The prospect of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff losing her job has increased after the lower house of Congress voted to send her impeachment case to the Senate. Rousseff is being impeached for allegedly manipulating public accounts in order to conceal a budget deficit during an election year.

Public debt in Brazil has soared to 66.2 percent of gross domestic product, a 10 percentage point jump from 2014. The fiscal deficit has more than tripled to 1.88 percent of GPD. In 2015, the economy shrank 3.8 percent; unemployment rose to 6.8 percent; inflation reached 10.67 percent (its worst level in three years) and industrial output contracted by 8.3 percent. Three international ratings agencies have downgraded Brazil's debt to junk status.

Africa, a continent plagued by nepotism, big man syndrome and tribalism in politics can borrow a leaf from the Brazilian case. The political clamor here is issue based, has the development of the country at heart and points out that no leader should be above the law or immune from public scrutiny.