One can only imagine the excitement among members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee as they discussed all of the reasons why President Barack Obama was worthy of being awarded this year’s Nobel Peace Prize.
By contrast, one can only imagine the despair among members of the Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership (MIPAAL) committee as they discussed all of the reasons why no African leader was worthy of being awarded this year’s MIPAAL.
Alas, this is the fateful inference one has to make after the MIPAAL committee issued a statement yesterday which read, in part, as follows:
The prize committee welcomed the progress made on governance in some African countries while noting with concern recent setbacks in other countries. This year the prize committee has considered some credible candidates. However, after in-depth review, the prize committee could not select a winner.
For the record, though, here’s the cynical note I sounded three years ago this month, when others were heralding the MIPAAL as a truly worthy alternative to the Nobel (never mind that I don’t think the Nobel is all it’s cracked up to be):
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 … 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….
[Businessman launches the Africa No “Mo” Corruption Prize, TIJ October 27, 2006]
More to the point, here’s how I greeted the announcement of the first recipient of the MIPAAL, which Ibrahim touted – without a hint of irony or shame – as the most lucrative prize in the world:
President Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique is probably only one of two African leaders (the other being former President Jerry John Rawlings of Ghana) who met the criteria; especially the one that requires a leader to leave office voluntarily and with his reputation relatively in tact…
At any rate, after Rawlings [of Ghana] 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…?
[Africa’s igNobel prize awarded to Joaquim Chissano, TIJ, October 30, 2007]
But, evidently, even I did not fully appreciate what a joke this prize would turn out to be. After all, despite being as qualified as any African leader could be, neither Rawlings nor Mbeki was deemed worthy.
All the same, this vindicates my suspicion that the MIPAAL was always more about Mo Ibrahim’s ego than about promoting good governance in Africa. Now I suspect that the committee’s failure to present an award this year has more to do with his dwindling bank account than with the failure of anyone to qualify for the prize. (Forbes Magazine estimates that Ibrahim lost $500 million of his $2.5 billion fortune last year.)
There may be years where no winner is chosen, and this is such a year.
(Mo Ibrahim)
No kidding!
Accordingly, I hope all of the international dignitaries, including former UN Secretary-General and Nobel Laureate Kofi Annan, who Ibrahim lured onto his committee to select the annual recipient of his MIPAAL, now have the good sense to resign en masse instead of continuing to be associated with this farce.
Related commentaries:
Obama awarded (affirmative action) Nobel Peace Prize
Africa’s igNobel prize awarded to Joaquim Chissano
Businessman launches the Africa No “Mo” Corruption Prize
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