AFRICA'S TOP TEN WORST LEADERS EVER

10. Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, President of Equatorial Guinea

 

Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo is Africa’s longest serving ruler. He has ruled Equatorial Guinea, a tiny, oil-rich West African country, since August 1979 when he overthrew his uncle, Francisco Macías Nguema, in a bloody coup d’état. Equatorial Guinea is one of the continent’s largest producers of oil and has one of the highest per capita incomes in the world, but this doesn’t necessarily translate into prosperity for its people. The country ranks very poorly in the United Nations human development index; the vast majority of Equatorial Guineans hardly have access to clean drinking water. The country also has one of the world’s highest under-5 mortality rates: about 20% of its children die before the age of five. Many of the remaining 80% of the children don’t have access to quality educational and healthcare facilities. Meanwhile, the first son of the president, Teodorin Obiang (who is in line to succeed his father), spends millions of dollars of state funds financing his lavish lifestyle which includes luxurious property in Malibu, a Gulfstream jet, Michael Jackson memorabilia and a car collection that could easily make billionaires go green with envy.

 

9. Laurent Kabila (1939-2001)

 

Kabila became president of the Democratic Republic of Congo when he led forces that overthrew Joseph Mobutu in 1997. Although he does not rank in the same league as Mobutu as a dictator, Kabila’s four year rule coincided with the deaths of around 3.3 Million people in the DRC. When he came to power Kabila promised institute political reforms and ‘intra-Congolese dialogue’, but he actually ended up removing ministers from his initial cabinet who were from different tribes than his own, and placed other political opponents into internal exile. Kabila was shot by one of his own bodyguards in 2001. Despite early promises to the contrary, Kabila never faced his people in any kind of popular election during his four year rule.

8. Muammar Al-Gaddafi (1942 – 2011)

 

Gaddafi came to power in Libya in a coup against that country’s monarchy in 1969. His ‘anti-western’ attitudes have brought him into regular conflict with the US since he has been regularly accused of being associated with terrorist organizations, including the former Palestinian Liberation Organisation. Gaddafi controled all media in Libya and criticism of him wasn’t  tolerated. In the 1980’s, Gaddafi ordered hit squads to assassinate Libyan dissidents living overseas. Political trials in Gaddafi’s Libya were held in private and offenders regularly tortured. Gaddafi was killed by NATO backed rebels in October 2011.

7. Siad Barre (1919-1995)

Barre seized power in Somalia in a military coup in 1969 and remained its leader until 1991. Barre played Somalia’s clans off against each other in a ‘divide and rule ‘ campaign and in particular he singled out the Majerteen tribe. Mohamoud M. Afrah claims that Barres forces killed thousands of innocent civilians and their livestock and poisoned their water supplies. Africa watch suggest that between 50,000 and 60,000 people were killed in the years between 1988 and 1990 alone. After his overthrow in 1991, Barre fled to Nigeria. The fact that Barre was unable to consolidate central authority in the face of constant civil war makes him a second rate despot.

 

 

6  King Mswati  (Swaziland)

Sub-Saharan Africa’s last absolute monarch presides over a country which has one of the world’s highest HIV prevalence rates: ver 35 percent of adults. Its average life expectancy is the lowest in the world at 33 years; nearly 70 percent of the country’s citizens live on less than $1 a day and 40 percent are unemployed. But for all the suffering of the Swazi people, King Mswati has barely shown concern or interest. He lives lavishly, using his kingdom’s treasury to fund his expensive tastes in German automobiles, first-class leisure trips around the world and women. But his gross mismanagement of his country’s finances is now having dire economic consequences. Swaziland is going through a severe fiscal crisis. The kingdom’s economy is collapsing and pensions have been stopped. In June last year, the King begged for a financial bailout from South Africa, and the country is at a dead end, so badly that it recently announced its withdrawal from the 2013 Africans Nations Cup, citing lack of finances as the principal reason..

5. Mengistu Haile Mariam (1937 – )

Mengistu assumed the presidency of Ethiopia in a military coup which ousted Haile Selassie in 1974. His links with the Russians and his ruthless nature earned him the tag ‘the red terror’. Using so-called ‘neighbourhood commitees’, Mengistu had as many as 1.5 Million of his own people executed in just four years between 1975 and 1979. This ranks among the top ten genocides of the twentieth century. Those that survived the genocide had a good chance of starving, since Mengistu’s regime stole international food aid during Ethiopia’s famine during the mid 1980’s and distributed it among themselves. Mengistu fled to Zimbabwe, where he now has permanent residence, after being ousted in 1991. The Ethiopean government has been unsuccessfully trying for years to get Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe to extradite Mengistu so he can be tried for crimes against humanity.

