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The
$5 million African leadership award
Business Day (SA)
October 03, 2007
http://businessdayonline.com/Analysis/Editorial/334.html
In 2006, Mo Ibrahim launched
the world's biggest prize to reward good governance in Africa. Those
ligible for the award are past executive heads of state or government
who demonstrated, while in office, excellence in African leadership.
The five million US dollar award is distributed over ten years at
$200, 000 annually for life thereafter. In addition, the award stipulates
a further $200, 000 per year for good causes of the winner's choice
to be granted by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, the sponsor of the award.
To select the first winner,
which will be announced on October 22, 2007, the foundation selected
five eminent personalities to conduct the exercise. Those on the
2007 prize committee include the former United Nations Secretary
General, Kofi Annan; former United Nations Special Representative
for Namibia and former President of Finland, Martti Ahtisaari; former
Minister of Education in Guinea and Special Adviser to the Director-General
of UNESCO, Aicha Bah Diallo; our own former Minister of Finance
and Foreign Affairs during the Obasanjo administration, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala
others are the former President of Ireland and one time United Nations
High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson; and former prime
Minister of Tanzania and former Secretary-General of the Organisation
of African Unity, Salim Ahmed Salim.
The prize aims to encourage
leaders who fully dedicate their constitutional tenure of office
to surmount the development challenges of their countries, improving
the welfare of their people and consolidating the foundation for
sustainable development.
It is now recognised
all over the continent that bad leadership equates bad governance
and vice versa. We only need to look at Zimbabwe for an excellent
example. This award hopes to cement this by promoting good governance
by promoting good leadership. By promoting this initiative, it is
expected that it will lead to visionary and purposeful leadership
in Africa.
The idea is to encourage
and support good governance in Africa. We believe the significance
of this award is not lost on those that believe that the main problem
of Africa over the decades has been the failure of leadership to
provide good governance. Africa has been unfortunate to have leaders
that were interested only in stealing billions and causing wars,
ethnic cleansing, and impoverishing their people. In a continent
that is often associated only with wars, famine, disease, bad leadership,
misery, etc, the prize must be commended because it goes to the
root of the whole matter, rather than seek to treat the symptoms.
The award has been regarded
in some quarters as the equivalent of the Nobel Prize, this time
for honest leaders. Eligible candidates are former executive heads
of state or government in any Sub Sahara African (SSA) state who
have taken office through democratic elections and who have left
office in the previous three years. In addition to this, the criteria
include measures of governance on sustainable economic development;
impact on health and education; transparency and empowerment of
civil society, democracy and human rights; and the rule of law and
security.
While we wait for the
announcement of the first winner or no winner on the October 22,
2007, we cannot but imagine which African leaders in the past three
years meet such an all encompassing test of national leadership.
In the same vein we applaud this remarkable initiative and hope
that African leaders will be spurred on by this prospective reward.
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