Democracy dealt blow as African leaders groom sons for succession

The appointment of Denis Christel Sassou Nguesso, a son of President Denis Sassou Nguesso of Congo Brazzaville, as minister has reawakened the debate on the growing trend by African leaders to groom their sons to succeed them.

A former deputy director-general of the National Petroleum Company of the Congo (SNPC), Christel Sassou, 46, is among members of a new government his father named on Saturday May 15. He heads the newly-created Ministry of International Cooperation and Promotion of Public-Private Partnerships.

The appointment of the new government by President Sassou Nguesso, 77 -- one of Africa’s longest-serving presidents, who has headed authoritarian regimes since 1979, with a brief hiatus early in the 1990s -- followed his swearing-in for a fifth term, extending his 36-year accumulated rule of the Central African country.

President Idriss Deby Itno of Chad was one of the African leaders at the swearing-in ceremony in Brazzaville on April 16; one of his major public outings before his death three days later from injuries sustained on the frontline against the Libya-based rebel group Front for Change and Concord in Chad (Fact).

The late president’s son and army commander, General Mahamat Idriss Deby, who was in charge of the presidential guards and close to his father, has been at the helm of the Transitional Military Council in the Sahelian country since his father’s death.

Sassou Nguesso is not first African leader to appoint his son to a strategic position in government.

In 2019, President Ali Bongo Ondimba of Gabon, who succeeded his father in 2009, appointed his eldest son, Noureddin Bongo Valentin as Coordinator of Presidential Affairs with a mission “to assist the President of the Republic (of Gabon) in the conduct of all affairs of the state and ensure the strict application of decisions.”

The post had just been created and when the president appointed his son, political opponents accused the Bongo family of scheming to make the presidency their heritage.

The same year, Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni who also features among the continent’s longest-serving leaders with a record of election rigging and silencing dissent, promoted his son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba from major general to lieutenant general; the second highest rank in the country’s army.

Critics of the 76-year-old leader, who has been at the helm of the East African country since 1986, interpreted the move as a grooming of Museveni’s son for the post of Commander-in-Chief of Uganda People’s Defence Forces (UPDF) which the president currently holds.

Even long before the aforementioned cases, Africa’s and the world’s longest-serving president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea had appointed his son, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, vice president of the tiny oil-rich country that has repeatedly come under heavy accusations for gross violations of human rights, mismanagement of public funds, and high-level corruption. Obiang Mangue, known for his lavish lifestyle, had served as second vice president for four years before his elevation to first vice president and the second in command in 2016.

In Cameroon, pressure groups are campaigning for a quasi-monarchical transition of power from President Paul Biya to his eldest son, Emmanuel Franck Biya. A movement known as “the Franckistes" has been advocating the president's son, 49-year-old businessman Franck Biya, to succeed him.

Biya’s succession had been a taboo topic, especially within the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement (CPDM), but of late, newspaper front pages have been flooded with headlines about a possible father-to-son power transition in the country. Pictures and videos of the president’s son have also been causing a buzz on social media.

A discrete businessman with interests in the forestry sector and other investments, the younger Biya hasn’t held any political office in the country, whether elected or appointed.

Though it will not be the first time if any of the above cases materialises, it would have further dealt a blow on the continent’s already deteriorating democracy. In an attempt to keep power in the hands of dominant families, some presidents had long positioned their sons as their successors.

Current Togolese president, Faure Gnassingbé, in 2005 succeeded his father, Gnassingbé Eyadema, who died after ruling the country for nearly four decades. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, Joseph Kabila, then a low-profile military commander, succeeded his father, Laurent-Desiré Kabila, who was assassinated in 2001.

According to Dr Emile Sunjo, a lecturer of political science at the University of Buea in Cameroon, father-to-son power transition is a setback to democratic evolution in Africa, though there is nothing wrong with a president’s son legitimately running for the top job and winning.

“In a normal democracy, all citizens who are qualified ought to legitimately aspire to the highest office of the land. Where there is an obvious problem is in constitutional republics where a cartel-like deal is struck between the ruling coalition, and the president’s son succeeds him. It clearly makes a mockery of the democratic evolution in Africa,” said Dr Sunjo.

“Where there are such transitions in total violation of laid down procedures, it is regrettable. The citizens, who are supposed to give the mandate to the political leadership, are completely blindsided. Most often, such nepotism leads to abuse of power, lack of transparency and mismanagement of public resources,” the political scientist explained.

Dr Sunjo said African countries need to focus on building strong and viable institutions that cannot be manipulated by an individual or group of individuals. For as long as presidents can amend the constitution overnight, or a president’s son installed in violation of the constitution and citizens allow it, the change Africans crave will continue to be an illusion.

Prof Macharia Munene, a fellow at the Horn International Institute for Strategic Studies in Nairobi, says the situation is however no unique to Africa.

“It is natural that parents would want to replicate themselves in their children so they give as much opportunities as possible to their kin to learn. That, usually, doesn’t mean they can succeed them, however,” Prof Macharia says. 

“This father-son phenomenon is not unique to Africa, it is global. We have seen it all over places, including the US. But in Africa, the opportunities for exposure are scarce, meaning that ruling families are able to cling to power because they have better chances of learning how to govern the country,” he adds. 

“In other places, children of elites have an advantage because they go to the same top-level schools for education where they also socialise and learn how to run the country,” Prof Macharia suggests. 

Dr Abdiwahab Skeikh Abdisamad, a political scientist and consultant at Southlink Consultants, Nairobi, argues the trend is also influenced by the need to ensure a strongman is never held to account once out of office. 

“The African culture, historically allowed kingship to be inherited and so even as we adopted democratic transitions, that mindset stuck in our heads.  Some leaders, however, may want to hide their loot so they pick on sons or kin, someone who will shield them from justice,” Dr Abdisamad says. 

“The second issue is about our ethnic politics. Having so many ethnic groups fuels tribal politics and so the most dominant ones keep returning the same leaders, probably from the same families and makes it harder for power to leave the dominant groups,” he argues. 

“In African political leadership, being in power makes it easier to acquire and retain wealth. So it makes sense that families try to perpetuate themselves in power. It also keeps the status quo. A family in power doesn’t just benefit itself, there are other political and business leaders who profit from it and may want that continuity. They will have an interest in guarding that power.”