Obama speaks for term limits

Barack Obama delivers a speech at the African Union Headquarters inAddis Ababa on July 28, 2015

The United States President, Barack Obama Tuesday urged leaders to observe constitutional limits and to allow a regeneration of leadership when their term is over, in an historic address to the African Union.

“When a leader tries to change the rules in the middle of the game just to stay in office, it risks instability and strife, as we’ve seen in Burundi,” Obama said, likening this to changing the rules midstream in a game.

“The law’s the law – no one person’s above the law,” he said, and alluded to the fact that he would step down at the end of his current term, even if he felt he still had more to offer  the American electorate.

“But if a leader thinks they’re the only person who can hold their nation together, then that leader has failed to truly build their country.”

He even had time for half-jests: “I don’t understand why people want to stay so long, especially when they have so much money,” he said in Addis Ababa, as he faulted the  president’s-for-life outlook.

In a wide-ranging speech, Obama said the United States stood with Africa to defeat terrorism and end conflict, warning that the continent’s progress will “depend on security and peace”.

 “As Africa stands against terror and conflict, I want you to know the United States stands with you,” he said, highlighting threats ranging from Somalia’s Al-Shabaab, Boko Haram in Nigeria, insurgents in Mali and Tunisia, and the Uganda-led Lord’s Resistance Army rebels in central Africa.

Obama said the United States was backing AU military efforts and saluting the “brave African peacekeepers” battling militants.

“From Somalia and Nigeria, to Mali and Tunisia, terrorists continue to target innocent civilians,” he said.

“Many of these groups claim the banner of religion, but hundreds of millions of African Muslims know that Islam means peace. We must call groups like Al-Qaeda, ISIL (Islamic State), Al-Shabaab and Boko Haram, we must call them what they are -— murderers.”