Earlier today, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation announced the award of its $5 million African Leadership Prize to Cape Verde’s former president, Pedro Verona Pires.
According to the foundation, Pires was awarded the prize because he had helped transform the tiny island country off the West African coast into a “model of democracy, stability and increased prosperity.”
Pires, 77, became the country’s prime minister in 1975 after playing a pivotal role in Cape Verdes’ struggle for independence from the Portuguese. In 2001, he was elected president, and went on to serve a two-term tenure which lasted a total of 10 years and ended in September. He stepped down voluntarily, despite suggestions from close associates to alter the constitution to enable him stand for re-election a third time.
Mo Ibrahim, a Sudanese-born telecoms billionaire founded a prize in 2007, to be awarded annually to an African H=head of state who delivers the socio-economic dividends of good governance to his people, voluntarily leaves office at the end of his tenure and transfers power to a successor in democratic fashion. The last winner of the award was former Botswana President Festus Mogae who won the prize in 2008. The only other winner of the award was Mozambique’s former president, Joaquim Chissano.
Even though Pires is already a wealthy man by African standards, Ibrahim is about to make him even wealthier. For winning the African Leadership Award, the former Cape Verdean president will receive $5 million over a 10 year period, followed by $200,000 a year gift for the rest of his life.
The Mo Ibrahim prize is the most valuable award in the world; but I also think it is one of the most ineffective, considering the billionaire’s motivations for setting up the award in the first place- to encourage good governance and develop a pipeline of quintessential leaders in Africa.
For some reason, Ibrahim imagines that the money is enough incentive for African leaders to spurn corruption, greed and self-interest. But in all sincerity, what appeal does $5 million really hold for a typical African leader who controls billions of dollars of a country’s resources? For African leaders like Equatorial Guinea’s Teodorin Obiang, $5 million is just sufficient change to acquire exotic cars in foreign lands.
While I salute Ibrahim’s noble intentions, I believe it is highly unlikely that the money will do much in solving Africa’s leadership problem. Ibrahim is attempting to seduce African leaders to become moral and selfless, but it is absurd to assume that the morality of African leaders can be bought with money. It is impossible to solve a greed or moral problem with financial incentives; you solve it by engineering a paradigm shift in the thinking patterns of a people.
Of course, I am in no position to dictate to Ibrahim how he should dispense his resources, but a more effective way to build a pipeline of respected leaders in Africa is by identifying and investing in Africa’s next generation of leaders, and shaping their characters from this moment to shun avaricious tendencies and embrace selflessness and servant-leadership in government; just like Fred Swaniker is doing with the African Leadership Academy.
While Ibrahim takes this route, he is on a wild goose chase for effective African leaders.