After Sudan’s Bashir, Algeria’s Bouteflika and Zimbabwe’s Mugabe, Who’s Next?




There are more Sudan-like government topple coming soon to hit Africa’s sit-tight leaders. Just that this time, they’ll get more than they bargained for and even Omar Al-Bashir will tag himself as lucky.

The power to alter and remove any government which fails to implement the guiding principles of democratic ideals ultimately lies with the people. Omar Al-Bashir, the Sudanese leader, who for three decades affirmed himself as untouchable in the North African country suddenly came to an end and predictably, in an unglorified manner. Africa’s sit-tight leaders have not learned from history and unfortunately, more of this revolutnary ouster will happen sooner than expected. Cameroon’s Paul Biya and Yoweri Museveni are sitting on a bubble and a burst is imminent.




Government toppling of Sudan’s kind tend to produce ripple effects with an unexpected reach. Pro-democracy movements in Sub-Saharan Africa came right on the heels of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain. In an interconnected world of social media and viral videos, mass movements can happen anytime. Paul Biya, Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda can spare themselves of embarrassment from the greed of power by entrenching democratic institutions, where people’s freedom are not trampled upon and their voices heard.



After 30 years, a president still struggles to provide its people with basic necessities, he may not fair better if he were to stay a 100 years in power. African leaders who have failed to empower their own people and humbly accept the reality of transient power will perpetually live in denial that they’re the best to lead their country. What a costly assumption! They end up famously infamous. Ask Abdoulaziz Bouteflika of Algeria, Robert Mugabe, Muammar Gaddafi Abdullahi Wade of Senegal and a host of others, they don’t finish well.

The world is witnessing a populist renaissance whether in Italy, Brazil, the US, France, Belgium and so on. If any such government in the likeness of Sudan survived the Arab upspring in 2011 and maneuvered its way through this period, another wave of movement more nasty is coming soon. It will ride on the wings of extreme hunger and the quest for survival. The people will no longer run away from the threat of death and incarceration from these regimes, after all, what do they stand to lose?

Source: African Exponent