for doing their jobs or activists are threatened as governments crackdown on civil society then you may have democracy in name, but not in substance.”
And he joked about his own chances of another term in office, which he is constitutionally barred from seeking.
“I actually think I’m a pretty good president,” he said. “I think if I ran, I could win. But I can’t!”
