The results largely came as expected.

In Djibouti, the incumbent President was re-elected for his fourth term—in Chad his fifth.

And although the opposition won in Gambia, incumbent president Yahya Jammeh refused to

concede, crushing hopes for the country’s first ever peaceful transition of power.

This is an all too common trend is called “third termism”, where many leaders extend

their presidential terms beyond reasonable limits, often overstaying their welcome.

For as long as many African countries have existed they have been plagued with rigged

elections, corruption and so-called sit-tight leaders.

So how exactly did the continent become so undemocratic?

Well, during the industrial revolution, European powers colonized roughly 90 percent of Africa,

drawing the borders that largely remain today.

Instead of ruling over their colonies directly, European countries instituted local politicians

to act as proxies.

Their purpose was to keep control of the population and ensure that natural resources were being

exploited to the colonizers’ favor.

This resulted in an authoritarian, top-down approach to governance, and instilled the

idea that the only legitimate way to rule was by force.

After World War Two, Africa began to decolonize, and proxy-leaders were left to rule independently.

But by then, these leaders were largely distrusted by the people, as they were seen as members

of the elite and co-conspirators with former western colonizers.

After popular uprisings and in many cases, violent coup d’etats, the continent saw

an entirely new wave of leaders, many of whom had little or no political experience.

For instance in 1980, newly independent Zimbabwe elected former teacher and revolutionary Robert

Mugabe as its Prime Minister.

Seven years later, Zimbabwean parliament created a completely new role for Mugabe, combining

head of state, head of government and commander-in-chief.

After nearly four decades, 92-year-old Mugabe is still in power.

Many of these new leaders were former military commanders.

For instance Equatorial Guinea’s president Obiang Nguema Mbasogo took power in 1979 after

ousting his uncle, who had transitioned the country out of the Spanish colonial government.

Like many other long-running African rulers, Obiang was initially considered to be more

just and humane than his predecessor.

However over the years, he turned Equatorial Guinea into what some consider to be the most

corrupt, oppressive and undemocratic country in the world.

Today, Obiang holds all governing power and is the world’s longest serving president.

European colonizers not only left a precedent for authoritarianism and one party rule, but

they largely failed to prepare African nations for post-colonial autonomy.

Many countries didn’t have proper institutions in place for governance and were left with

under-educated populations.

For instance when the Democratic Republic of Congo gained independence from Belgium

in 1960, the country had just 16 college graduates out of a population of more than 15 million

people.

When French colonizers left newly independent Guinea in 1958, they completely dismantled

the government and destroyed all paper documents, leaving new rulers with no structure whatsoever.

Following decolonization, Africa was largely left with inadequate infrastructure, lack

of financial resources, insecure governments and arbitrary borders surrounding rival ethnic

groups.

In order to pursue policies and restore order, most African governments consolidated power

into the highest office, even if that leader was undereducated and ill-fit for the challenges

that lay ahead.

Although colonialism has been gone for the better part of a century, its implications

still plague African politics today.

While ruling for decades in the highest office, many of Africa’s sit-tight leaders have

become excessively wealthy, benefitting from kick-backs, money laundering or other corruption

schemes.

Several initiatives have been proposed to tackle widespread corruption in Africa, but

can the problem really be fixed?

Find out in this video.

The researchers expected corruption to fall, but the exact opposite ended up happening.

Police officers would stop drivers more often in an attempt to extort even more money than

before, an increase in roughly 25 percent.

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