I am quite sure that Mr. Mo Ibrahim, the Sudanese billionaire businessman, was being altruistic, when he set up the prize that in effect is a generous pension fund, designed to encourage African leaders to strive to run open and accountable regimes, whiles in power. However, there are also cynics who will say that there is no better strategy for an African billionaire businessperson with diverse business interests, looking for easy access to the corridors of power across the continent (to ensure the success of projects in which he or she has an interest in), to adopt, than instituting a prize of the nature of Mo Ibrahim’s prize for ex-African leaders. It is interesting that Ghana’s former leader, ex-President Kufuor is on the shortlist of ex-African leaders being considered for the prize this year.
Those in Ghana who believe that the former Ghanaian leader is deserving of the prize, cite what they say is his main legacy: keeping Ghana stable for the eight years he led the country, and his regime’s commitment to the rule of law, as the main reasons why he deserves to be given the prize. For those who think that ex-President Kufuor is undeserving of the prize, the idea that a man who led a regime, which actively used the whole machinery of state, of a modern African nation of diverse-ethnicity, to actively promote the overweening ambitions of his tribal Chief, to enable that tribal-supremacist effectively carve out a de facto state within a state, in Nkrumah’s Ghana, rules him out of contention for such a prize. They give the example of Uganda’s sudden descent into chaos (because President Museveni let out the genie of tribalism to enable him consolidate his hold on power, when he first took over Uganda, by reinstating the pre-colonial kingdoms of Uganda), as the end-game for President Kufuor’s unholy alliance with his tribal-supremacist traditional rulers, had his party succeeded in retaining power in the December 2009 presidential and parliamentary elections.
It is the reason why such Ghanaians demand that the law be changed to make the winner of a majority of the ten regions of Ghana, the winner of the presidential election – so that no Ghanaian leader will take Ghana down the dangerous path President Kufuor took our country whiles in power. They believe that when that becomes the law, no leader will have an incentive to play Kokofu-footbal (ethnic-politricks) to enable him or her build a large enough power-base, sufficient to ensure his or her re-election to the presidency. They also say that he had the historic opportunity to change the face of Ghanaian politics forever, by keeping his vow to have zero tolerance for corruption – and add that his broken promise to publicly publish his own assets, as well as that of his wife, as the mark of an insincere man who lied to gain and hold on to power. For such Ghanaians, the idea that a man, who they say made it possible for members of his family clan, his cronies, and favourite female friends, to enjoy a golden age of business: by exploiting our national economy to enable them send their individual net worth into the stratosphere, should be given a prize designed to encourage good governance in Africa is an outrage. They give the example of one of his sons winning a contract to supply electricity meters to the Energy Commission of Ghana, which enabled him to make over US$2millions in profits, as typical of the crony-capitalism that they say was our equivalent of the “Robber Baron” era of 19th century American capitalism, during the Kufuor era. Speaking personally, one simply hopes that the eminent persons who will choose the eventual winner of the Mo Ibrahim prize for African leaders, will choose someone who truly served his people whiles in power – and set a standard of leadership worth emulating throughout Africa. A word to the wise…
Tel (powered by Tigo – the one mobile phone network in Ghana that actually works!): + 233 (0) 27 745 3109 & the not-so-hot and clueless Vodafone wireless smartphone: 
+ 233 (0) 21 976238
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