A year ago this month, Sudanese businessman Mo Ibrahim announced his plan to fund an annual prize to reward “a retired African head of state for excellence in leadership”. But here’s a little of what I wrote back then about the egocentric and oxymoronic nature of this no “Mo” corruption prize:
Ibrahim seems to think African leaders are so congenitally corrupt that the only way “to remove corruption and improve governance” in Africa is, ironically, to bribe them.
And to prove that he intends to vest this igNobel prize with (at least financial) value that surpasses that of the Nobel Prize (at $1.4 million), Ibrahim has provided for a cash gift of $5 million over 10 years, when the winner leaves office, plus $200,000 a year for life to be awarded with his “Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership (MIPAAL)”. Moreover, to adorn his prize with a patina of integrity, he has decreed that only a leader who “democratically transfers power to his successor” will be eligible to receive this golden parachute.
Unfortunately, given that it’s a long-established fringe benefit for African leaders to steal at least $5 million each year of their rule, this prize seems at best an honorable perk….
Nevertheless, I am pleased to inform you that the MIPAAL committee, chaired by former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, announced last week that former President Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique was the recipient of its inaugural prize, which is reputed to be the world’s largest prize.
But Chissano is probably only one of two African leaders (the other being former President Jerry John Rawlings of Ghana) who met the criteria for being considered – especially by leaving office voluntarily and with his reputation relatively in tact.
He served two terms as president of Mozambique – from 1986 to 2005. And, in lauding Chissano’s leadership, Annan noted that:
His decision not to seek a third presidential term reinforced Mozambique’s democratic maturity and demonstrated that institutions and the democratic process were more important than personalities.
Although, when a BBC reporter asked if Chissano’s award was tarnished by the fact that his son was under suspicion for the murder of a Mozambican journalist, Annan had to have felt extremely self-conscious when he replied, indignantly, that:
You cannot blame him for something his son is alleged to have done – his mature son!
After all, Annan invoked this same filial principle (namely, that the sins of the son should not be visited upon the father) in his own defense when he was being blamed for his son Kojo’s involvement in the UN’s $40 billion oil-for-food scam.
At any rate, after Rawlings next year and, perhaps, a retired South African President Thabo Mbeki in 2009, one wonders to whom Annan’s committee will award the MIPAAL – without the stench of corruption permeating the occasion…?
Related Articles:
Africa’s no “Mo” corruption prize
Sins of the son visiting the father
Short BBC bio of Chissano
Mo Ibrahim Prize
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