The unexceptional Johnson Sirleaf
The Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership was established more than a decade ago, with the aim of recognising and rewarding exceptional African leadership. Too often, it has risked achieving the opposite.
In 12 years, just five presidents have made the cut. This week, Liberia’s former president Ellen Johnson Sirleaf became the latest to receive the prestigious award, which comes with more than $5-million prize money.
But most years there is no former African head of state who comes close to meeting the Mo Ibrahim Foundation’s strict criteria. Not only must a president have been elected democratically and left office within their constitutionally mandated terms, but they must also have demonstrated “exceptional leadership” during their tenure.
In the barren years, when there is no winner, the foundation risks reinforcing the negative stereotypes the prize was designed to combat: that there is no such thing as good African leadership.
In the early years, the press conferences to announce the winner — or lack thereof — were high-profile events, sometimes spanning several cities. But this attention exacerbated the gloomy headlines when no winner could be found. Now, the PR strategy is a simple press release, in an effort to limit the damage.
But, even when the prize is awarded, it can send the wrong message.
When asked whether his prize does more harm than good, Sudanese billionaire Mo Ibrahim has emphasised that the prize is for “exceptional” leadership; that it was not designed to be handed out every year.
It’s a good response: the prize was never intended to reward presidents simply for doing their job. But, in doing so, Ibrahim gives the prize committee a major headache when it comes to finding a suitable candidate. “Good enough” won’t do. It must be “exceptional”, or nothing — in theory, at least.
That’s why this week’s announcement of Johnson Sirleaf as the latest laureate is so contentious. Africa’s first woman head of state has received praise for stabilising Liberia after the end of the civil war. But her tenure was marred by allegations of corruption and nepotism, including by her fellow 2011 Nobel Peace prize winner Leymah Gbowee, a prominent Liberian civil society activist.
Although a darling of the international community, Johnson Sirleaf’s reputation in Liberia is far more mixed. In the 2017 presidential election, for which Johnson Sirleaf was ineligible, her vice-president distanced himself from her, for fear that her unpopularity with the electorate would derail his own campaign.
The committee that awards the Ibrahim Prize, which includes former South African and Mozambican first lady Graça Machel, and Nobel peace prizewinners Mohamed ElBaradei and Martti Ahtisaari, tacitly acknowledged Sirleaf’s flaws. “Such a journey cannot be without some shortcomings,” they said in the citation.
But this did not prevent them from concluding: “… confronted with unprecedented and renewed challenges, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf demonstrated exceptional and transformative leadership. Today, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf stands tall in victory.”
Not everyone is so sure. “Replace Ellen Johnson Sirleaf with any other individual and give them the kind of backing she received, whether its in terms of the debt write-off, the international forces stationed in Liberia, the help her government received with reconstruction projects … give that to anybody and they would have done the basics,” said Fonteh Akum, a senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies. “An exceptional leader would have done more.”
Is Johnson Sirleaf exceptional? The answer is far from straightforward. But in glossing over her flaws, especially the well-documented accusations of corruption and nepotism, the prize committee is unintentionally endorsing them.
It seems the bar for exceptional leadership is not so high after all.
It’s a delicate balancing act for the foundation, which is damned if it does and damned if it doesn’t — when the prize is not awarded, it plays into negative stereotypes; but when a candidate is chosen, the prize committee risks condoning egregious governance abuses.
In the cut-throat world of African politics, few leaders can truly lay claim to the exceptionalism that the foundation seeks to reward. Maybe it is time to stop aiming for a perfection that does not exist and, instead, acknowledge that sometimes “good enough” will have to do. When 36-million naira (R1.2-million) disappeared from the office of the Nigerian examination board, clerk Philomena Chieshe had a ready explanation for investigators. The money wasn’t stolen, she said, it had been swallowed by a snake. The excuse was widely derided on social media, while Chieshe herself has walked away from the claim, saying that she was set up by her superior officers.
Bob Marley memorial
Bob Marley’s estate has given Zimbabwe the go-ahead to erect a statue in honour of the music icon, who performed at the country’s independence celebrations in 1980. Marley covered all his own costs and refused a performance fee. The proposed site for the 8m bronze statue is Rufaro Stadium in Harare, where the musician performed. Former president Robert Mugabe was not a fan of the reggae artist — he reportedly wanted Cliff Richard to play at the inauguration instead.
Sexist sermon shuts radio
Rwanda’s media watchdog has ordered a three-month shut down of a Christian radio station after it broadcast a sermon denigrating women. The radio station, Amazing Grace FM, broadcast a sermon by Pastor Nicolas Niyibikora, in which he called women dangerous and evil. The National Women’s Association and the Women’s Journalist Association to the Rwanda Media Commission both complained about the broadcast. The radio station is owned by American evangelist Gregg Schoof. —