Africa is suffering in an era of strongmen, says Mo Ibrahim

Democracy and rights are declining in Africa as leaders take their cues from the rise of strongmen in other parts of the world. Mo Ibrahim, a billionaire philanthropist who monitors governance across Africa, has said, We can see this phenomenon of the rise of strongmen everywhere. A lot of strong men, uh, uh, over, you know, and, and, uh... Liberal democracy is having problems in even major democratic countries and African leaders are part of this global environment and if you're an African leader and you see all those strong people rising from everywhere, it's not only in Russia, everywhere, and you say why not me too? Ibrahim highlighted elections over the past year in Tanzania where security forces were accused of killing thousands of protesters and Uganda where the opposition leader was forced to flee the country. Well, people do what they can under circumstances. Of course, there's suppression, there's violence. I was there. We have seen that everywhere. We've seen that in Tanzania. How many young people were killed in Tanzania before the so-called election? And only for the present incumbent to stay in power and say, I won 99% of the vote. But if you're winning 99% of the vote, why you need to shoot at the opposition or imprison people? The index found that 30 countries had better overall governance scores in 2025, thanks largely to improved economies. It is a sudden, sudden termination. And dismantling the U.S. aid, I mean, it would have been nice to give notice, you know. If you want to resign, usually give notice so the people can sort themselves out. That was brutal in that sense. Of course, it is a, you know, prerogative of the U.S. to give aid or not. That is their decision. Seven of the ten countries with the biggest declines experienced at least one coup over the decade. Burkina Faso recorded the largest deterioration.