It was disheartening to hear that the Guinean military leader, Mousa Dadis Camara, will run for his country’s presidential elections this year. At first when he assumed power last December, he promised to hand over power within the time-frame of December 2009. Gone are the days for coups in Africa, as coups only kill democracy and give a bad image to the African continent.

Also in Mauritania, Mohammed Ould Abdel Aziz, that country’s current military leader, has also announced his decision to run for his country’s presidential elections slated for June 6th this year. This kind of trend is not viable for African democracy. People are mature enough to choose their leaders freely. Military leaders should not impose themselves on their people to seize power by all means and continue to lead their respective countries for years.

In Africa, we should learn to respect the rule of law, freedom of expression, respect for human rights, freedom of the press, among others. We should always encourage divergent views as this will foster democracy. We should also introduce term limits for our leaders like Nigeria, Ghana, Mali, Sierra Leone, among others, and open the way for everybody to ensure a level playing field.

Our leaders should not impose themselves by power for life. We should respect each other and have a common goal of developing our respective nations. We should not try to destroy our opponents or maltreat them because of our own selfish gains.

We should also encourage pluralism to allow people to choose leaders of their choice. A good electoral system should be introduced to avoid vote rigging during elections. We should be able to learn from the maturity of the Europeans and Americans when it comes to matters of politics. We should avoid character assassinations or tribalism, but encourage concrete programs so that the electorate can make up their minds and vote for leaders of their choice.

“No man is good enough to govern another man without that other’s consent.”

Abraham Lincoln