“We, the African Heads of State and Government, gathered for the inaugural Africa Climate Summit (ACS) in Nairobi, Kenya, Express Concern that many African countries face disproportionate burdens and risks arising from climate change-related, unpredictable weather events and patterns, including prolonged droughts, devastating floods, and wild/forest fires, which cause massive humanitarian crises with detrimental impacts on economies, health, education, peace, and security, among other risks, Acknowledge that climate change is the single greatest challenge facing humanity and the single biggest threat to all life on Earth. It demands urgent and concerted action from all nations to lower emissions and reduce the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, Recognize that Africa is not historically responsible for global warming, but bears the brunt of its effect, impacting lives, livelihoods, and economies, Call Upon the Global community to act with Urgency in reducing Emissions, fulfilling its Obligations, keeping Past Promises, and supporting the Continent in addressing Climate Change, specifically to: accelerate all efforts to reduce Emissions to align with the Paris Agreement, Honor the Commitment to provide $100 Billion in annual Climate Finance as promised 14 years ago at the Copenhagen Conference, Uphold Commitments to a fair and accelerated process of phasing down Coal and abolishment of all Fossil Fuel Subsidies, and Swiftly operationalize the Loss and Damage facility agreed at COP 27”. – reads part of Africa’s DECLARATION on Climate Change after the End of the historic First African Climate Change Summit, held in Nairobi Kenya on September 4 to September 6. This inaugural Summit brought together 13 African Heads of State and Government in Nairobi.
The stark Absence of Presidents of Africa’s biggest Polluters/ Emitters of Carbon Dioxide and other Greenhouse Gases, Presidents Ramaphosa of South Africa, El-sisi of Egypt, Tebboune of Algeria and Tinubu of Nigeria in this Summit Casts Doubt on the Viability of the United African Front and Voice in Combating Carbon Emissions and Climate Change in the upcoming COP 28 in Dubai and beyond, as proposed by the Leaders present in the Nairobi Summit.
In a joint Call to Action, the Summiturged World Leaders to rally behind the Proposal for a Global Carbon Taxation regime including a Carbon Tax on Fossil Fuel Trade, Maritime Transport and aviation, that may also be augmented by a Global Financial Transaction Tax-FTT to provide dedicated, affordable and accessible Finance for Climate-positive Investments.
Kenya’s President William Ruto; the Host of this Summit deplored Underinvestment in Africa’s Renewable Energy Resources. Africa accounts for over 40% of all Renewable Energy Resources in the World. To accomplish the Vision of Economic Transformation in harmony with Climate needs, the Summit called upon the International Community to contribute or invest towards increasing Africa’s Renewable Generation Capacity from the current 56 GW to at least 300 GW by 2030.
Africa is also Home to the World’s Biggest Carbon Sink, Peatland, Rainforest and Carbon Sequestration Capacity. Africa’s Congo Basin absorbs more Carbon Dioxide than the Amazon; a Global Climate Change Mitigation Service, for which, President William Ruto says Africa should get Compensation.
President Ruto has described this inaugural Africa Climate Summit as a Success; Governments, the Private Sector, Multilateral Banks and Philanthropists have pledged to commit $ 23 Billion for Green growth, Mitigation and Adaptation efforts across Africa.
TODAY is Africa Day-2020; Today 57-Years ago, 32 Leaders of 32 African Countries that had Re-gained their Independence met in Addis Ababa for the very First Historic Independent African Leaders Summit. This Fateful Summit ended with the formation of the ‘Organization of African Unity’ (OAU)-Today Known as the ‘African Union’ (AU).
Each of the 32 Leaders in this Summit made Great Historic Speech but the Speech below made by Ghana’s Founding Father H.E President Kwame Nkrumah; a Courageous Anti-Colonialism and Anti-Imperialism Crusader, a Selfless and Visionary Pan-African stood out, stands out and shall forever stand out as the Ideal of African Unity and African Dream.
Mural depicting the 32 OAU Founder Members by Assefa and Sereke
“Your Excellencies, Colleagues, Brothers and Friends;
I am happy to be here in Addis Ababa on this most historic occasion. I bring with me the hopes and fraternal greetings of the government and people of Ghana.
