Sunday, February 14, 2010

"African leaders who deliberately change their country’s constitutions in order to prolong their stay in power"

I am quoted in Henry Gombya's article "U.S. Diplomat Decries Hijack Of Constitutions in Africa" in The Black Star News. Here's one quote:
[Prof. Shinn] listed Uganda’s President Yoweri K. Museveni as among at least 12 African leaders who have changed their country’s constitutions with the sole purpose of extending their rule, and some of whom the U.S. government has continued to have good relations with. He added: “If you look at the list of those leaders who have extended in office, the United States has good relations with several of them [although] the relations with some of them have not been particularly good.” He said those African leaders who continued to enjoy good relations with the U.S. included the late Gabonese President Omar Bongo, and the Presidents of Algeria and Tunisia, even after their prolonged their regimes.