How To Know a President Has Done a Really Bad Job

A simple way to know whether or not a President has done a really bad job while in office is to observe what happens to their country after they leave office. Where there is succession crisis or social and economic breakdown after they leave office, you can tell the President did a really bad job while in office. The succession crisis indicates that they did nothing to prepare their people for a time after their rule and the social and economic breakdown speak of the lack of societal well-being and cohesiveness that existed during their time in office. President Barack Obama made the first point on his recent visit to Africa when he noted that Presidents who remain in power long after their due dates are those who have not prepared their people for a time after them well. The Mo Ibrahim Foundation Prize for outstanding African President also takes into consideration what happens after a President leaves office. Perhaps nothing speaks to the success of a President more than the issue of what happens after they leave office. It is after them that the superficiality of their schemes is revealed.

Some may think that judging a President by what happens after they leave office is unfair because the country might have been screwed by their successor. Well, in some cases, like we have in Burkina Faso right now, the question of succession is the crisis itself. Where there is no crisis of succession, we can make the claim that if good institutions are build during one's time in office, those institutions would endure long after one leaves office. Presidents therefore need to be thinking of what happens after them rather than only what is going on during their time in office. However, politicians hardly look far ahead.