African 'good leader' award fails to find winner
The committee of the £3 million Mo Ibrahim award for achievement in African leadership, which includes Kofi Annan and Mohamed El-Baradei, said that despite considering "some credible candidates" it could not select a winner for its annual good governance award.
By Mike Pflanz in Nairobi
Published: 1:08PM BST 19 Oct 2009
Monday's announcement is a reflection of a series of setbacks in African democracy this year, after coups in Guinea, Madagascar and Mauritius.
Other long-term leaders have changed their countries' constitutions to allow them to serve longer, automatically exempting them from the world's richest annually-awarded international prize.
Mo Ibrahim, a British-Sudanese mobile phone billionaire, set up the prize in 2007 to reward African heads of state who step down when they should, run democratic elections and safeguard their national exchequers from corruption.
Winners are given the prize money over 10 years and then £120,000 a year for life to support them after they leave office.
Mozambique's former President Joaquim Chisano and Botswana's former leader Festus Mogae were the first two recipients.
Front-runners for the 2009 award included John Kufuor of Ghana and Thabo Mbeki of South Africa.
As many as 11 leaders who left office during 2006, 2007 and 2008 were eligible.
"The Foundation's focus is the promotion of good governance in Africa and the recognition of excellence in African leadership," the prize committee said in a statement.
"We welcomed the progress made on governance in some African countries while noting with concern recent setbacks in other countries.
"This year [we] considered some credible candidates. However, after in-depth review, the Prize Committee could not select a winner . view-source:African 'good leader' award fails to find winner - Telegraph
