The
Mo Ibrahim’s prize for achievement in African leadership was announced
few weeks ago and for the umpteenth time there was no clear cut winner
for the coveted prize among past African leaders.
After
reading the news, I remembered a discussion with a colleague at work
recently on the personality of Mo himself and how best he could channel
his God-given wealth to develop his home of descent – Sudan.
My
colleague had argued that instead of Mo investing so much as high as 5
million dollars on African leaders, it would not be out of place if he
directly spend or invest it in Sudan or some countries battling with
economic challenges within the continent.
Since
I was a novice about what he is saying I had to keep quiet but was
quick to marshal out my point as well and told him I have heard so much
about him and that he was at the anti-corruption conference held in
London of recent alongside Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari among
others.
So, who is Mo Ibrahim?
After
the announcement that there was no winner in this year’s edition of the
award, I was further challenged to do some googling about his
personality and his rationale for setting up the African Leadership
Achievement Prize.
There
I found out that Mo is a Sudanese-British Billionaire with investment
majorly in telecommunication and one of the most powerful persons in the
United Kingdom.
The
foundation he set up has been in the fore-front of sponsoring the
African Leadership Prize which is geared towards celebrating leaders
from the continent who had contributed immensely to the growth of their
country.
From
my research, one of the objectives of the prize is to ensure that
Africa continues to benefit from the experience and expertise of
exceptional leaders when they leave national office, by enabling them to
continue in other public roles on the continent.
Aside the 5 million dollars
prize, it is expected that such Leader will earn 200,000 dollars monthly
for the rest of his or her life.
That’s breathtaking you will
say? Well, it was borne out of the free will of the donor which aims at
encouraging African Leaders to invest vigorously in the countries they
govern while also ensuring that such legacies are sustainable.
That the monetary value of the
Ibrahim’s Prize is higher than the coveted Nobel Prize for Peace is
also an indication that Mo meant well for Leaders from his continent of
origin.
Since
the Prize commenced in 2007, it has been won by four African Leaders,
the last being former President of Namibia, Mr Hifikepunye Pohamba, .
In
2007, President Joaquim Chissano from Mozambique won the inaugural
Prize while South African Leader, Nelson Mandela was an honorary awardee
for that year. The award was not given to any Leader in 2009, 2010,
2012, 2013 and of late, 2015.
Will it elude past African leaders in 2016 as well? Only time will tell.
So
what’s my concern about someone’s else intention to reward African
leaders for their achievements? The answer is not farfetched.
Most
of these leaders are rich already while some of them will get life
pensions and allowances after leaving the office. Why I am not saying
leaders who have contributed immensely to the development of their
countries should not be celebrated, what the sponsors of the Ibrahim’s
Prize need to do is to look at sectors in which such huge amount of
money can be invested.
Sectors
like Science and Technology, Universal Health Coverage, Water Supply,
Electricity, Education, Agriculture and Research among others can be
prioritized, thus taking the continent out of the quagmire facing it in
terms of funding these sectors.
Some specialized higher
institutions on the continent have been established for the purpose of
research in Medicine, Agriculture and Science and Technology. Such
institutions are lacking adequate funds and they need grants to further
consolidate on the mandate of establishing them.
Mo
Ibrahim need to review his mandate on the 5 million dollars African
Leadership Prize by channeling it to the development of countries and
institutions on the continent rather than her leaders.
Africa
need more philanthropists like the Sudanese-British billionaire at the
moment in order to take her rightful place among the comity of nations.
Ours
is a continent that is rich with abundant resources and talents which
will take up the world in the near future. Suffice it to say that most
innovations and inventions we see in America and the West today were
developed by African brains.
Hakeem-Adebumiti writes from Ondo State, Nigeria. Contact via twitter @hakeemadebumiti
Views expressed are solely that of author and does not represent views of www.omojuwa.com nor its associates
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