Africa News blog

Who among the seven longest serving African leaders will be deposed next?

By Isaac Esipisu

Several African leaders watching news of the death of Africa ’s longest serving leader are wondering who among them is next and how they will leave office.

Three of the ten longest serving leaders have fallen this year – Ben Ali of Tunisia ruled for 23 years, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt ruled for 30 years and the longest, the Brother Leader of Libya ruled for 42 years – all gone in the last six months.

Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea (32), Jose Santos of Angola (32), Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe (31), Paul Biya of Cameroon (29) and Yoweri Museveni of Uganda (25), King Mswati III of Swaziland (24), Blaise Campore of Burkina Fasso (24) and still going strong, and must be wondering whose turn is next.

Teodoro and Jose Santos take the number one spot as the longest serving Presidents with 32 years of ruling Equatorial Guinea and Angola respectively and from what has happened in Africa this year and to Gaddafi this week, it is a post neither of them would be proud off right now.

Although the revolts have so far been limited to North Africa, increasingly there are protests against regimes in other African countries. Whether triggered by economic conditions—food and fuel prices, poor job opportunities or service delivery failures, the mass protests are becoming important and have forced policy changes. Slowly but surely, these revolutions are heading south and, unless Africa ’s long-serving leaders pave the way for inclusive governance and relinquish their power, they are increasingly likely to face the same fate as the North African ones.

from MacroScope:

Social media for the Arab jobless

In the realm of  long-term economic things to worry about, there is not much that can rival youth unemployment in the greater Middle East and North Africa. Some years ago, for example, the World Bank  estimated that the region's population rise was such that jobs needed to grow by some 3.5 percent  per year if unemployment along the lines of one-in-four was to be avoided over the next couple of decades. There has been nothing of great note to change this forecast.

The International Monetary Fund has just weighed into the issue with a post on the subject and some startling figures on the depth of the problem. As author Masood Ahmed writes:

Simply put, the region is facing unparalleled demographic pressures. Population growth over the past two generations has been among the fastest in the world: the region’s work force is projected to reach 185 million in 2020, 80 percent higher than in 2000. And the region is one of the most youthful in the world—with about 60 percent of the population less than 25 years old.

The IMF says the best way it can help is to help governments in the region devise policies for macroeconomic stability and strong,  sustainable growth that is essential to creating jobs.

But it also reckons that it need to talk to the people it is worried about -- the region's  youth. So it has begun a series of roundtable meetings with what it sees as the next generation of leaders from the region's most prestigious universities.

Slightly more unusually, however, it has also turned to social media.  Imfyouthdialog.org is a social networking site designed to get young people from the greater Middle East and North Africa taking about their problems.

It has 283 members so far, but to look at the IMF's figures a potential audience of many, many millions more.