Recent reports that 74-year-old Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has returned to London to continue medical treatment for an undisclosed illness and that 74-year-old Angolan leader José Eduardo dos Santos — in power since 1979 and who had reportedly been treated for prostate cancer — remains in a Spanish hospital after three weeks, raise questions about the health of African leaders and the lack of transparency on reporting on this issue.
Buhari — having earlier gone to London to treat an "ear infection" — spent seven weeks in London earlier in 2017 on a "medical vacation" before returning to Abuja.
African leaders often give the impression that the health of their countries is tied to their own personal health and an ailing leader is often treated as a state secret. A paradox still exists in Africa of a young continent — with more than 60% of its population under 25 — being led largely by old men, with the average age of leaders about 61.
The phenomenon of the African leaders seeking treatment — often described as "routine medical check-ups" — in Europe, Singapore and Saudi Arabia, is a lamentable statement on their own failure to establish functioning health systems at home. Local journalists have often been barred from reporting on the health of leaders, under threat of arrest, while various presidential spokesmen either keep mute or report the leader as being "hale and hearty" or "fit as a fiddle". This has led to sometimes farcical situations.
Since 2008, the leaders of nine African countries died in office of illness
The editor of a Guinean newspaper was arrested in 2008 for carrying a photo of ailing President Lansana Conté and forced to publish a different picture of a more sprightly president. But Conté still died a week later. Algerian prosecutors advocated legal action against two local newspapers for reporting that President Abdelaziz Bouteflika was in a coma in 2013. Uganda police arrested two men in 2016 for posting a picture of a "dead" President Yoweri Museveni on Facebook.
In contrast, a few presidents have taken the opposite tack and played along with the rumours. On returning to Harare recently, Zimbabwe’s 93-year-old President Robert Mugabe — dogged for years by rumours of prostate cancer — noted, "Yes it’s true I was dead and resurrected as I always do."
Since 2008, the leaders of nine African countries – Nigeria (Umaru Yar’Adua, pericarditis), Gabon (Omar Bongo, intestinal cancer), Guinea (Lansana Conté, undisclosed), Guinea-Bissau (Malam Bacai Sanha, diabetes), Ghana (John Atta Mills, stroke and throat cancer), Malawi (Bingu wa Mutharika, heart attack), Ethiopia (Meles Zenawi, undisclosed), Zambia (Levy Mwanawasa, stroke and Michael Sata, undisclosed) — died in office of illness. Most died in hospitals in France, Spain, Belgium and England. In 2012 alone, four African presidents died in office.
The power vacuum and political uncertainty created by some of these situations suggest that this is an issue that deserves greater attention. Presidential paralysis has often led to power struggles, triggering coups d’état in Guinea in 2008 and Guinea-Bissau in 2012 and a power vacuum in Nigeria before Goodluck Jonathan assumed full presidential powers in 2010.
Smoother transitions have, however, occurred in Ghana, Malawi and Zambia.
More recently, Malawi’s Peter Mutharika "disappeared" between September and October 2016, fuelling speculation about his death. Algeria’s Bouteflika cancelled a state visit to Algiers in February by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, at the last minute due to a bout of bronchitis. Cameroon’s Paul Biya — in power for 34 years — has been forced to deny reports in Le Monde that he has sought medical treatment during long sojourns in Geneva. Rumours proliferate about the health of Zambia’s Edgar Lungu, who has collapsed in public and been accused by the opposition of being an alcoholic.
These incidents of presidential plagues have often confirmed the popular saying that: "Every rumour in Africa is true."
• Prof Adebajo is director of the Institute for Pan-African Thought and Conversation at the University of Johannesburg.
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