Our objective is African union now. There is no time to waste. We must unite now or perish. I am confident that by our concerted effort and determination, we shall lay here the foundations for a continental Union of African States.
A whole continent has imposed a mandate upon us to lay the foundation of our union at this conference. It is our responsibility to execute this mandate by creating here and now, the formula upon which the requisite superstructure may be created.
On this continent, it has not taken us long to discover that the struggle against colonialism does not end with the attainment of national independence. Independence is only the prelude to a new and more involved struggle for the right to conduct our own economic and social affairs; to construct our society according to our aspirations, unhampered by crushing and humiliating neo-colonialist controls and interference.
From the start we have been threatened with frustration where rapid change is imperative and with instability where sustained effort and ordered rule are indispensable. No sporadic act nor pious resolution can resolve our present problems. Nothing will be of avail, except the united act of a united Africa.
We have already reached the stage where we must unite or sink into that condition which has made Latin America the unwilling and distressed prey of imperialism after one-and-a-half centuries of political independence.
As a continent, we have emerged into independence in a different age, with imperialism grown stronger, more ruthless and experienced, and more dangerous in its international associations. Our economic advancement demands the end of colonialist and neo-colonialist domination of Africa.
But just as we understood that the shaping of our national destinies required of each of us our political independence and bent all our strength to this attainment, so we must recognize that our economic independence resides in our African union and requires the same concentration upon the political achievement.
The unity of our continent, no less than our separate independence, will be delayed if, indeed, we do not lose it, by hobnobbing with colonialism.
African unity is, above all, a political kingdom which can only be gained by political means. The social and economic development of Africa will come only within the political kingdom, not the other way round.
Is it not unity alone that can weld us into an effective force, capable of creating our own progress and making our valuable contribution to world peace? Which independent African state, which of you here, will claim that its financial structure and banking institutions are fully harnessed to its national development?
Which will claim that its material resources and human energies are available for its own national aspirations? Which will disclaim a substantial measure of disappointment and disillusionment in its agricultural and urban development? In independent Africa, we are already re-experiencing the instability and frustration which existed under colonial rule.
We are fast learning that political independence is not enough to rid us of the consequences of colonial rule. The movement of the masses of the people of Africa for freedom from that kind of rule was not only a revolt against the conditions which it imposed. Our people supported us in our fight for independence because they believed that African governments could cure the ills of the past in a way which could never be accomplished under colonial rule.
If, therefore, now that we are independent we allow the same conditions to exist that existed in colonial days, all the resentment which overthrew colonialism will be mobilized against us. The resources are there. It is for us to marshal them in the active service of our people.
Unless we do this by our concerted efforts, within the framework of our combined planning, we shall not progress at the tempo demanded by today’s events and the mood of our people. The symptoms of our troubles will grow, and the troubles themselves become chronic. It will then be too late for pan-African unity to secure for us stability and tranquility in our labors for a continent of social justice and material wellbeing.
Our continent certainly exceeds all the others in potential hydroelectric power, which some experts assess as 42% of the world’s total. What need is there for us to remain hewers of wood and drawers of water for the industrialized areas of the world?
It is said, of course, that we have no capital, no industrial skill, no communications, and no internal markets, and that we cannot even agree among ourselves how best to utilize our resources for our own social needs. Yet all stock exchanges in the world are preoccupied with Africa’s gold, diamonds, uranium, platinum, copper and iron ore.
Our capital flows out in streams to irrigate the whole system of Western economy. Fifty-two per cent of the gold in Fort Knox at this moment, where the USA stores its bullion, is believed to have originated from our shores. Africa provides more than 60% of the world’s gold.
A great deal of the uranium for nuclear power, of copper for electronics, of titanium for supersonic projectiles, of iron and steel for heavy industries, of other minerals and raw materials for lighter industries – the basic economic might of the foreign powers – come from our continent.
Experts have estimated that the Congo Basin alone can produce enough food crops to satisfy the requirements of nearly half the population of the whole world, and here we sit talking about gradualism, talking about step by step.
Are you afraid to tackle the bull by the horn? For centuries, Africa has been the Milch cow of the Western world. Was it not our continent that helped the Western world to build up its accumulated wealth?
