For the second year running, no African leader ‘deserves’ Mo Ibrahim award

February 28, 2017 2:30 pm

The Mo Ibrahim Foundation has announced that there is no winner of the 2016 Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership.

This is the second year in a row that the foundation, established to honour outstanding African leaders, will withhold the award.

In a statement on Tuesday, the foundation said it made the decision following a meeting of the independent prize committee chaired by Salim Ahmed Salim, a renowned diplomat.

The statement quoted Salim to have said: “As I emphasise each year, a very high bar was deliberately set when the prize was launched in 2006.

“We recognise and applaud the important contributions that many African leaders have made to change their countries for the better. But the prize is intended to highlight and celebrate truly exceptional leadership, which is uncommon by its very definition.

“After careful consideration, the committee has decided not to award the prize in 2016.”

The candidates for the Ibrahim Prize are all former African executive heads of state or government who have left their office during the last three calendar years (2014-2016), having been democratically elected and served their constitutionally mandated term.

Since being launched in 2006, the Ibrahim Prize has been awarded four times.

The previous Laureates are President Hifikepunye Pohamba of Namibia (2014), President Pedro Pires of Cabo Verde (2011), President Festus Mogae of Botswana (2008), and President Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique (2007). Nelson Mandela was the inaugural Honorary Laureate in 2007.