Use constitutional means to increase tenure of office – Ex-President Kufuor advises African leaders

Kufuor says African leaders should stop using smart ways to stay in power

Illegal extension of term of office behind some coups in Africa – Kufuor

Rise in coups in African countries

Ghana’s ex-President John Agyekum Kufour has advised African leaders to use constitutional means to increase their tenure of office if they feel their team of office is too short.

In an interview with VOA, the ex-president urged the leaders to live by their oath of office and stop using illegal means to stay in power.

“... try to live by your oath to the people, it is the underpinning of good governance.

“If you think the period is too short, use the constitutional means to convince the people to amend the constitution or reform the constitution to lengthen the tenure a bit but please don’t play smart and on the eve when you should be stepping down, you say there’s a third term,” he said.

Kufuor hinted that the use of unconstitutional means to increase the tenure of office is a reason behind some of the coups that have been witnessed on the continent in recent times.

“You do that (illegal increase tenure of office) and you push people into feeling they too can take things into their own hands and do what they mustn’t do,” he said.

He added that coups are now frequent on the continent because coup-makers do not see the sanctions of regional blocks including the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and African Union (AU) as deterrent enough.

“... so, these associations or groupings must begin to think very seriously on how to give the constitutional provisions the bite so when they say don’t do it and you do it they can get you and so you know perhaps it is not profitable to try it,” he added.

Also, ex-president Kufour explained that other reasons for military overthrows are poor governance and governments failing to put proper security measures in place.

He, however, noted that coups have disastrous impacts on the citizenry, adding that a “coup is not an experience I will recommend for any generation.”

The West African sub-region has recently witnessed three coups, in Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso; and an attempted coup in Guinea Bissau.

Watch the interview of the formal president below:



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