On July 9, 2014, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of African Affairs, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, addressed the widespread modification of national constitutions by African leaders to enable them to constitutionally remain in power for life.
Assistant Secretary Thomas-Greenfield said that U.S policy on constitutional dictatorships is:“…– if constitutions call for term limits, then those term limits need to be honored… There is absolutely no confusion on what our position is there.” She made this comment during the State Department’s live web chat (LiveAtState) with international media hosted by Holly Jensen. The challenge remains for the U.S to go beyond the rhetoric. Most of the time the U.S has looked the other way or helped African leaders remain in power.
Ahead of the US-Africa Leaders’ Summit, the first of its kind, scheduled to take place from August 4-6 in Washington DC, Africa Faith and Justice Network (AFJN) has been visiting congressional offices advocating against constitutional dictatorships in Africa by asking the Congress to tie funding to undemocratic oppressive regimes to reform benchmarks and increase support to civil society, the only catalyst of the long overdue change.
MS. JENSEN: Our next question comes from Luc-Roger Mbala: “What’s your government’s position regarding the DRC and Burkina Faso’s president’s apparent plan to revise the constitution to stay in power? Does the U.S. consider doing something to prevent this from happening?”
ASSISTANT SECRETARY THOMAS-GREENFIELD: We have made very clear what our policy is on this issue. As the President said in his speech in Ghana when he first visited, that Africa needs strong institutions. They don’t need strong men. Strong institutions are institutions like your constitution. If constitutions do not allow for – if constitutions call for term limits, then those term limits need to be honored. And we have been very clear in discouraging African leaders from making changes in their constitution that will benefit one person, one party; to allow that person to stay in power longer than the constitution intended for them to stay in power. We have made, again, our views known to all of the leaders where there are attempts to make changes in the constitution. There is absolutely no confusion on what our position is there. Click here to watch the web chat video or read its full transcript.
