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Africa’s “leaders-for-life” are entrenching personalised rule and harming governance and growth while a younger cohort of autocrats is emerging to perpetuate the pattern, The Economist has warned.

In an editorial, the influential London-based publication, which officially calls itself a newspaper, said that even when they start “relatively” well, autocrats “tend to become worse over time”.

“In the coming months, several leaders who have been in power for decades will run in dodgy elections. These include Paul Biya, the 92-year-old president of Cameroon, and Yoweri Museveni, the 81-year-old leader of Uganda. Seven of the ten longest-serving leaders in the world, barring monarchs, are in Africa,” wrote The Economist.

The President of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who seized power from his uncle in a coup in 1979, remains the world’s longest-serving president. His son, Teodoro “Teodorin” Nguema Obiang Mangue, serves as the country’s vice-president.

The Economist said that while defenders of big-man rule tend to argue that such leaders are needed to ensure political stability and to hold fragile states together, citing the example of Rwanda’s Paul Kagame, new research contradicts this school of thought.

The editorial argues that “once they [autorats] breach term limits, governance deteriorates”.

Mr Museveni was hailed as being part of a newbreed of African leaders in the 1990s.

The magazine wrote: “Patronage networks become narrower, with more goodies dished out to a shrinking inner circle. Corruption increases. Leaders become more likely to rig elections and then use violence to suppress protests against the inevitable result.”

On a younger cohort of autocrats emerging to perpetuate the pattern, The Economist points to military juntas across the Sahel led by men in their 30s, 40s and 60s who promised reform yet have postponed elections.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the magazine reports that President Félix Tshisekedi has suggested scrapping a two-term limit.

The magazine, which used an illustration featuring Messrs Museveni, Biya (Cameroon) and Mbasogo (Equatorial Guinea), also slammed leaders of Russia, Turkey, India and the US.

It said: “In America and India, democratically elected leaders are flirting with more personalised leadership, if not openly pursuing it.”

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