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‘Mad King Donald’ Wants To Be President-For-Life
Worst president ever wants to copy dictator role models
If you’ve read any of my previous articles, you know that I have intimate experience with living in a dictatorship. Nigeria, the country of my birth, has been through several dictatorships since it gained independence from Britain in 1960. Most Nigerians are acutely aware of how dictators behave.
Dictators follow the same playbook. Once they get in power, they don’t want to leave. They enjoy the trappings of being president/dictator and decide to stay. Usually by the end of their reign, they try to alter the constitution to allow them to remain in power. Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin has already done this. Nigerians have seen this play out all too many times, and so they are quick to fight it. I’m afraid Americans are new to the dictator-fighting game.
Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, who ruled Nigeria as dictator during the 1980s tried to hang on. Towards the end of his reign, he said the country wasn’t ready to return to democracy and tried to stay in power until mass protests forced him out. There was a brief period of democracy before Gen. Sani Abacha, one of Babangida’s cohorts, ousted the president and declared himself president-for-life. He died in office during a Viagra-aided orgy.
