The Syndrome of Political Longevity is Here to Stay

Overstaying in power has always been associated with African leaders who seem hooked to pre-colonial political cultures which glorified absolute Kings who ruled their empires until death. With this political malaise usually attributed mainly to African leaders, it did not appear surprising to world observers to see African leaders like Mugabe of Zimbabwe, Museveni of Uganda and Menez of Ethiopia amend their national constitutions to overstay in power beyond the two term limits.

Recent political developments however, now allude strongly to the fact that the syndrome of political longevity is a human weakness that catches all who are in the corridors of power. I still recall that when President Reagan, the most successful cold war Republican leader suddenly found out that his constitutional 2 terms had expired, he couldn’t help but blame the American Constitution for being an undemocratic and an infringement on the rights and freedoms of Americans to perpetuate good leadership beyond two terms. He was particularly incensed over the fact that the two-term limit was an obstruction to his personal Star War Project and many other programs he had initiated but which hadn’t been concluded.

In Britain, the founding fathers of the English constitution were very sensitive to these human trappings of power and they allowed the Executive Prime Minister to rule for as long as the people still wanted him/her to preside over them. This however, did not completely protect individual ambitions of politicians who may have desires of getting power at any cost.

We note that when Prime Minister Gordon Brown finally generated sufficient political intrigue that caused Tony Blair to resign in disgrace recently, it was imagined that he did not have personal ambitions up his political sleeves. Recently this showed up when he declared that he would not call for early elections, citing unfinished business that he must roll on to the end. Never mind that Brown has only been in power for less than 6 months and he is beginning to dig himself into the sweet cocoons of power.

In Russia, President Putin is beginning to make very confusing signals as to whether he is ready to relinquish power or not after his two terms expires in 2008. In his recent efforts at bourgeoning his personal image, Putin was pictured on state Television fishing bare chest, playing Judo and jogging about perhaps, to cut an impression to the Russian public that he was still strong and very much available to lead them beyond the constitutional term limit.

He has not also come out clear on his Successor. There are already speculations in some media circles that Putin might be planning to have an influential role in the government preceeding the elections, however on February 1, 2007, Putin publicly rebuked such speculations: “there will be no successors. There will be candidates for the post of the President of the Russian Federation.”

In 2007, the Associated Press reported that Putin might be considered for the top spot on the United Russian party list in the upcoming parliamentary elections which would almost ensure him a seat in the Duma after his term as President ends. On 1 October 2007, Putin announced he would run as first on the list for United Russia and might consider becoming Prime Minister of Russia.

Already the Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov who is a Pro-Putin strong man has condemned the two-term limit for President as conservative and is lobbying for it to be extended to 5 or 7-year term. It is clear that Putin is generally still strongly attracted to power and he is even prepared to cause amendments to the constitution to allow him rule Russia for as long as he so wishes.

From this Putin perspective, it becomes clear the corrupting capacity of power is not entirely an African syndrome, it knows no borders, it is embedded in Human nature regardless of whether you are developed democracy or backward third world politician.

It seems to me that, Americans have been very resolute over the observance of term limits hence, the rest of the world should therefore go to America and learn how they have successfully avoided putting their constitution to shame since 1776!