4. Charles Taylor (1931 – )

 

Taylor was actually elected as president by the people of Liberia in 1997. Amnesty International says that Taylor’s military forces regularly use rape and torture as instruments of terror and suggest that he is using his civilians as virtual slave labour. Estimates suggest that Taylor’s personal fortune is greater than Liberia’s Gross National Product. This fortune has been amassed by looting Liberia’s natural resources, including gold, diamonds, rubber and timber. According to Hybrid Culture Magazine, ‘rape and mutilation are standard tactics of intimidation’. UN sanctions and an arms embargo are in place against Taylor’s regime. Taylor has actively supported rebels in neighbouring Sierra Leone by helping them to smuggle illegal ‘blood diamonds’ in order to finance their ongoing civil war against the Sierra Leone government.

3. Idi Amin Dada (1925 – )

Idi Amin was president of Uganda from 1971 until 1979. A former boxer, Amin rose through the ranks of the Army in the 1960′s, and seized power in a military coup against Uganda’s first president, Milton Obote. His reign was marked by brutal repression, torture and other violence. ‘Bodies were found with genitals, noses, livers, and eyes missing. Prison camps began filling up with common citizens, where prisoners forced to bludgeon each other to death with sledgehammers’. Most sources suggest that around 300,000 people were killed by Amin’s forces. Another 60,000 Kenyans of Asian descent were expelled from the country. In 1976, Amin declared himself president for life. Amin’s Uganda was highly militarized, with ‘Military tribunals placed above the system of civil law, soldiers appointed to top government posts, and civilian cabinet ministers informed that they will be subject to military discipline’. Citing ‘ancient tribal ownership, Amin invaded Tanzania in 1978, in an apparent attempt to deflect world attention away from Uganda’s impending economic collapse. This move failed, since Amins troops were routed by the Tanzanians, who forced him to flee to Saudi Arabia, where he still lives today, reportedly with the aid of a monthly payment of US $1,400 per month from Saudi officials. Amin left Uganda with an estimated debt of US $250 Million. Amin has been proclaimed as ‘Africa’s Adolph Hitler’.

 

2. Omar Al-bashir (1947 – Now)

Al Bashir seized power in Sudan in a military coup against a democratically elected government in 1989. Since his ascendancy, Amnesty International claims some 1 million people have been killed in the Sudanese civil war, whilst another 9 million have either fled the country or been subjected to ‘internal exile’, which basically means ‘stay inside or be shot’. Al Bashir has also dissolved Sudan’s parliament, banned political parties and closed down all independent media outlets. He has imposed a strict version of Islamic law (shariah) and used it to brutally repress the predominantly non-muslim people of Southern Sudan.

 

1. Robert Mugabe (1924 – )

Robert Mugabe became Zimbabwe’s first president after the establishment of majority rule and the official granting of independence from Britain in 1980. He still holds that position today. Mugabe was a hero in the struggle for majority rule in the former British colony of Rhodesia, however over time he has lost popularity as his regime has become increasingly dictatorial.  Mugabe’s inadequacies overshadow his achievements. The controversial land redistribution program has seen mobs of Mugabe loyalists, referred to as ‘war veterans’ physically removing white farmers from their land and allocating to top cronies, but Mugabe has not just targeted white people. Any opposition to Mugabe’s regime is not tolerated, with independent media outlets a particular target, as is the main opposition group, the Movement For Democratic Change. Its leader, Morgan Tsvangirai has been arrested and assaulted, charged of treason for promoting protests against Mugabe. Under his watchful diamonds have been plundered and every exploitable resource impoverishing Zimbabwean. Mugabe is believed to have stashed large amounts of money in foreign bank accounts. Zimbabwe’s unemployment rate is the highest in sub-Saharan Africa: it’s over 70%. Under his The 87 year-old megalomaniac has vowed not to step down despite having ruled the Southern African state for over 24 years. He is seeking re-election in the country’s presidential polls slated for later in the 2013. The election promises to be besieged by fraud as the previous one.

Mugabe lost elections in 2008 to his rival MDC and clinged to power. Despite entering into a power-sharing agreement with the former opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), Mugabe still wields almost total control over government institutions – a feat he has been able to achieve through his use of violence and subjugation