So he pushed blatantly unpopular measures to perpetuate himself in power and gave his soldiers an excuse to seize power.
On the other side of the continent, in Central Africa, President Robert Mugabe is not in any hurry to go anywhere either, though he celebrates his 86th birthday soon at an age when most ordinary folk plan to go home to live the rest of their lives in peace.
But Dr Mugabe is no ordinary man. Not only has he studiously ruined his country for the better part of the 30 years he has been in power, he is still, up to this moment, engaged in vicarious warfare with "neo-imperialists and their lackeys".
In the rest of Africa, at least eight more countries have pushed referendums removing term limits. They include neighbouring Uganda, Algeria, Cameroon, Namibia and Tunisia.
In short, a high number of African strong men are resisting all efforts to make them relinquish power, thus reversing most of the gains made with the onset of multiparty democracy roughly 20 years ago.
Unfortunately, if those who believe that they were born to rule continue this way, there will be no shortage of coups in Africa. This probably means the era of the soldier-tyrants may come back in full force. We can only hope this won't happen.