Here Are The Most And Least Popular Leaders In Africa
Interestingly enough, leaders of 24 of the 26 African nations had a higher approval rating than President Barack Obama, which stood at 41% as of Monday.
With an 86% approval, Mali's president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita had the highest rating of any of the 26 leaders in September 2013, one month after he was elected to office. He got this high rating even while his nation was (and still is) swept up conflict with insurgents who are looking for greater autonomy in the Northern area known as Azawad.
Five of the leaders included had been in power since at least 1990 when the poll was conducted, and of those, Cameroon's Paul Biya, Burkina Faso's Blaise Compaore, and Uganda's Yoweri Kaguta Museveni all enjoyed approval ratings above 60%. The other two, Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe and Chad's Idriss Deby, had some of the worst results in the polling, each scoring a 44% approval rating.
The lowest rating by far belonged to the Democratic Republic of Congo's President Joseph Kabila, who had a 24% approval rating, a whopping 17% below the next lowest rated leader. Many Congolese believe Kabila is actually Rwandan, which has a major negative connotation in the nation because Rwanda went to war with the Congo between 1998 and 2003, according to the Daily Maverick.
Kabila's more extreme detractors want him dead. South Africa's highest court recently ruled that a group of rebels plotting to overthrow and murder him must face trial in that country, reports the South Africa Times.
Here is the complete list of leaders included within the Gallup poll:
