It is deplorable that Senegalese President Macky Sall had to give up his ambitions for a third term after scores of people had lost their lives in protests seeking to stop him from overturning his country’s constitution.

When he took over power in 2012, he promised that he would serve only one term but went against the pledge and sought a second term. And in 2019, when he was serving his second term, he engineered a change in the Constitution that effectively made him eligible to vie two more times.

Sall is emblematic of African presidents who use the law to extend their stay in power even when they are clearly not welcome and citizens of their countries demand change. Given that it is practically impossible for opposition candidates to unseat an incumbent seeking re-election, it is not difficult to see why citizens would be frustrated to the point of engaging in civil unrest to force change.

This must not be allowed to be Africa’s curse. Presidents from Cape to Cairo should normalise relinquishing power after serving two terms to give their countries an opportunity to elect new leaders and re-energise their countries’ politics and public space.

Even though some consider politics to be a career, there is need for those who hold the top most positions to be educated that they can only serve for so long and they can secure their legacies better by obeying presidential term limits. That is how African countries can entrench democracy. This, ironically, is a position Sall supported before he tasted power but quickly forgot after taking oath of office.

To his credit, however, he has saved his country from anarchy following his decision not to seek a third term. To that extent, he is a credit to his country and to Africa because he had the option of forcing himself on the electorate.

The lesson here is that African countries do not have to be rocked by violence — leading to needless deaths of conscientious citizens — for leaders to do the honourable thing. Indeed, there should be systems in place, as happens in the US, for the wheels of succession to keep turning even when an incumbent refuses to relinquish power as happened in the case of Donald Trump when he lost his bid for a second term.