The second questionable assumption is that when leaders stay long in power , it is necessarily bad for a country , its population , and its institutions , despite the avalanche of evidence to the contrary . Most radical reforms and national transformations took place under visionary leaders , thanks to their longevity in power . In fact , to see radical transformation taking place in the span of one or two terms is exceptional .
In many instances , term limits are merely an artificial , psychological comfort in the absence of accountability . For instance , the world is replete with examples of leaders who are elected by less than 50 percent of eligible voters , even 30 percent in the worst cases . This happens in the so-called established democracies in the West mainly because a significant part of the population has become too disillusioned with the status quo to bother casting their votes . Moreover , in political systems where one or two parties have dominated the political scene for decades , changing the heads of government without changing the logic of governance can only add to the disillusionment . For instance , it makes little difference to vote for democrats or republicans if the vote has been stripped of its ability to bring about the change that the people want . It is cosmetic ; it is indeed artificial comfort to believe that there has been change when it is only the faces of those at the helm that change , not the systems .
Two-party system
Similarly , efforts to export the two-party system where governance is reduced to a performance of musical chairs ought to be questioned . Politics in Africa , unlike in the West , does not reflect ideological divides . Therefore , it is wrong to try to draw similarities with the west . Because we have no competing value systems – the way liberals and conservatives are organised in America , France , Britain , etc , or the way the global north was divided between capitalists and socialists . In most cases in Africa , there are methodical issues ; political parties are merely special purpose vehicles for competing elite groups . That ’ s why we have mobility of politicians ( pejoratively called turn coats by those they spun ) from one party to another as opposed to the West where one person belongs to the party of their ancestor and passes it to their offspring . Clearly , on our continent , the divide is not ideological as such , which is a good thing . Africans should celebrate the fact that they don ’ t have fundamental ideological disagreements and shouldn ’ t seek to emulate others who are having intractable problems because of them . In Rwanda , for instance , the government has been telling people that they hold no ideological differences and that they shouldn ’ t confuse criminal discourse for acceptable political ideology .
Perhaps , because our history doesn ’ t create that situation where , at some point , we had a feudal class – that constituted almost a political divide – dominating other sections of society , capitalism and scientific socialism remain alien concepts . In Africa , we had colonialism under which we all suffered and upon independence we were – and still are – struggling with our socioeconomic issues which affect us all , and over which we differ only in terms of how we approach solutions . Of course , that can cause frictions from one election to another , but those frictions don ’ t constitute radical ideological divides . Therefore , even the argument that there is no political opposition because , in some instances like Rwanda , people have agreed on the basics ( the consensus model ) and chosen to work together doesn ’ t hold . The point is , unlike in the West where people are forced into coalitions to gain numbers , in Africa , it is easier to form coalitions because our pursuits are the same . There are no fundamental disagreements .
It follows that the current approach to democratisation in Africa is an intra-party ( not multi-party ) competition or contestation . When electoral justice is lacking , the contestation can turn violent and will most likely follow identity lines because there are no indigenous , organic and irreconcilable competing ideologies to organise around . Such issues cannot be resolved by term limits .
Furthermore , it is disingenuous to characterise an African leader who is elected by 99 percent of
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