At a time when many Africans are yearning for democracy, peace, transparency and Government accountability, it’s sad to see that some African Presidents – none of whom have been royally appointed – have been in power for decades even close to a half century! Although the same happens in several middle eastern countries, the mere fact that some of these individuals were politically elected in a so called democracy but chose to remain or in most cases, magically win every election is disturbing.

 

Here are 10 of the longest serving African presidents:

Paul Biya – Cameroon (41 years)

 

Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo – Equatorial Guinea (37 years)

José Eduardo dos Santos – Angola (37 years)

 

Robert Mugabe (36 years)

Yoweri Museveni – Uganda (28 years)

Omar al-Bashir – Sudan (27 years)

Idriss Déby – Chad (26 years)

Isaias Afwerki – Eritrea (25 years)

Yahya Jammeh – The Gambia (22 years)

Denis Sassou Nguesso – Republic of Congo (17 years)

 

…and below is an expanded list.

Rank	Name	Country	Tenure Began	Approximate Length of Tenure
1.	Paul Biya	Cameroon	30 June 1975	41 years,
2.	Teodoro Mbasogo	Equatorial Guinea	3 August 1979	37 years,
3.	José Eduardo Santos	Angola	10 September 1979	37 years,
4.	Robert Mugabe	Zimbabwe	18 April 1980	36 years,
5.	Yoweri Museveni	Uganda	29 January 1986	28 years,
6.	Omar al-Bashir	Sudan	30 June 1989	27 years,
7.	Idriss Déby	Chad	2 December 1990	26 years,
8.	Isaias Afwerki	Eritrea	27 April 1991	25 years,
9.	Yahya Jammeh	The Gambia	22 July 1994	22 years,
10.	Denis Sassou Nguesso	Republic of the Congo	25 October 1997	19 years,
11.	Abdelaziz Bouteflika	Algeria	27 April 1999	17 years,
12.	Ismaïl Omar Guelleh	Djibouti	8 May 1999	17 years,
13.	Paul Kagame	Rwanda	24 March 2000	16 years,
14.	Joseph Kabila	Democratic Republic of the Congo	17 January 2001	16 years,
15.	José Maria Neves	Cabo Verde	1 February 2001	15 years,
16.	James Michel	Seychelles	14 April 2004	12 years,
17.	Faure Gnassingbé	Togo	4 May 2005	11 years,
18.	Salva Kiir Mayardit	South Sudan	30 July 2005	11 years,
19.	Pierre Nkurunziza	Burundi	26 August 2005	11 years,
20.	Ellen Johnson Sirleaf	Liberia	16 January 2006	10 years,