We have the resources. It was colonialism in the first place that prevented us from accumulating the effective capital; but we ourselves have failed to make full use of our power in independence to mobilize our resources for the most effective take-off into thorough-going economic and social development.
We have been too busy nursing our separate states to understand fully the basic need of our union, rooted in common purpose, common planning and common endeavor.
A union that ignores these fundamental necessities will be but a sham. It is only by uniting our productive capacity and the resultant production that we can amass capital. And once we start, the momentum will increase. With capital controlled by our own banks, harnessed to our own true industrial and agricultural development, we shall make our advance.
We shall accumulate machinery and establish steel works, iron foundries and factories; we shall link the various states of our continent with communications by land, sea, and air. We shall cable from one place to another, phone from one place to the other and astound the world with our hydro-electric power; we shall drain marshes and swamps, clear infested areas, feed the undernourished, and rid our people of parasites and disease.
Camels and Donkeys No More
It is within the possibility of science and technology to make even the Sahara bloom into a vast field with verdant vegetation for agricultural and industrial development. We shall harness the radio, television, giant printing presses to lift our people from the dark recesses of illiteracy. A decade ago, these would have been visionary words, the fantasies of an idle dreamer. But this is the age in which science has transcended the limits of the material world, and technology has invaded the silences of nature.
Time and space have been reduced to unimportant abstractions. Giant machines make roads, clear forests, dig dams, lay out aerodromes; monster trucks and planes distribute goods; huge laboratories manufacture drugs; complicated geological surveys are made; mighty power stations are built; colossal factories erected – all at an incredible speed. The world is no longer moving through bush paths or on camels and donkeys.
We cannot afford to pace our needs, our development, our security, to the gait of camels and donkeys. We cannot afford not to cut down the overgrown bush of outmoded attitudes that obstruct our path to the modern open road of the widest and earliest achievement of economic independence and the raising up of the lives of our people to the highest level.
Even for other continents lacking the resources of Africa, this is the age that sees the end of human want. For us it is a simple matter of grasping with certainty our heritage by using the political might of unity. All we need to do is to develop with our united strength the enormous resources of our continent.
What use to the farmer is education and mechanization, what use is even capital for development, unless we can ensure for him a fair price and a ready market?
What has the peasant, worker and farmer gained from political independence, unless we can ensure for him a fair return for his labor and a higher standard of living? Unless we can establish great industrial complexes in Africa, what have the urban worker, and those peasants on overcrowded land gained from political independence? If they are to remain unemployed or in unskilled occupation, what will avail them the better facilities for education, technical training, energy, and ambition which independence enables us to provide?
There is hardly any African state without a frontier problem with its adjacent neighbors. It would be futile for me to enumerate them because they are already so familiar to us all. But let me suggest that this fatal relic of colonialism will drive us to war against one another as our unplanned and uncoordinated industrial development expands, just as happened in Europe.
Unless we succeed in arresting the danger through mutual understanding on fundamental issues and through African unity, which will render existing boundaries obsolete and superfluous, we shall have fought in vain for independence.
Only African unity can heal this festering sore of boundary disputes between our various states. The remedy for these ills is ready in our hands. It stares us in the face at every customs barrier, it shouts to us from every African heart. By creating a true political union of all the independent states of Africa, with executive powers for political direction, we can tackle hopefully every emergency and every complexity.
This is because we have emerged in the age of science and technology in which poverty, ignorance, and disease are no longer the masters, but the retreating foes of mankind. Above all, we have emerged at a time when a continental land mass like Africa with its population approaching 300 million is necessary to the economic capitalization and profitability of modern productive methods and techniques. Not one of us working singly and individually can successfully attain the fullest development.
Certainly, in the circumstances, it will not be possible to give adequate assistance to sister states trying, against the most difficult conditions, to improve their economic and social structures. Only a united Africa functioning under a union government can forcefully mobilize the material and moral resources of our separate countries and apply them efficiently and energetically to bring a rapid change in the conditions of our people.
Unite we must. Without necessarily sacrificing our sovereignties, big or small, we can here and now forge a political union based on defense, foreign affairs and diplomacy, and a common citizenship, an African currency, an African monetary zone, and an African central bank. We must unite in order to achieve the full liberation of our continent.
