Former President John Dramani Mahama advised African leaders not to behave as if they were some indispensable beings whose countries cannot do without.
According to him, leaders are not supposed to outlive their countries and must, therefore, always act in the interest of their countries.
The African continent has a history of dictatorships with a lot of leaders clinging onto power to the detriment of their countries often leading ending in chaos.
These phenomena of holding on to by all means was thought to have gone away but the recent debacle in Gambia where former President Yahya Jammeh who had ruled for 22 years had to be virtually threatened with military force by ECOWAS before he would leave office though he had earlier conceded defeat to Adama Barrow in the country's general election has brought up debate about the Africa's democratic credentials.
Speaking on African Leadership in an interview on South Africa's Power 98.7 FM on Thursday, Mr Mahama was of the opinion that though democracy has improved significantly in Africa, it needed a little fine tuning with regards to the posturing of some of the leaders.
"Africa today reflects a significant shift in democratic culture, than decades ago. More elections and policy continuity but we must get to the realisation that our countries will continue long after we have gone", he stated adding that "there should not be any real fuss about a leader handing over".
On his legacy as the President of Ghana, he stated though he made some very tough decisions, his contribution to "bringing our infrastructure back to scratch and social interventions were very enormous".
Former President Mahama is currently in South Africa to receive the African Leaders Magazine's African Political Leader of the Year Award.