 |
| Mo Ibrahim hopes the prize will encourage leaders to leave power |
Related
Stories
There is no
winner this year for the world's most valuable individual prize - the Mo
Ibrahim prize for good governance in Africa.
The $5m
(£3.2m) prize is supposed to be awarded each year to a democratically elected
leader who governed well, raised living standards and then voluntarily left
office.
The panel
said no candidate had met all of the criteria - as in 2009 and 2010.
Last year,
Cape Verde President Pedro Verona Pires won the prize.
He led the
fight against Portuguese colonialism, introduced multi-party politics and was
praised for living standards.
The $5m
prize is spread over 10 years and is followed by $200,000 a year for life.
'No
compromise'
Announcing
the decision, Mr Ibrahim said: "You make your bed, you have to lie on it.
If we said we're going to have a prize for exceptional leadership, we have to
stick to that. We are not going to compromise."
"We
are not just in the business of positive messages - we would lose our
credibility," the AFP news agency quotes him as saying.
"The
prize committee reviewed a number of candidates but none met all of the
criteria needed to win the prize," said committee member Salim Ahmed
Salim.
The two
other winners in the six years since the prize was launched were Botswana's
President Festus Mogae and Mozambique's Joaquim Chissano.
Earlier
this month, Mr Ibrahim's foundation announced a special $1m award to Archbishop
Desmond Tutu for "speaking truth to power".
The
London-based body called the cleric "one of Africa's great voices for
justice, freedom, democracy and responsible, responsive government".
Sudan-born
telecoms entrepreneur Mr Ibrahim says the good governance prize is needed
because many leaders of sub-Saharan African countries come from poor
backgrounds and are tempted to hang on to power for fear that poverty awaits
them when they leave office.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.