We need a common defense system with African high command to ensure the stability and security of Africa. We have been charged with this sacred task by our own people, and we cannot betray their trust by failing them. We will be mocking the hopes of our people if we show the slightest hesitation or delay in tackling realistically this question of African unity.
We need unified economic planning for Africa. Until the economic power of Africa is in our hands, the masses can have no real concern and no real interest for safeguarding our security, for ensuring the stability of our regimes, and for bending their strength to the fulfilment of our ends.
With our united resources, energies and talents we have the means, as soon as we show the will, to transform the economic structures of our individual states from poverty to that of wealth, from inequality to the satisfaction of popular needs. Only on a continental basis shall we be able to plan the proper utilization of all our resources for the full development of our continent.
How else will we retain our own capital for own development? How else will we establish an internal market for our own industries? By belonging to different economic zones, how will we break down the currency and trading barriers between African states, and how will the economically stronger amongst us be able to assist the weaker and less developed states?
It is important to remember that independent financing and independent development cannot take place without an independent currency. A currency system that is backed by the resources of a foreign state is ipso facto subject to the trade and financial arrangements of that foreign country.
Because we have so many customs and currency barriers as a result of being subject to the different currency systems of foreign powers, this has served to widen the gap between us in Africa. How, for example, can related communities and families trade with, and support one another successfully, if they find themselves divided by national boundaries and currency restrictions? The only alternative open to them in these circumstances is to use smuggled currency and enrich national and international racketeers and crooks who prey upon our financial and economic difficulties.
Our Resources
No independent African state today by itself has a chance to follow an independent course of economic development, and many of us who have tried to do this have been almost ruined or have had to return to the fold of the former colonial rulers.
This position will not change unless we have a unified policy working at the continental level. The first step towards our cohesive economy would be a unified monetary zone, with, initially, an agreed common parity for our currencies. To facilitate this arrangement, Ghana would change to a decimal system.
When we find that the arrangement of a fixed common parity is working successfully, there would seem to be no reason for not instituting one common currency and a single bank of issue.
With a common currency from one common bank of issue, we should be able to stand erect on our own feet because such an arrangement would be fully backed by the combined national products of the states composing the union. After all, the purchasing power of money depends on productivity and the productive exploitation of the natural, human and physical resources of the nation.
While we are assuring our stability by a common defense system, and our economy is being orientated beyond foreign control by a common currency, monetary zone, and central bank of issue, we can investigate the resources of our continent.
We can begin to ascertain whether in reality we are the richest, and not, as we have been taught to believe, the poorest among the continents. We can determine whether we possess the largest potential in hydro-electric power, and whether we can harness it and other sources of energy to our industries. We can proceed to plan our industrialization on a continental scale, and to build up a common market for nearly 300 million people. Common continental planning for the industrial and agricultural development of Africa is a vital necessity!
So many blessings flow from our unity; so many disasters must follow on our continued disunity. The hour of history which has brought us to this assembly is a revolutionary hour. It is the hour of decision.
The masses of the people of Africa are crying for unity. The people of Africa call for the breaking down of the boundaries that keep them apart. They demand an end to the border disputes between sister African states – disputes that arise out of the artificial barriers raised by colonialism. It was colonialism’s purpose that divided us. It was colonialism’s purpose that left us with our border irredentism, that rejected our ethnic and cultural fusion.
Our people call for unity so that they may not lose their patrimony in the perpetual service of neo-colonialism. In their fervent push for unity, they understand that only its realization will give full meaning to their freedom and our African independence.
It is this popular determination that must move us on to a union of independent African states. In delay lies danger to our well-being, to our very existence as free states. It has been suggested that our approach to unity should be gradual, that it should go piecemeal. This point of view conceives of Africa as a static entity with “frozen” problems which can be eliminated one by one and when all have been cleared then we can come together and say: “Now all is well, let us now unite.”
This view takes no account of the impact of external pressures. Nor does it take cognizance of the danger that delay can deepen our isolations and exclusiveness; that it can enlarge our differences and set us drifting further and further apart into the net of neo-colonialism, so that our union will become nothing but a fading hope, and the great design of Africa’s full redemption will be lost, perhaps, forever.
