Africa is one of the continent where age is just a number when it comes to holding political power. This is worse when it comes to the type of democracy practised on the continent.
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See the top 10 oldest Presidents in Africa
African Presidents manipulate policies to suit their interest and no one knows when the youth will be given the chance to rule govern their countries
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The saying that the youth are the future leaders of Africa is becoming a cliche as the youth sit back and watch their grand fathers and great grand fathers refuse to hand over power to the youth.
They manipulate policies to suit their interest and no one knows when the youth will be given the chance to rule their countries.
This can only be possible if they are pushed out by death. Pulse.com.gh brings you a list of oldest African president.
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1. Robert Mugabe (91 years, Zimbabwe)
Robert Mugabe has served as prime minister of Zimbabwe since 1980, and has been the nation's president since 1987. He has been re-elected to the presidency multiple times, but elections have reportedly been tainted by fraud and voter intimidation.
Robert Mugabe was born on February 21, 1924, in Kutama, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). In 1963, he founded ZANU, a resistance movement against British colonial rule. In 1980, when British rule ended, Mugabe became prime minister of the new Republic of Zimbabwe. In 1987, he was elected president of Zimbabwe. Since 2008, Mugabe has shared power with Morgan Tsvangirai.
2. Beji Caid Essebsi (88 years, Tunisia)
Mohamed Beji Caid Essebsi (or es-Sebsi, born 29 November 1926) is a Tunisian politician who has been President of Tunia since December 2014. Previously he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1981 to 1986 and as Prime Ministerfrom February 2011 to December 2011.
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Essebsi is the founder of the Nidaa Tounes political party, which won a plurality in the 2014 parliamentary election. In December 2014, he won the first regular presidential election following the Tunisian Revolution, becoming Tunisia's first freely elected president.
3. Paul Biya (82 years, Cameroon)
Paul Biya (born Paul Barthélemy Biya'a bi Mvondo, 13 February 1933) is a Cameroonian politician who has been the President of Cameroon since 6 November 1982. Biya introduced political reforms within the context of a single party system in the 1980s. Under pressure, he accepted the introduction of multiparty politics in the early 1990s. He narrowly won the 1992 presidential election with 40% of the plural, single-ballot vote and was re-elected by large margins in 1997, 2004, and 2011.
4. Abdelaziz Bouteflika (78 years Algeria)
Abdelaziz Bouteflika (born 2 March 1937) is an Algerian politician who has been the fifth President of Algeria since 1999. He was Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1963 to 1979. As President, he presided over the end of the bloody Algerian Civil War in 2002, and he ended emergency rule in February 2011 amidst regional unrest.
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5. Manuel Pinto da Costa (78 years, São Tomé & Príncipe)
Manuel Pinto da Costa (born 5 August 1937) is a Saotoméan economist and politician who served as the first President of São Tomé & Príncipe from 1975 to 1991. He was again elected as President in August 2011 and took office on 3 September 2011.
6. Alpha Condé (74 years, Guinea)
Alpha Condé (born 4 March 1938) is a Guinean politician who has been President of Guinea since December 2010. He spent decades in opposition to a succession of regimes in Guinea, unsuccessfully running against President Lansana Conte in the 1993 and 1998 presidential elections and leading the Rally of the Guinean People (RPG), an opposition party.
7. Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (76 years, Liberia)
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Ellen Johnson Sirleaf (born 29 October 1938) is the 24th and current President of Liberia, in office since 2006. She served as Minister of Finance under President William Tolbert from 1979 until the 1980 coup d'etat, after which she left Liberia and held senior positions at various financial institutions. She placed second in the 1997 presidential election won by Charles Tayloy. She won the 2005 presidential election and took office on 16 January 2006, and she was a successful candidate for re-election in 2011. Sirleaf is the first elected female head of state in Africa.
8. Peter Mutharika (75 years, Malawi)
Arthur Peter Mutharika (born 1940) is a Malawian politician, educator and lawyer who has been President of Malawi since 31 May 2014. Mutharika has worked globally in the field of international justice. He is an expert on international economic law, international law and comparative constitutional law. He informally served as an adviser to his older brother, President Bingu wa Mutharika, on issues of foreign and domestic policy from the onset of his election campaign until the President's death on 5 April 2012.
9. Alassane Ouattara (73 years, Ivory Coast)
Alassane Dramane Ouattara (born 1 January 1942) is an Ivorian politician who has been President of Cote D'Ivoire since 2011. An economist by profession, Ouattara worked for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) - where he rose to be deputy head - and the Central Bank of West African States and he was the Prime Minister of Cote d'Ivoire from November 1990 to December 1993, appointed to that post by President Felix Houphet-Boigny.
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10. Jacob Zuma (73 years, South Africa)
Jacob Zuma, (born 12 April 1942) is the President of South Africa by parliament following his party's victory in the 2009 general elections. He was reelected in the 2014 election.
Zuma is the President of the African Nation Congress (ANC), the governing political party. Zuma is also referred to by his initials JZ and his clan name Msholozi. Zuma became the President of the African National Congress (ANC) on 18 December 2007 after defeating incumbent Thabo Mbeki at the ANC conference in Polokwane.
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