Edward Anthony Gomez, Gambian President Yahya Jammeh’s lawyer, in the heat of the battle over the inauguration of a new administration in the country, has fled to Senegal reportedly with a warning to his client to hand over power peacefully to President-elect, Adamu Barrow.

According to the lawyer, “the general perception is that after midnight on  January 18th, 2017, the mandate of President Yahya Jammeh would expire and President-elect, Mr. Adam Barrow, would be sworn in as president in line with the dictates of our constitution. Any attempt to interrupt this ceremony, it is clearly understood, opens The Gambia to attack from ECOWAS forces.”

While there is a solid contrary opinion to Mr. Gomez’s submission, the fact remains that the community of West African nations, ECOWAS, is determined to see President (can we still call him that?) Yahya Jammeh out of the lush home he’s made for himself out of the Presidential office of The Gambia for in the past 22 years.

Unfortunately, situations like this are not a rarity in Africa. If Jammeh heeds his lawyer’s advice and then follows his footsteps, – and there are already reports pointing to this – he’ll join a growing list of African leaders who have fled their home states when the proverbial four-letter word hits the fan. And while he doesn’t seem too pleased with Nigeria right now, our legislators have been magnanimous enough to offer him a new home here.

Colonialism and military dictatorship are apparently only two phenomena asides geography that many African countries share in common. Another one is runaway leaders. Below are just five of them:

Charles Taylor

Following a bloody civil war that ended with the execution of Samuel Doe and Charles Taylor election as the President of Liberia in 1997, Charles Taylor became an internationally wanted man for his involvement in the 1991-2002 Sierra-Leone Civil War. He weathered through until 2003 when he was formally indicted by the Special Court for Sierra Leone for several war crimes including murder, rape, and torture.

On August 11, 2003, after excessive pressure from the United States under President G. Bush, Charles Taylor resigned and handed over power to his Vice-President before taking up exile in Nigeria under President Olusegun Obasanjo. On March 17, 2006, current Liberian President, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf sought Taylor’s extradition to Liberia from Nigeria. President Olusegun Obasanjo only agreed to transfer him to Liberia but Charles Taylor had other plans. He took off.

He was apprehended in Northern Nigeria while he was trying to escape to Cameroon from his Calabar villa.

Idi Amin

His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal Alhaji Dr. Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, CBE enjoyed a heavy-handed 8-year-rule of Uganda characterised by the worst of human rights abuses. Amin bit more than he could chew when he tried to annex a part of Tanzania (Kagera) in 1978. This led to the Ugandan-Tanzanian war which eventually sped up his deposition. Amin was forced to flee into exile by helicopter on 11 April 1979. He first fled to Libya under Muammar Gaddafi, his ally. He stayed there through 1980 before ultimately running to Saudi Arabia where he lived in Jeddah until his death in 2003. Amin tried to return to Uganda when his death was imminent but President Museveni promised that Amin would have had to “answer for his sins the moment he was brought back”. So he stayed back and died in Saudi Arabia.

Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu

An alienable part of the Nigerian history. After leading the Biafran end of the Nigerian Civil war for about three years, Ojukwu left for Cote d’Ivoire, one the countries that recognised the independence of Biafra, in the January 1970. He was granted asylum in the country by President Félix Houphouët-Boigny and he remained there in exile until Shehu Shagari granted him pardon in 1982.

Hisseine Habre

Hisseine Habre ruled Chad for only 8 years between 1982 and 1990 but it is safe to say that Hisseine probably delivered the worst African rule characterised by heinous crimes against human decency, dignity, and every other right. Through his Documentation and Security Directorate (DDS), Hisseine clamped down on any and all of his opponents – and they didn’t even have to be Chadian (many Nigerians were known to have been detained and tortured by the DDS).

He was just convicted and sentenced to life in prison May last year for all of the atrocities he committed against his prisoners. But before hos trial, Habre fled with $11 million of public money, to Senegal after being overthrown by Idris Debby in 1990. It was in Senegal that he was tried and convicted.

Mobutu Sese Seko

Mobutu led Zaire (Congo) for thirty long years in which time he ran the economy of the country to ruins to fund his own excesses. He was expelled from his home in 1997 by rebel forces and had to flee to Morocco. He however died very shortly after in Morrocco, 3 months into his exile.

Bonus: Valentine Strasser

Strasser was young. That’s one of the most remarkable things about him. He seized power in Sierra Leone only a few days after his 25th birthday and held on to it from 1992-1996. He was ousted from power by a military coup orchestrated by men from the same camp as him.

It may have had something to do with youth but Strasser immediately left for the U.K after his overthrow, to study Law at the University of Warwick, England, but stopped his studies after a year. He moved back to Sierra Leone in the millennium and now, he still lives there on a small pension and still feared by those around him.