The Dangers of Regionalism
The view is also expressed that our difficulties can be resolved simply by a greater collaboration through cooperative association in our inter-territorial relationships. This way of looking at our problems denies a proper conception of their inter-relationship and mutuality. It denies faith in a future for African advancement in African independence. It betrays a sense of solution only in continued reliance upon external sources through bilateral agreements for economic and other forms of aid.
The fact is that although we have been cooperating and associating with one another in various fields of common endeavor even before colonial times, this has not given us the continental identity and the political and economic force which would help us to deal effectively with the complicated problems confronting us in Africa today.
As far as foreign aid is concerned, a United Africa should be in a more favorable position to attract assistance from foreign sources. There is the far more compelling advantage which this arrangement offers, in that aid will come from anywhere to a United Africa because our bargaining power would become infinitely greater. We shall no longer be dependent upon aid from restricted sources. We shall have the world to choose from.
What are we looking for in Africa? Are we looking for Charters, conceived in the light of the United Nations’ example? A type of United Nations Organization whose decisions are framed on the basis of resolutions that in our experience have sometimes been ignored by member states? Where groupings are formed and pressures develop in accordance with the interest of the groups concerned?
Or is it intended that Africa should be turned into a loose organization of states on the model of the Organization of American States, in which the weaker states within it can be at the mercy of the stronger or more powerful ones politically or economically and all at the mercy of some powerful outside nation or group of nations? Is this the kind of association we want for ourselves in the United Africa we all speak of with such feeling and emotion?
We all want a united Africa, united not only in our concept of what unity connotes, but united in our common desire to move forward together in dealing with all the problems that can best be solved only on a continental basis.
We meet here today not as Ghanaians, Guineans, Egyptians, Algerians, Moroccans, Malians, Liberians, Congolese or Nigerians, but as Africans.
Africans united in our resolve to remain here until we have agreed on the basic principles of a new compact of unity among ourselves which guarantees for us and our future a new arrangement of continental government. If we succeed in establishing a new set of principles as the basis of a new charter for the establishment of a continental unity of Africa, and the creation of social and political progress for our people, then in my view, this conference should mark the end of our various groupings and regional blocs.
But if we fail and let this grand and historic opportunity slip by, then we shall give way to greater dissension and division among us for which the people of Africa will never forgive us. And the popular and progressive forces and movements within Africa will condemn us.
I am sure therefore that we shall not fail them. To this end, I propose for your consideration the following: As a first step, a declaration of principles uniting and binding us together and to which we must all faithfully and loyally adhere, and laying the foundations of unity, should be set down.
As a second and urgent step for the realization of the unification of Africa, an All-Africa Committee of Foreign Ministers should be set up now. The Committee should establish on behalf of the heads of our governments, a permanent body of officials and experts to work out a machinery for the union government of Africa.
This body of officials and experts should be made up of two of the best brains from each independent African state. The various charters of existing groupings and other relevant documents could also be submitted to the officials and experts.
We must also decide on a location where this body of officials and experts will work as the new headquarters or capital of our union government. Some central place in Africa might be the fairest suggestion, either in Bangui in the Central African Republic or Leopoldville [Kinshasa] in Congo. My colleagues may have other proposals.
The Committee of Foreign Ministers, officials and experts, should be empowered to establish: (1) A commission to frame a constitution for a Union Government of African States. (2) A commission to work out a continent-wide plan for a unified or common economic and industrial program for Africa; this should include proposals for setting up: a common market for Africa; an African currency; an African monetary zone; an African central bank; a continental communication system; a commission to draw up details for a common foreign policy and diplomacy; a commission to produce plans for a common system of defense and a commission to make proposals for common African citizenship.
Ethiopia Shall Stretch Forth her Hands unto God; Africa must unite!”.
