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LETTERS FROM STOCKHOLM By Kio Amachree | President, Worldview International Africa Is Not a Retirement Home for Ageing Presidents The continent needs a new generation of accountable leadership, not presidents who regard political power as a lifetime entitlement. Africa has had enough. Enough of presidents who cling to office until their final breath. Enough of political dynasties, manipulated constitutions, fraudulent elections and ruling elites who treat entire nations as their personal estates. We need a complete overhaul of African political leadership, and we must end the practice of Western governments embracing ageing autocrats whenever those rulers protect foreign commercial, military or strategic interests. It is no longer acceptable that a continent with one of the youngest populations in the world should be governed by men who have been in power for thirty, forty or even more years. Some of these leaders are well into their eighties and nineties. Yet they continue to preside over countries where millions of young people cannot find employment, obtain decent healthcare or imagine a secure future. Africa is not a retirement home for presidents. The presidency is not a nursing-home bed to be occupied for life. Let me be clear: old age itself is not a crime, nor does it automatically disqualify anyone from leadership. But incapacity, corruption, constitutional manipulation and the refusal to relinquish power are legitimate grounds for public outrage. The real scandal is not that these men grow old. It is that the political systems surrounding them have been designed to ensure that nobody else gets a chance. The figures are an indictment of African leadership Consider the evidence. 19 Median age of Africa’s population 63 Approximate median age of its leaders Institute for Security Studies, September 2026. ISS African Futures Look at the men who have dominated African politics: PresidentAgeTime in power Paul Biya — Cameroon9344 years Teodoro Obiang Nguema — Equatorial Guinea8447 years Yoweri Museveni — Uganda8240 years Denis Sassou Nguesso — Republic of Congo82Over 40 years across two periods Alassane Ouattara — Côte d’Ivoire8415 years Ages and approximate tenures as of November 2026. PollsAfrica +2 These figures should embarrass every African institution that claims to believe in democratic renewal. In Cameroon, Paul Biya has ruled since 1982. His disputed re-election in 2025 triggered protests and a security crackdown. On 10 November 2026, he announced dates for legislative and local elections that had already been postponed twice. Al Jazeera In Uganda, Museveni once condemned African leaders who overstayed in office. Four decades later, he has become one of the clearest examples of the very problem he identified. MarketScreener And in Zimbabwe, constitutional changes advanced in 2026 to extend presidential terms and postpone elections, demonstrating how the law itself can become an instrument for perpetuating political power. AP News What sort of political culture produces leaders who cannot imagine their countries surviving without them? The West must stop protecting convenient autocrats For decades, Western governments have lectured Africans about democracy, transparency and human rights while maintaining relationships with authoritarian governments that serve their interests. When a ruler provides military cooperation, access to strategic minerals, lucrative contracts or diplomatic support, democratic principles can suddenly become negotiable. This is not merely my suspicion. A 2025 academic study examining responses to African military coups found that France’s selective application of sanctions reflected the influence of strategic interests. A 2026 European Parliament briefing described an American policy increasingly focused on economic gains, security and access to critical resources. DOI +1 But responsibility does not belong to the West alone. Russia, China and other external powers also pursue their strategic interests, sometimes strengthening governments whose principal concern is political survival. Africa must stop allowing foreign governments to decide which African leaders are useful enough to tolerate. Our sovereignty must mean something more than the right of an incumbent president to sign contracts with foreign companies. It must mean the right of African citizens to choose their leaders freely and remove them peacefully. Nigeria: the presidency is not a personal inheritance Nigeria presents its own troubling questions. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is officially 74 years old. His physical appearances have attracted public discussion, but appearances alone cannot establish his medical condition or prove that he is incapable of governing. What Nigerians are entitled to demand, however, is transparency, competence and accountability. A president entrusted with the lives of more than 200 million people must be able to discharge his constitutional duties. He must be subject to meaningful scrutiny, and those around him must never be permitted to exercise unaccountable power in his name. Nigeria cannot afford a presidency in which political godfathers, ministers, relatives or business associates become more influential than the institutions they are supposed to serve. The country needs functioning institutions, not a court of political favourites. The African Union must stop being a club for presidents The African Union was not established simply to provide ageing heads of state with ceremonial meetings, motorcades and opportunities to congratulate one another. It must become an institution that protects African citizens from authoritarianism. I propose a continental programme of democratic renewal built around five principles: * Enforce presidential term limits. No constitutional manipulation designed to extend an incumbent’s rule. * Require transparent assessments of fitness for office. Apply objective, independent standards to all presidents, regardless of age. * Guarantee credible elections. Protect independent electoral commissions, opposition parties and judicial oversight. * Investigate unexplained presidential wealth. Require transparent declarations of assets and scrutiny of conflicts of interest. * End foreign political patronage. Western and non-Western powers alike must stop treating African rulers as indispensable partners merely because they guarantee access to resources or security arrangements. We must also reject the notion that a young military officer automatically represents progress. Replacing an elderly autocrat with a young dictator is not liberation. The answer is democratic government, not another uniform, another dynasty or another president for life. Africa belongs to its children, not its presidents I have lived long enough to witness the promise of African independence, the optimism of the postcolonial generation and the repeated betrayal of that promise. I have known Nigerian political leaders from the generation of Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and General Yakubu Gowon onwards. I do not believe leadership is measured by youth alone. Some older statesmen possess wisdom and integrity that younger politicians would do well to acquire. But there is an enormous difference between serving one’s country and holding it hostage. There comes a time when a leader must recognise that the country belongs to the people, not to him, his wife, his children, his political party or his foreign sponsors. Africa cannot continue to lose generations of talent while political elites spend decades fighting over who will inherit the presidential palace. Our young people are not asking for charity. They are demanding opportunity, security, dignity and a future. They deserve presidents who understand the world they are entering, not rulers who appear determined to remain in office until the day they die. The time has come for Africa to retire the presidency-for-life mentality, dismantle the machinery of political patronage and restore power to the people. The West must stop accommodating authoritarianism for commercial convenience. African elites must stop protecting failed leadership. And African citizens must refuse to accept permanent rulers as a normal feature of government. Africa does not need another generation of presidents who refuse to leave. It needs a generation of leaders who know when to go. Letters from Stockholm — The Kio Solution Kio Amachree President, Worldview International Stockholm, Sweden | 12 November 2026 Research foundation: Reuters on ageing African leadership; Pew Research Center on leaders’ ages; the Council on Foreign Relations on presidents-for-life; Freedom House 2026; and the Institute for Security Studies on Africa’s generational leadership divide. Reuters +4