West African heads of states have agreed to temporarily drop the proposal aimed at restricting Presidents in the sub-region to two terms in office.
At the ECOWAS summit held in Accra, the West African leaders discussed the proposal which was expected to formalize the two-term limit across the sub-region.
But the Presidents of Togo and the Gambia reportedly opposed the idea.
Togo’s Faure Essozimna Gnassingbé and the Gambia’s Yahya Jammeh have both been in power for over a decade. Most West African states have constitutions which prescribe only two terms for Presidents.
But some African Presidents have attempted to amend their country’s constitution to help prolong their stay in office while others have succeeded in making the changes.
Last year, the President of Burkina Faso, President Blaise Compaore, was ousted after he attempted to amend the nation’s constitution to run for a third term.
In the East African state of Burundi, there has been weeks of protests after the President, Pierre Nkurunziza announced plans to run for a third term. The protests were crowned with an attempted coup.
The issue has since become topical on the continent but some West African leaders are of the view that each country has different political context and a blanket policy on the matter will not succeed.
