Only three years after it was set up the Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership — the brain child of Mo Ibrahim, the Sudanese-born mobile phone tycoon — has apparently run out of suitable candidates.
The problem for the organisers is that the $5million (£3million) prize plus $200,000 salary for the rest of the recipient’s life is restricted to former presidents and heads of state who have stood down from office in the previous three years.
That rules out most of Africa’s leaders, many of whom have been in power for decades.
This year the favourites for the award, which is funded by Mr Ibrahim, included South Africa’s Thabo Mbeki, Olusegun Obasanjo of Nigeria’s and John Kufuor of Ghana. None appears to have been deemed worthy.
Mr Mbeki was ousted last year after losing a bitter power struggle within the ruling African National Congress (ANC). He was criticised for his attitude towards HIV-Aids, which observers say led to the premature deaths of some 300,000 people, and his refusal to condemn Robert Mugabe’s rule in Zimbabwe.
Nigeria remains one of the most corrupt governments in Africa. Mr Obasanjo’s rule ended in chaos and recriminations over alleged last- minute deals for hims and his family. Mr Kufuor won plaudits for stepping down after losing an election by a whisker but his Government’s record of achievement is more dubious.
The prize set up Ibrahim to encourage African leaders to leave office in a similar way to Nelson Mandela — who served only one term after becoming the first democratically elected leader of South Africa in 1994 — was first awarded in 2007 to Joaquim Chissano, the former President of Mozambique. Last year it went to Botswana’s Festus Mogae, who resisted the temptation to change the constitution and stepped down after two terms.
Mr Ibrahim gave no official reason for the decision and said that he had always intended that there would be years when no prize was given. He added that people could draw their own conclusions as to why.
“The prize committee welcomed the progress made on governance in some African countries while noting with concern recent setbacks in other countries,” said and official statement from the panel that made the decision. “This year the prize committee has considered some eligible candidates. However, after in-depth review the committee could not select a winner.”
Mary Robinson, the former President of Ireland, one of the most senior panel members, attempted to shift the spotlight off the continent’s shortage of candidates by saying that if a similar prize were awarded to European countries it would have been equally difficult to select a worthy winner.
If only they could so Africa's untold success story, Somaliland. They would then award Somalilands own Nelson Mandela, Mujahid Silanyo