UNFORTUNATELY, Sir Nkrumah’s Dream and Grand Vision of an Africa United in Fact and Indeed did not Prevail. This Fateful Summit was divided into 2 Factions; the Casablanca Group led by Nkrumah of Ghana, Modibo Keita of Mali, Sekou Toure of Guinea, Gamal Nasser of Egypt, Ben Bella of Algeria, King Hasan 2 of Morocco and Crown Prince Hassan Rida representing King Idris of Libya who wanted One United Government for One United Africa ‘there and then’ against the Monrovia and Libreville Group led by Felix Boigny of Ivory Coast and William Tubman of Liberia and 23 Others who wanted a gradual Approach towards African Unity. On May 25,1963 the Monrovia/Libreville Group prevailed and the Summit ended in a Compromise; the formation of a Weak-kneed ‘Organization of African Unity-OAU that is Today known as the ‘African Union’-AU. Until then to this Day; the Grand Dream of One Africa United in Fact and Indeed remains just that; a Dream!.
Africa is the World’s youngest Continent with over 60% of its population being under
Africa Median Ages: Image Courtesy
25 years of Age;Despite having the youngest Population in the World,Africa has the oldest Leaders in Power with about 20 of its sitting Presidents being 70 years and above.Forget about King Sobhuza 2 of Swaziland Monarchy (Present Day Eswatini) who ruled for 61 Years or Emperor Haile Sellasie who ruled Ethiopian Empire for 44 Years;Here is a list of Africa’s Longest serving Presidents some who ruled until Death took them out of Office; some are still in office Today;Some if all goes according to their plans could also end up ruling their respective Countries until Death parts them with the High Office;
1. President Teodoro Obiang Nguema-he took power after overthrowing and killing his Uncle President Francisco Nguema who was the first President of EQ in a bloody Coup of 1979 and from August 1979 To Date he has been the President Of Equatorial Guinea.The 76 years old President will be in his 43rd year in power when this Country holds its next elections in 2022.
2.President Paul Biya-he took power from Cameroon‘s first President Ahmadou Ahdijo in 1982 and from November 1982 To Date he has been the President;The 87-Years old now on a new 7-years 7th term in Office and he will be in his 43rd year in power when the Country holds its next elections in 2025.
3. President Alhaji Omar Bongo-Having been appointed Vice President by Gabon‘s First President one Leon M’ba on November 1966;Omar Bongo would later smoothly succeed M’ba who succumbed to Cancer on November 1967.He went on to rule for 42 Years until June 2009 when he also succumbed to Cancer.
4. PresidentCol.Muammar Gaddafi-He took Power as a Young Army Officer after overthrowing Libya‘s Independence Leader King Idris 1 in the 1969 Coup (King Idris was then away for Medical Trip to Turkey).After taking Power on September 1969 Gaddafi transformed Libya from a Monarch to a Republic and ruled for 42 Years until October 2011 when he was Overthrown and Killed by Opposition Rebels in a Revolution that was backed by Western NATO Forces.
5. President Gen. Eyadema Gnassingbe-He took Power after leading Two successful Coups one in 1963 when he together with other Army Officers Overthrew and Killed Togo‘s First President Sylvanus Olympio and installed Nicolas Grunitzky to become the Second President who he would later Overthrow and Exile 4 Years later in another Coup of 1967. He Eyadema took Power on April 1967 and ruled for 38 Years until he Died in Power on February 2005.
6. PresidentJose Eduardo Dos Santos– He rose to Power on September 1979 through Angola‘s Independence Party MPLA after the Death of Angola’s First President Agostinho Neto who succumbed to Cancer on September 1979.He went on to rule for 38 Years until September 2017 when he stepped down.He is currently 77 Years Old.
7.President Robert Mugabe– He came to Power as a Prime Minister in 1980 when Zimbabwe attained Independence and later Elected the Country’s First President in 1987. He went on to rule for 37 Years until he was Overthrown by Zimbabwe’s Military on November 2017.He died on September 6,2019 at Age 95 in a Singapore Hospital.
8.President Yoweri Museveni-he took power after a successful army-led bloodless Coup that toppled President Milton Obote in 1985.On January 1986 Yoweri Museveni declared himself President of Uganda,a position he holds To Date.With the scrapping off of the Presidential Age and Term limit,Museveni who is now 75 has already declared his Candidature to defend his Position and extend his 35 years in power in the Country’s next elections in 2021.
