Dianna Games
22 October 2007
column
Johannesburg — WHO will be the winner of Africa's richest prize for governance?
Could it be a liberation leader, a Marxist, a coup leader, a man who created a personality cult around himself, a third-termer or just a good old-fashioned head of state who tried to do the right thing?
Today is the day that one former African head of state will walk away with a $5m nest egg, when a panel of experts announces the winner of the Mo Ibrahim prize for good leadership.
The prize, established by Sudanese cellphone magnate Mo Ibrahim, is supported by luminaries such as Nelson Mandela and Kofi Annan. But the exercise raises many questions and highlights the downhill slide from the lofty vision of leaders such as Kwame Nkrumah.
Many candidates for the prize -- all presidents who have left power since 2004 qualify -- performed without incentives to get them to do the right thing. And it shows.
For example, Togo, a country not associated with good governance, has two qualifying candidates. One, Gnassingbe Eyadema, was, until his death in 2005, Africa's longest-serving leader (38 years). He, along with many other leaders, showed there was no connection between the length of tenure and the quality of governance.
Former Mauritanian leader Maaouya Ould Sid'Ahmed Taya, also a qualifier, came to power in a coup in 1984 and was forcibly removed in 2005 after a decades-long stint in power marked by crackdowns on political opposition, rigged elections and religious intolerance.
Military dictator-turned-democrat Mathieu Kerekou of Benin seized power in 1972 and remained in charge for most of the time until he lost an election last year. Although he helped to restore stability, the country remains one of Africa's poorest.
Azali Assoumani, president of the Comores, seized power in 1999. He won a subsequent election but unsuccessfully sought to change the constitution in 2005 to allow him to run for a second term.
Then there is a crop of presidents closer to home -- Mozambique's Joaquim Chissano, Namibia's Sam Nujoma, Benjamin Mkapa of Tanzania and Bakili Muluzi of Malawi. This is a mixed bag of performers but is likely to produce the winner today.
To be fair, many of Africa's past leaders faced a difficult task in a climate that was generally hostile to good governance. In coup-ridden west Africa, for example, leaders trying to create a more democratic order faced the continual challenge of being ousted at the barrel of a gun.
Ibrahim's defence of his prize is that departing leaders in Africa are faced with poor options that generally include relative poverty, term extension or corruption. But frankly, most of the candidates on the list have had the power to change the nature of the state for both their own good and that of their people. That they failed to do so means they must ultimately pay the price, as their citizens have had to.
The situation is improving -- there is a growing list of countries where the people have got rid of those leaders who tried to overstay their welcome, using the law rather than the gun. That is a good start but it is not happening fast enough, as evidenced by Zimbabwe, where a whole generation of adults has known only one calamitous leader.
The debate about Ibrahim's prize revolves around whether leaders should have an incentive -- or is it a bribe? -- to run their countries responsibly and efficiently.
Critics of his plan believe Africans should expect good governance, not feel that they have to reward it as something extraordinary.
One blog I came across sums it up: "While heads of government on other continents are expected to deliver peace and prosperity with only their people's gratitude and a pension as compensation, in Africa's case this is considered to be a tall order."
Integrity, and with it good governance, is its own reward. Career opportunities as elder statesmen flow from that. Look at Mandela.
And anyway, rewards for good governance should be conferred on the people, not their leaders, in the form of economic growth, employment and opportunities.
Games is director of Africa @ Work, an African consulting company.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2007 Business Day. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections — or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here.
AllAfrica aggregates and indexes content from over 125 African news organizations, plus more than 200 other sources, who are responsible for their own reporting and views. Articles and commentaries that identify allAfrica.com as the publisher are produced or commissioned by AllAfrica.
