Abimbola Akosile With Agency Report
21 October 2008
Lagos — Former President of Botswana, Mr. Festus Mogae, yesterday emerged the winner of the $5 million Mo Ibrahim Prize for Good Governance in Africa.
The Ibrahim Prize, described as the most valuable individual annual prize in the world, was set up by Sudan-born telecoms entrepreneur, Mo Ibrahim. As well as the $5 million prize, Mogae, 69, is also to receive $200,000 a year for the rest of his life.
According to a BBC report, Mogae, who presided over Botswana for 10 years of growth and stability, and stepped down in April after two terms in office, said he was honoured and humbled by the award.
Botswana, according to the report, is one of Africa's most stable countries, which has never had a coup and has had regular multi-party elections since independence in 1966.
Announcing the prize, ex-United Nations Secretary-General, Dr. Kofi Annan, also commended Mogae for his action to tackle the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) pandemic.
"President Mogae's outstanding leadership has ensured Botswana's continued stability and prosperity in the face of an HIV/AIDS pandemic, which threatened the future of his country and people.
"Botswana demonstrates how a country with natural resources can promote sustainable development with good governance, in a continent where too often mineral wealth has become a curse," Annan said.
He also noted that Mogae had tried to diversify Botswana's economy away from its reliance on diamonds.
"One does one's work. One uses one's best endeavours to do a job as well as one could, and if other people then assess it and judge it to be meritorious and worthy of recognition, it's then honouring and humbling," Mogae told the BBC.
However, he also pointed out that Botswana was already doing well before he became president in 1998.
"I did not create the democracy in my country, I consolidated it and deepened it by practised, accountable governance, respect of the rule of law, independence of the courts, respect for human rights, including women's rights," he said.
But Mogae, according to reports, also inherited a country with one of the world's highest rates of HIV/AIDS and he took strong action to tackle it, making Botswana the first sub-Saharan African country where anti-retroviral drugs were widely available for free.
The drugs are known locally as 'Mogae's tablets', reports the AP news agency.
Botswana has Africa's highest average income and is seen as its least corrupt country, according to Transparency International.
It is the world's biggest diamond producer but unlike other resource-rich countries in Africa, this has not become a source of conflict.
In 2006, President Mogae's government introduced a law curbing the sale of alcohol and banning it on Sunday. He blamed alcohol for the spread of HIV/AIDS, among other problems.
But Mogae also came in for criticism from lobby group Survival International for Botswana's policy of relocating Bushmen groups away from their traditional homes in the Kalahari Desert.
Mogae, who was born in 1939, became Botswana's President in 1998 and stepped down in 2008. During his 10-year, two-term tenure, Mogae left Botswana wealthy and stable.
He was succeeded as president by Seretse Khama Ian Khama in April.
Former Mozambican President Joaquim Chissano won the inaugural Ibrahim Prize last year.
Be the first to Write a Comment!
Copyright © 2008 This 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.
