This column comes to me from two images that have been buzzing on Your web lately: that of President Paul Biya during a United Nations assembly in New York and that of President Ali Bongo Ondimba during the recent coronation of King Charles III from England. In the first, we see the nonagenarian Cameroonian president in an advanced state of decrepitude, completely lost, understanding nothing of the words of his minister, apparently not knowing in which venerable place he is. In the second, the camera shows us a Bongo son who has a terrible time putting one leg in front of the other without the help of his wife or his bodyguard.
African power is in bad shape. With the length of his exercise rivaling the age of the turtles, it stands to reason that most of his leaders have already blanched under the harness. Hence the ridiculous paradox that the world’s youngest continent is ruled by the world’s oldest leaders. Les Paul Biya, Sassou Nguesso, and fellow Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo pilot a ship where half of the passengers are barely out of their teens. It’s no joke, in Africa the average age of the population is 19 compared to 31 for Asia, 38 for America and 43 for Europe.
19 years for the people, 66 years for the leaders! On average, our presidents are at least three times older than their population. We understand that our leaders and our young people have such a hard time understanding each other. We understand why our societies are struggling to find hooks between the top and the base.
In Cameroon, as we have already said, Paul Biya is 90 years old, 41 of whom spent at the head of the country while during the same period, 7 American presidents paraded at the White House. The forties of Douala and Yaoundé have known only one and only president. In Africa, this is nothing extraordinary: in Guinea, in half a century, two men and only two, Sékou Touré and Lansana Conté have succeeded each other in power. In neighboring Congo-Brazza, Sassou Nguesso (81) is still in power after 38 years of unchallenged rule interrupted only by the brief appearance of Pascal Lissouba. In Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema (also 81 years old and also 38 years in power) is preparing to hand over to his son Teodorino. But the list of octogenarians is not complete. We must add Yoweri Museweni from Uganda, Emmerson Mnangagwa from Zimbabwe, Alassane Ouattara from Côte d’Ivoire.
All this is nothing new, alas! Houphouët-Boigny died President of the Republic of Côte d’Ivoire at the age of 93. Mobutu and Mugabe left power by force, one at 67, the other at 93. If only the gerontes who govern us were content to rot in power, but no, they must expose their tics and their drool to the eyes of the whole world. At the end of his umpteenth mandate, Guinean television showed us a Lansana Conté unable to get out of the car to lodge his ballot in the ballot box. Abdelaziz Bouteflika, the young and dashing Minister of Foreign Affairs of Algeria, the icon of my generation, the idol of the whole continent has completed, in spite of himself, his function as Head of State, frozen like a mummy in an armchair rolling. Like what, the drug of power is much more harmful than crack!
If only these lifetime presidencies added something to our room and board! But no, no matter how hard you press the “commodity prices” button, you can pull up the “development aid” lever, the Africa ship still does not take off.
How about lowering the captain’s age?
* 2017, grand prix de la francophonie for all of his work; 2013, Palatine Grand Prize and Ahmadou-Kourouma Prize for The Black Terrorist; 2012, Erckmann-Chatrian Prize and Métis Novel Grand Prize for The Black Terrorist; 2008, Renaudot Prize for The King of Kahel; 1986, black African literary grand prize tied for Les Écailles du ciel.
