Mo Ibrahim: Africa's governance is slipping as leaders take cues from a global rise of strongmen

Mo Ibrahim is 80 years old, a Sudanese-British billionaire who built his fortune in telecoms and then put much of it into watching how Africa is governed. This week he told AFP that the picture is getting worse: democracy and rights are declining across the continent, in his view because African leaders are taking their cues from strongmen rising elsewhere in the world.

The evidence he points to is the latest report from his foundation. It finds real progress over the past decade on economic opportunity and human development. It also finds steep declines in security, human rights and public participation, over a period in which Africa has seen multiple military coups and devastating wars.

The index compares 2025 with 2016. Thirty countries, home to half of Africa's population, scored better on overall governance in 2025, largely because their economies improved. Twenty-three countries deteriorated, and one was unchanged.

Ibrahim singled out two recent elections. In Tanzania, security forces were accused of killing thousands of protesters. In Uganda, he said, opposition leader Bobi Wine was "hunted and physically attacked." His verdict was blunt: "It's just disgraceful." The accusations in Tanzania are, as the report frames them, accusations; the source does not say they have been independently established.

He links the trend partly to the retreat of liberal democracy worldwide, from the United States to Europe and Russia. "It is a strange era," he said, describing the rise of strongmen everywhere. An African leader watching that, he argued, may think: why not me too, I can get away with it. He also criticised the Trump administration's move toward what he called a more transactional kind of diplomacy, saying it weakens the international order and the rule of law.

The report shows sharp declines among some of the continent's largest countries, often tied to reduced political rights. Seven of the ten countries with the biggest declines had at least one coup during the decade. Burkina Faso recorded the largest deterioration, and Nigeria, Sudan and Tunisia were also among the worst performers.

A further pressure came last year, when Washington abruptly terminated USAID, ending billions of dollars of support to African countries. Ibrahim called the move "brutal." The United States is entitled to give aid or withhold it, he said, "But please give notice." Africa has proved fairly resilient to the cuts so far, he said, and they have forced the continent "to face reality." He wants more self-reliance and cooperation with any willing partner, naming Europe, China and India.

His hope rests, as it long has, on young people. Already 60 percent of Africans are under 25, and by 2050 one in three young people worldwide will be African. He described them as better informed and better educated than the previous generation. Then he turned to his own: "We wasted Africa, our generation, I must admit that. We really wasted some opportunities."

What to watch next is how African economies absorb the loss of US aid, and whether that large young population translates into pressure for governance reform while political rights are shrinking.