This question was posed to Halifa Sallah and he answered as follows:
Africa and Africans have to go back to the drawing board. We are moving to the seventh decade of self-determination and independence. No single country in Africa can boast of attaining self-reliant and self-determined development. The youth who constitute the vast majority in all African countries are facing a future without jobs at home or the possibility of pursuing greener pasture abroad. Hostility against migrants is increasing in industrialised countries and possibilities of better lives are diminishing in countries of origin. Countries of transit for migrants are becoming concentration camps where crimes against humanity are at their apex.
Such realities do not permit the existence of governments that are perpetuating themselves in office. They require countries that are aiming to give ownership of power to the people so that they would begin a new journey to become architects of their own journey. The starting point of giving hope to the younger generation is to ensure their political empowerment that would give them the confidence that they have a say in how a country is governed. Their participation in elections that are free, fair and credible would also compel them to take ownership of the successes and failures of governments. Political accountability would lead them to recognize their shortcomings in decision making that would enable them to avoid future mistakes in their political undertakings. The more aware they become the more they would be able to make informed choices and the more seasoned they would become in charting a new future for the continent.
It is unfortunate that Cameroon is yet to make a breakthrough in establishing a term limit. Students of democratic governance have come to realise that presidents are given the power of monarchs in many African countries after independence. They are the commanders of chiefs of armed forces, they hire and fire ministers, ambassadors and appoint those who head large corporations and can entertain investments that could sell a whole country and its natural and mineral resources to foreign buyers. This is why to curb executive power from being translated into a monarchy, term limits are established. President Paul Biya’s reelection in Cameroon should remind all African countries of the need to embrace term limits to prevent presidents from being quasi-monarchs.
