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African leaders resisting "democratic transformation" must heed their citizens' calls for change, former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said on Saturday after receiving an award aimed at promoting good leadership on the continent.

Liberia's former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf arrives to attend new President George Weah's swearing-in ceremony at Samuel Kanyon Doe Sports Complex in Monrovia, Liberia January 22, 2018. REUTERS/Thierry Gouegnon

Without naming specific countries or leaders, she referred to "laggard" countries in the region of one billion people who are "not meeting democratic transformation".

"Their own citizens are making the call for change and I don't think they can continue to resist or deny that call for change," Johnson Sirleaf told Reuters after accepting the award in Rwanda's capital Kigali.

Long-serving African leaders who have changed the law to stay in power include Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, 73, and Cameroon's President Paul Biya, in power for 35 years.

Johnson Sirleaf was awarded the 2017 Mo Ibrahim award, designed to improve the quality of African political leadership, after handing over power in her West African country's first peaceful democratic transition in seven decades.

"The pressure builds (for democracy)," she said. "The young people today are educated, skilful, demanding, and eventually we have to listen and I think that will happen to all those that are still lagging behind."

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