POLITICS-AFRICA: The Ultimate Golden Handshake

By Moyiga Nduru Reprint | | Print |

Moyiga Nduru

JOHANNESBURG, Oct 27 2006 (IPS) - Various African researchers and civil society groups have given a mixed response to the launch of a five-million-dollar prize for African leaders who relinquish power and promote good governance.

The winning leader will receive the money over ten years after he or she leaves office voluntarily, together with a pension of 200,000 dollars a year for life. This makes the award the world’s largest, exceeding the 1.3 million dollars given for the Nobel Peace Prize.

A double launch is being held for the prize, in London (an event which took place on Thursday this week), and in South Africa’s commercial hub of Johannesburg this coming Monday.

Starting next year, the winner will receive the award from Sudanese-born mobile phone tycoon Mo Ibrahim, who is now based in Britain. The winner will be judged by his or her record in security matters, education, health and economic development.

“I find it a bit problematic. It’s patronizing; it’s a misplaced prize,” Oduor Ongwen, director of the Kenyan branch of the Southern and Eastern African Trade Information and Negotiations Institute, told IPS.

“I don’t think we have to bribe our leaders to relinquish power. What we need in Africa is building institutions and respecting them,” he added. “Giving cash awards portrays African leaders as incorrigibly corrupt.”

Similar sentiments have been expressed by other campaigners.

“I don’t think it’s a good concept,” said Daniel Molokela of the Johannesburg-based Zimbabwe Combined Civil Society Organisations.

“The award presupposes that African leaders stay in power because they want to accumulate wealth. I think they have already accumulated enough wealth. They cling to power to protect themselves. They fear that they would be prosecuted by their successors after giving up power.”

Molokela said these concerns were exemplified by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, in office since independence in 1980.

“Mugabe fears criminal charges…He fears he will be tried for the atrocities his regime committed in the Matabeleland (in southern Zimbabwe in the 1980s). Right now, I don’t think he will step down. He may prefer to die in office – or retire when he feels he’s too old to stand trial,” he told IPS.

“The five million dollars is peanuts. I’m sure he has accumulated more than that. This award will not encourage him to retire.”

Other African leaders who have remained in office for lengthy periods include President Paul Biya of Cameroon (24 years), Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni (20 years) and Omar Bongo – who has dominated politics in the oil-rich West African nation of Gabon for 39 years.

Mobutu Sese Seko, forced out of office by rebels backed by Rwanda and Uganda, ruled Zaire – now the Democratic Republic of Congo – for 32 years.

For David Monyae, a lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, the award should have addressed debt relief, the fight against poverty, or been used to assist institutions such as universities in conducting research.

“Generally, it’s a good idea – it encourages good governance. But African leaders are not the only ones making an impact on the ground. It would have been better if this kind of reward could be awarded within the ambit of the AU or NEPAD, driven by Africans. It should not be an individual-bound prize,” he said.

The AU is the 53-member African Union, while NEPAD, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development, seeks investment in return for good governance on the continent.

A number of leading figures such as former South African president Nelson Mandela, British Premier Tony Blair, former U.S. president Bill Clinton and United Nations Secretary-General Koffi Anan are backing the initiative.

Board members of the Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership Foundation, a charity, include former Irish president Mary Robinson; World Bank Managing Director Mamphela Ramphele; Lalla Ben-Barka, deputy executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa – and former Organisation of African Union secretary-general Salim Ahmed Salim.

Ibrahim sold his mobile firm, Celtel, to a Kuwaiti company for 3.4 billion dollars last year, according to information provided by the foundation – which also notes that Celtel operates mobile networks in 15 African countries, where it has invested 750 million dollars.