Liberian president George Weah has admonished his peers to ensure that presidential term limits are respected if ECOWAS is to get rid of coup d’etats in the region.
Weah made these remarks in reference to the recent military overthrow of Alpha Conde’s government in Guinea. Conde had manipulated his country’s constitution to pave the way for him to run for a third term.
And last week Conde’s own presidential guard removed him from office citing much the same reasons.
West Africans now wonder if the other culprit, Cote d’Ivoire’s Alassane Outtara is the next sitting duck given that he is currently enjoying a similar illegal third term after also having manipulated his country’s constitution.
Investigations by DNT has revealed that internal party politics and failure of leaders to groom their successor are to blame. In the case of Outtara, his party felt only he could win the presidency for them after Prime Minister Amadou Gon Coulibaly died in office.
Nine months later his replacement Hamed Bakayoko also died at a young age of 56. But rather than ceding the party’s presidential candidacy to the third Prime Minister Patrick Achi, and Akan that he did not trust, outtara decided to run again for what Ivorians are calling an illegal third term.
But there is good news to point to.
Last years some party elements seeking favors approached then Niger president Mahamadou Isoufou to copy Outtara and Conde to run for a third term. but not only did Isoufou refused to heed their advice, he threw then in jail for suggesting it.
That development in Niger, Conde’s removal, and the long enduring democracy in Ghana where no leader in the Fourth Republic has tried , or would ever try, to over stay his term, gives hope that George Weah may not need to worry much about future instances of presidential overstay.
DNT News with correspondence reporting from Julius Ouya.
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