9.President Dennis Sassou Nguesso-after the assassination of President Marien Ngoubai in 1977 the Military Committee of Ngoubai’s Party that took over after his assassination ran the Republic of Congo for two years after which it appointed one of its members Colonel Dennis Sassou Nguesso as the interim President on February 1979,On March the same year 1979 the Peoples’ National Assembly of the Republic of Congo confirmed Dennis Sassou as the President.He ruled for 13 years until 1992 when he lost to his main rival President Pascal Lissouba in the Country’s first Multi-party elections of 1992.In Congo’s 1997 Civil War,Dennis Sassou Nguesso with a group of rebels and some significant support from some Angolan Troops ousted President Pascal Lissouba and on October 1997 Dennis Sassou returned to Brazzaville (Congo’s Capital) and declared himself President,a Position he holds To Date.By 2023 when this Country will hold its next Presidential elections,Dennis Sassou who is now 77 shall have ruled the Republic of Congo for 39 years.
10.President Omar-Al-Bashir-he took power on June 1989 through a bloodless Military Coup that toppled President Ahmed-Al-Mirghani and went on to rule the Republic of Sudan until April 2019 when he was Overthrown by Sudan’s People’s Revolution amid his Plans to Extend his 30-Years Rule;the main reason behind the 4 Months of National Civil Uprising across Sudan. The 75 Years Old is currently under Military detention.
11. President Hastings Kamuzu Banda– He rose to Power first as Prime Minister when Malawi got Independence on July 1964 and later as President from 1966 when Malawi became a Republic.He went on to rule for 30 Years until 1994 when he lost in Malawi’s first Democratic Elections.He died three Years later on November 1997 aged 99 Years.
12. President Idriss Deby-he came into power after leading a successful Coup that ousted President Hissen Habre who he had helped get into power only to turn against him when he (Habre) accused Deby of plotting a Coup against him.Deby fled to Sudan and organised an army that he named Patriotic Salvation Army with which he ousted President Habre out of Power in 1990 and has since then been the President of the Republic of Chad To Date. Deby who is now 68 shall be in his 31st year in Power when the Country holds its next elections in 2021.
13.President Isaias Afwerki– He led the Eritrean People’s Liberation Front to Victory securing Eritrea’s independence from Ethiopia on May 1993 and has been the President of Eritrea from 1993 To Date. Eritrea is a One-Party State with Isaias Party called People’s Front for Democracy and Justice being the only Party.There has been no elections in Eritrea since 1993 and there are no plans for the same as at now. Afwerki who is now 73 is in his 25th year in Power.
Above are those who have been in Power for the longest time;The list of those wielding State Power in Africa for a significantly long time is big and it includes the following;
14.President Ismael Omar Guelleh-the now 73-Years old came to Power on May 1999 after winning the April 1999 Presidential Election succeeding his Uncle President Hassan Aptidon who retired voluntarily.He has been the President of Djibouti from then To Date. He will be in his 22nd Year in Power when Djibouti holds its next Elections in 2021.
15.President Paul Kagame- at 62-the former Military Rebel Leader has been the President of Rwanda from 2000-to Date.He succeeded President Pasteur Bizimungu(1994-2000) who he deputised when they formed a National Unity Government that Ended Rwanda’s Genocide.He resigned over differences with his Vice President Paul Kagame who took over from him immeadiately.President Kagame will be in his 24th Year in Power when Rwanda holds its next Presidential Election in 2024.
16. President Faure Gnassingbe-The now 53-Years old took over Togo‘s Presidency immediately after the Death of his Father Eyadema Gnassingbe in 2005 and is still the President To-date after winning the February 2020 Election after instituting a Constitutional Amendment through Togo’s Parliament to enable him seek Two more Terms.
17. Pierre Nkurunziza– A former Rebel Leader came to Power in 2005 after Burundi’s 12-Years Civil War that broke out in 1993 and he is still the President To Date after defying the 2005 Peace Deal that ended the Civil War by going for a contested Third Term in the 2015 Elections.The 54-Years old will be in his 15th Year in Power in the oncoming 2020 General Elections.
Percentage of World’s Population under 25 per Continent: Image Courtesy
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