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Editorial: African dictators had better watch out

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The refusal by Gambia’s recalcitrant dictator, Yahya Jammeh, to step down this week has created a crisis. However, on a continent where presidents see nothing wrong with clinging to power for 30 or 40 years, it is not without precedent.

Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni and Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe will be watching with trepidation as events unfold in Gambia.

This is because the African Union (AU) and regional bloc the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) have shown unprecedented resolve in ensuring that Jammeh desists from continuing to treat the country like his personal fiefdom.

Ecowas first intervened diplomatically, meeting with Jammeh over weeks in repeated efforts to convince him to accept the results of the election, which he lost.

But he has proved intransigent, ignoring all local and international pleas not to drag the country down with him.

That Ecowas was prepared to go the military route to force him out indicates just how serious the neighbouring countries are in ensuring that democratic outcomes are not subverted.

It is important that Jammeh was not allowed to simply announce he had changed his mind and would no longer accept the poll results. His citizens have made it clear that they no longer want him.

If he is allowed to get away with this show of defiance, it will embolden all other dictators and would-be dictators watching him to get away with such brazen cheating.

Younger leaders, such as Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of Congo and Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi, are also trying to manipulate their countries’ respective Constitutions to mechanically engineer their continued stay in power.

The message coming from Gambia’s capital, Banjul, and Ethiopia’s capital, Addis Ababa, where the AU heardquarters are situated, should be that those days are over.

Other dictators should know that once Jammeh is successfully disarmed, they are next.

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