{"id":277046,"date":"2019-05-24T23:37:11","date_gmt":"2019-05-25T03:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.google.com\/articles\/CBMiV2h0dHBzOi8vd3d3LmVuY2EuY29tL25ld3MvYWZyaWNhbi1sZWFkZXJzLW92ZXJzdGF5aW5nLXRoZWlyLXdlbGNvbWUtZm9ybWVyLWV0aGlvcGlhbi1wbdIBAA?oc=5"},"modified":"2026-09-23T11:54:24","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T15:54:24","slug":"hailemariam-desalegn-said-african-leaders-who-cling-to-power-hurt-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/277046","title":{"rendered":"Hailemariam Desalegn said African leaders who cling to power hurt democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In May 2019 eNCA reported that former Ethiopian prime minister Hailemariam Desalegn said Africa still had a long way to go in making democracy deliver, and he criticized leaders who overstay their welcome in office.<\/p>\n<img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" height=\"780\" width=\"780\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-271272\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Ethiopian-opposition-parties-announce-plan-to-merge.jpg?fit=780%2C780&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"Hailemariam Desalegn said African leaders who cling to power hurt democracy\" \/>\n<p>Coming from a premier who had resigned in 2018 amid protest pressure, the remark was read as both a personal defense of stepping down and a jab at peers who refuse to leave.<\/p>\n<p>Term-limit talk from Ethiopian elites matters because the Horn still mixes elections with long personal rule next door in Eritrea and elsewhere.<\/p>\n<p>Kept as politics archive, Hailemariam\u2019s overstaying-leaders line is a dated elite comment from Abiy Ahmed\u2019s early transition years.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Sources:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.enca.com\/news\/african-leaders-overstaying-their-welcome-former-ethiopian-pm\">eNCA<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>African leaders overstaying their welcome: Former Ethiopian PM&nbsp;&nbsp;eNCAFormer Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn says Africa still has a long way to go in benefitting from democracy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":271272,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-277046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ethiopian-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/Ethiopian-opposition-parties-announce-plan-to-merge.jpg?fit=1280%2C720&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9NivD-1a4u","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=277046"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":754909,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/277046\/revisions\/754909"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=277046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=277046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=277046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}