Skimming through this week's newspapers I can't help but to think that leadership in Africa is never obliged to adhere to any standards:

• Charged by the International Criminal Court with three counts of genocide, Sudan's President Al-Bashir received a warm welcome in Chad and was assured by the Chad's Interior and Security Minister, Ahmat Mahamat Bachir that he should 'be allowed to return home unmolested';(here)

• Kagame stated that 'Rwandan voters 'have the freedom to decide' just as the opposition leader, Democratic Green Party Vice-President Andre Kagwa Rwisereka, is found murdered;(here)

• Uganda's president Museveni is expected to seek re-election next year while a Burundian journalist Jean-Claude Kavumbagu is arrested on treason charges under - surprisingly - Ugandan law - for a remark perceived as critical of Ugandan forces.(here)

The African leaders tend, in the beginning of their terms, to speak against presidential longevity only to consistently renege on their promises later. To mention just a few examples - Ethiopia's Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, who after 20 years in power recently abandoned his plans to retire, Liberian President's Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, or widely infamous, always current president of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe.

Despite the Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni's promise made in 1986, that he would be in office for only four years, he extended his term in 1989 for five more years only to extend it again in 1996 for yet another single term. He extended his term yet again in 2001, and finally amended the constitution and removed presidential term limits altogether in 2005. Of course Museveni's or Kagame's presidencies are not tantamount to Mugabe's or al-Bashir's but the pattern is the same - clinging to the throne till death does them part.

'Across Africa, there are very few countries where presidents respect term limits' - argues Andrew Mwenda, the Independent's founder, TED speaker and a post grad-fellow at Yale, on his blog, - 'Tanzania, Benin, Mozambique, Botswana, Mali and Ghana are among the few examples. In Namibia, Cameroon, Gabon, Togo, Angola, Congo Brazzaville, Chad, CAR, Zimbabwe, Niger, Mauritania, Djibouti, Algeria, Burkina Faso and Uganda, term limits have been removed. In Zambia, Nigeria, Malawi and Senegal, presidents have tried but failed.'

This sounds alarming but as we continue reading such stories, we become used to linking dictatorship to Africa as two inseparable things. No more discoveries or surprises, just another African story.

Now, the question is, if aid is delivered in the wider context of MDG 8, are we morally obliged to understand the mindset of the people who receive aid, even if they break with the conventions of democracy?

I remember back in 2008, sipping my favourite Ugandan coffee at '1000 Cups', being intrigued by the reasons behind the whopping price difference between my two new buys from Aristoc - Uganda's largest book store. The first was Museveni's autobiography 'Sowing the Mustard's Seed' wrapped in a colourful shiny cover for which I spent 25,000 USh ($11); the second - 'Pax Musevenica. The history of the regime' was the most expensive book in the entire book shop - at 133,000 USh ($59). I stood up, went back to Aristoc, and, as a journalist working for one of the Ugandan documentary companies, tried, in vain, to investigate the determinants of the price of the latter. They were known only to a mysterious manager who was forever on holidays.

I kept on confronting my Ugandan friends with my doubts but they responded by praising their president or, at the least, seemed unaffected by his neo paternalism. 'Do you ever get fed up with Museveni?'- I insisted.

There were 3 main answers. The first group explained that from historical point of view, a chief of a tribe was the father of the clan, the pivot that keeps all of the groups together. Traditionally, there has always been a father who united all the tribes. 'How can a father of the clan be barred from the throne?' they tended to ask - 'Where would he go?'.

The second answer is rooted in the view that presidents like Kagame and Museveni should stay in power based on their good performance and their policies which are very friendly towards the investors.

Thirdly, some people argued that for fear of 'safe houses' and secret agents it was better not to raise one's voice - this group seemed intimidated and liked to mention examples of journalists or opposition leaders imprisoned or killed (my post about the oppression of Ugandan journalists soon to come).

I listened to them and I had just one thought on my mind - You don't know what democracy is unless you taste it.

Find here a post on Mugabe by Tiziana
Cartoons:Credits Gado and Zapiro