‘Abuse of power, impunity major threats to democracy’

by incumbents which made them to use all means to retain power by at all costs, saying this has been a major problem in many African countries.

“When executives however use powers at their disposal in ways that are not legal to achieve certain purposes, they are engaged in the abuse of the powers of incumbency,” he said.

Ibrahim said such executives influence decisions and use state resources and machineries to promote their personal interests. He also spoke on rampant manipulation of electoral process which is used as an effective tool by many African leaders to perpetuate themselves in power.

“This is particularly evident during electoral processes during elections when incumbent governments seek to retain power through electoral fraud usually undertaken through the overt manipulation of the national Electoral Management Bodies (EMBs) and other blatant contraventions of existing rules,” he said.

Such manipulations leads to the various outbreaks of post-electoral violence, political instability and civil wars in some cases as witnessed in many African countries in recent decades, he added.

The manipulations, Ibrahim said, were sometimes extended to other segments of the society including the media and civil societies to promote hidden and exclusive agendas.

Citing examples from Kenya and Zimbabwe, under their post-independence rulers Daniel Arap Moi and Robert Mugabe, he lamented the growing tendency among the present crop of leaders to abuse incumbency.

Ibrahim also cited the attempt by then-President Olusegun Obasanjo to elongate his tenure which was vehemently opposed by Nigerians.