“When my day comes, I will go to the grave knowing I did what I was supposed to do.” These are the words of Mo Ibrahim — the founder of the famous Mo Ibrahim Foundation.
The Sudanese billionaire created the foundation in 2006 to celebrate excellence in African leadership. He has, however, raised a red flag over the mass youth unemployment on the continent.
Mo on Friday told the Star in a phone interview that the current huge number of youth unemployment gives him chills every time he thinks about it.
He said though the young generation is the most precious thing Africa has, it can be termed as a double-edged sword — a blessing and a curse.
To him, the future of Africa’s young generation is crippled with unusual democratic situation, with the market failing to accommodate the majority of people of the working age.
“If jobs are not created for this group, it will suddenly lose hope and resort to political unrest, illegal immigrations and deaths at seas, with many countries having to deal with rising cases of terrorism,” Mo warned.
Education and training is key, he said, noting that many African countries have recorded remarkable development in education for the past 15 years, but unfortunately stagnated for some five years.
“Kenya has the right platform and a big voice to shout out youth unemployment. These youths are a huge asset if tamed into an effective workforce, but failure to create jobs means we must prepare to deal with the consequences,” Mo said.
The second red flag putting many African countries on the spot is climate change, he added. If not urgently dealt with, it will cripple all the gains made.
“Let’s be realistic about Africa. This is not one country, but a continent with 54 countries, which have their very unique challenges,” Mo added.
Sixty per cent of the African populations live in the rural areas and depend on farming and animal breeding. Mo says, however, that climate change has crippled agriculture, which is key to any economic growth.
He said unpredictable weather patterns have led to huge losses to many farmers. They lose the will to farm and cultivate crops. The farmers’ problems are compounded by lack of a strong political voice to champion their interests, leading to community conflicts.
“What happens when pastoralists move on agricultural land to graze their animals? It is common knowledge the farmers will move to defend their lands and, in such an incident, the end result has been conflicts,” Mo said.
“This is why you can’t fit Africa just in one headline. We must go slow and look at real issues affecting each government in terms of determining what governance is.”
The billionaire said no amount of foreign aid can create good governance, unless all the African countries are willing to overcome the problems surrounding ethnicity and inequality.
Any country cannot move forward in good governance if it does not collectively fix its problems — corruption, poor infrastructure and the deteriorating health of its citizens.
“We have quantified governance in four components that form the categories of the IIAG as safety and the rule of law, participation and human rights, sustainable economic opportunity, and human development,” he said.
The four components have generated 100 parameters that the foundation has used to determine whether the index has served its purpose.
He said foreigners see Africa as an enigma and have used the Mo Ibrahim’s index to evaluate what a given government is doing in terms of governance.
“African governments have, therefore, taken keen interest in the index because it affects businesses and foreign monetary aid,” he said.
“I can say Kenya is one of the African countries that have a strong political polarisation from family and tribe. If its leaders dream of having strong democratic governance, they have to objectively discuss how to handle the four key components in this index.”
Good governance does not come overnight, Mo said. It takes collective efforts from all players.
He said the quality and contribution of leadership in African governments is determined by its presidents and prime ministers, who have the responsibility of assessing the risks, prioritizing for their countries and focusing national efforts to ensure they are delivered.
“Get these decisions right and a country and its people can move forward — no matter what obstacles are in their way. Get it wrong and, despite commitment and hard work, progress will stall or go into reverse,” Mo said.
He said the index defines governance as the provision of the political, social and economic public goods and services that every citizen has the right to expect from their state, and a state has the responsibility to deliver to its citizens.
The 2017 index is expected to be launched today.
Mo said the Ibrahim Prize has the potential to change perceptions of African leadership by showcasing exceptional role models from the continent.
The significance of the prize to him lies not only with its winners, but also with the leadership conversation it generates.
The prize comes with $5 million (about Sh500 million) over 10 years and a $200,000 (Sh20 million) per year for life thereafter. It recognises and celebrates African leaders who, under challenging circumstances, have developed their countries and strengthened democracy and human rights for the shared benefit of their people, paving the way for sustainable and equitable prosperity.
The prize also highlights exceptional role models for the continent and ensures Africa continues to benefit from the experience and wisdom of exceptional leaders once they have left the national office, by enabling them to continue in other public roles.
The prize does not necessarily get a winner every year. It is an award and a standard for excellence in leadership, not a ‘first prize’.
The prize targets former African executive heads of state or government who left office in the last three years and were democratically elected, served their constitutionally mandated terms and demonstrated exceptional leadership.
Only four winners have been announced since the award’s inception — Joaquim Chissano (Mozambique) in 2007, Festus Mogae (Botswana) in 2008, Pedro Pires (Cape Verde) in 2011, and Hifikepunye Pohamba (Namibia) in 2014.
Every year, a very high bar has been deliberately set.
“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,” prize committee chairman Ahemed Salim said in an article.
After careful consideration, the committee decided not to award the prize last year.
“It was, in fact, our 10th conclusive meeting — a good time to take stock of what’s been achieved in the past decade. What’s clear is that the prize has been successful in focussing attention and stimulating debate on the importance of leadership in Africa. It has also provided the platform, as was hoped, for outstanding individuals to continue their invaluable work in public life,” Salim said.
There have been speculations and confusions over how the committee arrives at its decisions and the criteria used to identify the most outstanding individual.
Salim said when the committee decides not to award the prize — as happened last year — its decision is seized as an indictment of the poor standards of leadership on the continent.
“This is a misunderstanding of the scope and purpose of the Ibrahim Prize. From the very beginning, the bar set for the prize has been extremely high. It recognises not good leaders — of which Africa has many — but truly exceptional figures which, by their nature, are rare. So, it is not surprising that there have been years when the prize is not awarded,” he said.
Salim said all laureates have a common link — the transformative impact their leadership had on their country and people.
He said candidates in the prize are expected to have left a very strong legacy in their country, including its democratic culture, making it a much better state than when they took office.
To him, it goes far beyond requiring leaders to step down willingly at the end of their constitutional term.
There have also been complaints that by limiting the prize to such a narrow group of solely political leaders, it is discriminating against the contribution of those in civil society or business. But Salim said that is a false assumption.
He said all board and prize committee members are aware that the success of a country and society depends on the efforts of many people and many leaders.
Salim said while Pires, the 2011 laureate, has used the prize to set up an leadership institute to give young leaders the capability to drive development in Cape Verde and across Africa, Mogae (2008) has brought high-profile African figures together, including the 2007 winner Chissano and the 2014 winner Pohamba, to advocate an HIV-free generation and press for effective solutions to the disease.
He said both presidents Chissano and Mogae have also been active in mediating conflicts and disputes, notably in Madagascar, northern Uganda and South Sudan.
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