What African Leaders Can Learn from Brazil

The relation between Brazil and some African countries has been on the news in the last week because Brazil's president, Lula, is visiting the continent for the last time as president. Even though he has very high popularity back home, he is barred from running for re-election by Brazil's constitution. It seems that Brazil is a country where the constitution in respected. Many African leaders, however, would rather die in power even if they are very unpopular. Obasanjo of Nigeria, Tandja of Togo, and Paul Biya of Cameroon, are recent examples. Perhaps African leaders can learn that constitutions stand for something. If the constitution says there is term limit, that term limit should be respected. Perhaps one of the reasons Brazil is doing better economically than many African countries is that, unlike these African countries, there is rule of law in Brazil.