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This week, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation named outgoing Namibian President Hifikepunye Pohamba as winner of the prestigious 2014 Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership. “During the decade of his Presidential mandate, he demonstrated sound and wise leadership," Salim Ahmed Salim, the chairman of the prize committee, said at a Nairobi, Kenya, press conference. "At the same time, he maintained his humility throughout his Presidency.”
While the Ibrahim Prize may lack the name recognition of the Nobel Peace Prize, it's still a very, very big deal. In fact, the Africa-focused prize beats its Scandinavian rival in one very important way: Money. The recipient of the Ibrahim Prize is awarded more than $5 million in an initial payment that is spread over 10 years, with $200,000 every year after that for the rest of their life. It's said to be the largest prize of its kind in the world (in contrast, the Nobel Prize in 2014 was 8 million Swedish kronor – a little less than $1 million – and a gold medal).
Yet, there's also something really quite disheartening about the Ibrahim Prize: The committee that awards the prize, which is supposed to be given out every year, often finds no suitable candidates. In fact, in the eight years since it was first announced, it has been given out just four times.
Here's
how it runs down.
•2007 -- Joaquim Chissano, former president of Mozambique,
is winner. "He was a powerful voice for Africa on the international
stage and played an important role in pushing debt relief up the
agenda," former U.N. secretary general Kofi Annan said while
announcing the prize.
•2008 -- Festus Mogae, former president of Botwana, is winner.
“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," Annan said at the time.
•2009 -- No prize awarded.
•2010 -- No prize awarded.
•2011 -- Pedro Pires, former president of Cape Verde, is
winner. "The prize committee has been greatly impressed by
President Pedro Pires's vision in transforming Cape Verde into
a model of democracy, stability and increased prosperity,"
Salim told reporters.
•2012 -- No prize awarded.
•2013 -- No prize awarded.
There are no rules about prizes that say they have to be given out every year – the Nobel Peace Prize has skipped a number of years since its inception in 1901. Still, given the high monetary reward of the Ibrahim Prize and its lofty ideals, a 50 percent failure to award the prize is striking.
In
fact, it's those lofty ideals (and probably the high monetary
reward too) that explains why the prize is awarded so infrequently.
Set up by British Sudanese telecoms billionaire Mo Ibrahim in
2006, the Ibrahim Prize is awarded based on the decision made
by an independent prize committee full of heavyweight names –including
Nobel laureates Martti Ahtisaari and Mohamed ElBaradei. It has
an extremely strict set of criteria to which no exceptions are
made. On its Web site, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation lists the criteria
for potential winners:
•a former African Executive Head of State or Government
•left office in the last three years
•democratically elected
•served his/her constitutionally mandated term
•demonstrated exceptional leadership
In Africa's young democracies, where coups are more frequent than anyone would like and the most stable leaders can serve in office for almost two decades or more, sometimes finding an individual who fits every single year is not that easy. And while there are a number of good African leaders, they don't space out their exits from office to enable them all to win consecutive prizes.
Ibrahim himself acknowledges that the standards are very high. "It is a prize for excellence in leadership. We are not lowering our standards," he told Al Jazeera this week. "If this prize was offered to European presidents and leaders, how many ... would have won this prize in the last eight years?"
That's a fair point, but it's hard to miss the negative message sent by announcing that no leader in the entire continent of Africa is worthy of the prize so frequently. Each year that no winner is announced, there's a barrage of negative global headlines about the quality of African leadership. "The shame ends," is how a relieved South African newspaper the Mail and Guardian titled their coverage of Pohamba's win.
When Ibrahim first announced the prize back in 2006, he faced some criticism for putting money in the hands of wealthy, successful people rather than those who needed it most or focusing on individuals over broader systems: some even likened it to a "bribe" for elected officials to simply do their job. Ibrahim hit back at the criticisms. "If you write a good novel, or a chemistry paper, you win the Nobel Prize," Ibrahim told the Associated Press at the time. "If we have a leader take 4 or 5 million people out of poverty, this is a much greater achievement."
Even if the Ibrahim Prize were really a bribe, the fact that it was rewarded so infrequently would suggest it wasn't much of a good one. And that's because, while $5 million and a guaranteed salary may be sizable for most people, for a plundering plutocrat (or someone fearful of legal or physical repercussion from leaving office), it's peanuts. Instead, the hope is that honest leaders will put the money to good use, rather than squander it on luxury. Namibia's Pohamba, who has a solid reputation as a consensus builder, for instance, said he would use it to further the work he does with his Hifikepunye Pohamba foundation, which helps disadvantaged young people attend higher education.
Ultimately,
setting up a something like the Ibrahim Prize is always difficult.
There are a number of "Nobel Peace Prize" clones around
the world, most of which are tainted in some way or simply irrelevant.
Even the Nobel Peace Prize itself is having a bit of an existential
crisis at the moment, with committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland
demoted in an unprecedented move this week that many suspect was
linked to President Obama's 2009 award. Considering that, you
can admire how little the Ibrahim Prize has compromised –
even if it sends a troubling message.
