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Kufuor fails to win Mo Ibrahim’s $5million award
By Masahudu Ankiilu Kunateh, Ghanadot
Accra, Oct 21, Ghanadot - The Immediate Former President of
Ghana, John Agyekum Kufuor and other ex-African Leaders
yesterday failed to win this year’s Mo Ibrahim’s 5million award.
The Sudanese magnate Mo Ibrahim will not be awarding any African
ex-leader his $5m (£3m) annual prize for good governance.
He rather gave no reason for the decision, saying he had always
intended for there to be years when no prize would be awarded.
Now in its third year, the prize is given to a democratically
elected leader from sub-Saharan Africa who has served their term
and then left office.
According to sources within the institution, South Africa's
Thabo Mbeki and Ghana's John Kufuor had been the favourites.
The winners receive $5m over 10 years, and then $200,000 a year
for life after that - the most valuable individual annual award
in the world.
Mr Ibrahim said people could draw their own conclusions about
why no prize was awarded this year.
But he said there was "no issue of disrespect" meant towards
eligible candidates.
"The prize committee welcomed the progress made on governance in
some African countries while noting with concern recent setbacks
in other countries," said a statement from the panel which made
the decision.
Instructively, Mo Ibrahim, a Sudan-born mobile phone
entrepreneur Moved to UK in 1974 to study By 1983, director of
BT Cellnet Founded Mobile Systems International, which he sold
to Marconi in 2000.
Then he set up Celtel, used by 25m Africans 2007: Started
African leadership prize 2008: Named UK's most influential black
person
Mo Ibrahim's mobile revolution "This year the prize committee
has considered some credible candidates. However, after in-depth
review, the prize committee could not select a winner."
Former president of Ireland and UN High Commissioner for Human
Rights Mary Robinson, one of the panel-members, said that if
there had been a similar award for former European leaders this
year, it might have been equally difficult to select a worthy
winner.
Analysts say Mr Ibrahim established the prize because well-run
African democracies are not thick on the ground.
However, Mr Ibrahim argues that the prize is needed because many
African leaders come from poor backgrounds and are tempted to
hang on to power for fear that poverty is what awaits them when
they give up the levers of power.
Meanwhile, recent evidence of the prize's effectiveness across
Africa is not encouraging.
Look at the case of Uganda, Chad and Cameroon which have all
changed their constitutions so their leaders can retain their
positions.
Additionally, there have been coups in Guinea, Mauritania and
Madagascar, as well as several elections that fell well short of
international standards.
And the countries that have received most praise from Mo
Ibrahim's foundation this year - Mauritius, Cape Verde and
Seychelles - are far from the continent's centres of power.
Botswana's former President Festus Mogae Botswana won the prize
last year, after two terms at the helm of one of Africa's least
corrupt and most prosperous nations.
The inaugural prize was given to Joaquim Chissano, Mozambique's
former president, who has since acted as a mediator in several
African disputes.
Ghanadot
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