Botswana’s President Duma Gedion Boko has made headlines with bold remarks about political leadership and term limits, stating that any president who seeks to remain in power for more than 10 years is “a failure.”

Speaking recently at the Bonno Housing Project groundbreaking ceremony, Boko said that anyone who stays in the presidency for more than 10 years is clearly a failure and doesn’t understand the role. Said Boko:

I will say to you today, that any president of any country who wants to be president for more than 10 years, anybody who has that ambition is instantly a failure. You can’t want to do this job for more than 10 years. You can’t. If you are serious about it, if you take the job seriously, you can’t do it for more than 10 years. You can’t. And anybody who sticks with presidency for more than 10 years, must, that’s a sure fire indication that he has failed and he has no intention, he doesn’t understand the job. So we’re going to do this in the shortest possible time.

His remarks come at a time when, in neighbouring Zimbabwe, the ruling ZANU PF party is pushing to amend the Constitution to allow President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who is now over 80, to remain in office beyond the current 10-year limit.

Although President Mnangagwa has repeatedly said he has no intention of staying beyond two five-year terms, his failure to rein in supporters advocating for a constitutional amendment has led many to believe he may, in fact, be backing the push for a term extension behind the scenes.