I have seen a couple of African news outlets and social media gurus elevating President Joe Biden’s withdrawal and presenting it as exemplary for some leaders in African countries to emulate.

The fact of the matter is that Biden did not withdraw voluntarily. He was forced to call it quits. He didn’t want to. He has been kicked out, much like the way Malawi kicked out the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) in 2020 following demonstrations in the country’s cities and urban areas and the subsequent nullification of the 2019 elections over ‘massive’ electoral irregularities.

The Stockholm syndrome of colonialism is evident in your posts, praising a very cancerous system as a healthier model. Biden wanted to stay! Obama and several other ‘agents’ of democracy backed and stood with “the wise and dynamic leadership” of Biden despite concerns about his fitness to govern. The tinpot Democrats ignored these concerns until it was too late for them. It is too late.

Biden insisted he was the most qualified person to be the president of the US. Does this ring a bell?

“I don’t think anybody’s more qualified to be President or win this race than me,” he told ABC.

Biden was forced to quit because he is unfit to govern, as demonstrated by his disastrous debate performance. Soon after the debate, news was rife that the Democrats were considering replacing Biden. In response to these reports, Biden insisted that he was going nowhere, that he was the president and the Democrats’ nominee, and would defeat Trump.

“Let me say this as clearly as I can: I’m the sitting President of the United States. I’m the nominee of the Democratic Party. I’m staying in the race,” he tweeted on 5th July, just a day after the US Independence Day celebrations.

His posts ever since have been to remind people that he was the president and the Democrats’ nominee, evoking Tywin Lannister’s infamous quote in tweet replies that “Any man who must say, ‘I am the King,’ is no true king.”

He even insisted that he was not as old as people portrayed him to be and that his memory was sharp despite calling Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky “President Putin” at the NATO summit.

“I know I’m not a young guy. I am old. But I am only three years older than Trump,” said Biden on 16 July, just five days before his team forced him to throw in the towel.

It’s not like the Democrats had a choice. The withdrawal was inevitable.

Joe Biden has been removed from power by the same anti-democratic forces that rigged the field for him in 2020 & skipped the primary to anoint him in 2024.

Don’t be fooled. The same @DNC elites that put him in power will replace him with another tool for Wall Street and the war… https://t.co/g0s0KKjAfD

— Dr. Jill Stein🌻 (@DrJillStein) July 21, 2024

Biden’s candidacy was left in tatters after Hollywood billionaires donating to his campaign pulled out. He did not have a choice. All his lieutenants deserted him. He was a lone wolf.

He was unfit and he remains unfit! But he did not quit voluntarily. His hands were tied. That is no person to emulate as a model for democracy, just like Trump and just like the oligarchic system where billionaires determine the outcome of the elections at the expense of the well-being of the people.

Maybe the lesson is: if these African leaders who are hanging on to power don’t leave now, they will be forced to pack their wardrobes like Biden.