Good Governance Award Given to Botswana's Former President | Voice of America - English
The foundation created by Sudanese-born British businessman Mo Ibrahim is awarding its annual prize for good governance in Africa to Botswana's former president Festus Mogae.
African dignitaries,several past and present world leaders, and members of the Mo IbrahimFoundation gathered in Alexandria, Egypt Saturday to honor Botswana'sformer president Festus Mogae with the second annual Mo Ibrahim Award,given to the continent's best governing and most outstanding formerleader. The prize, worth $5 million dispensed over a ten yearperiod, with an additional $200,000 annual stipend after that, wasestablished by Sudanese-born, British telecommunications magnate MoIbrahim in 2007. Last year's prize went to former Mozambique presidentJoaquim Chissano. Former U.N. secretary-general Kofi Annan, whopresided over the selection of Mr. Mogae, spoke about the virtues ofthe former Botswanan leader at a ceremony in London announcing theprize-winner several weeks ago. "I'm delighted to announce thatthe winner is Festus Gutambanje Mogae," he said. "When elected in1998, President Festus Mogae took over a country which was already oneof the continent's success stories. Its democracy was strong, stableand rooted in the rule of law." "Botswana was widely regardedas one of the more effective countries in the world in combatingcorruption. President Mogae's outstanding leadership has insuredBotswana's continuous stability and prosperity in the face of HIV/AIDSpandemic, which threatened the future of his country and people. Thisgreatly impressed the committee," he added. Mr. Mogae has been atrailblazer in the fight against the deadly HIV virus in his nativeBotswana, as well as a champion of the environment and protecting thecontinent's natural resources. He spoke of his crusade to defend theenvironment at an International Conservation Foundation gathering in2007. "The future of our planet is dependent on how well we carefor the environment and manage our natural resources," said PresidentMogae. "I will highlight our effort and the challenges we are facedwith in the management of the environment and protection of our naturalresources in our little Botswana. I should add that the support of theU.S. government, the international community, and the private sectorwill greatly enhance our efforts." Mo Ibrahim, the founder ofthe African cell-phone giant Celtel, is contributing up to $5 millionof his own money to set up the foundation which is making the annualAfrican good-governance award. Ibrahim's foundation is also publishingan index of good governance in Africa each year, which includes suchbenchmarks as security, economic opportunities, transparency,democracy, human rights, education, and health. Ibrahim toldal-Jazeera TV's David Frost, during an interview last year, that thecornerstone of his foundation was "not the annual prize? but theindex... which has 70 parameters? and gives a score card for eachcountry in Africa." This year's index was presented at aceremony in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, in October, duringwhich Ibrahim spoke of the need for good governance. "I thinkwe're all aware of the importance of good leadership inAfrica... actually, everywhere, but particularly in Africa," said Ibrahim. "A lot really is at stake there. We witness a new generationof African leadership coming through to take us forward." "In Addis Ababa,we launched a index for this year: the index for African governance,and we're very pleased to notice that two-thirds of the Africancountries managed to improve the standard of governance over the year,compared with the previous year. These are good news. Unfortunately,good news are masked by the trouble spots in two or three places inAfrica. But Africa has 53 countries and there's a lot of good newshappening in Africa. So, today, we try and separate and bring the goodnews forward," he continued. Christiaan Poortman, of Berlin-based TransparencyInternational, which puts out its own index of good governance andcorruption across the globe, tells the VOA in a phone interview why hethinks it is important to honor Africa's best leaders. "It'sobviously a global issue, but particularly in the African context it'suseful to identify people who might be role models in terms of theirbehavior in bringing transparency and accountability to governance andgovernments," said Poortman. "Well, Mr. Mogae is a man with a verygreat reputation for being a very responsible, transparent andaccountable leader; as a matter of fact, Botswana has a long history,as you may know, of a very particular type of governance, whichgenerally is perceived to be very much in line with what one would liketo see an accountable government look like. I think Mr. Mogae hasembodied that and I think he is indeed a role model that one would liketo see followed," he added. Not everyone, however, is entirely pleasedabout the Mo Ibrahim Prize, or of its winner, despite an overwhelminglypositive reception for both former president Mogae and the IbrahimPrize from the media. A London-based Africa analyst, CameronDuodu, told al-Jazeera TV's  that he questioned themotivation of giving a prize to an African leader who was "merely doinghis job," albeit "doing it well." Another group, calling itself"Survival International," is criticizing the award and Mr. Mogae forallegedly evicting members of Botswana's Bushman Tribe from theirancestral lands.