Five million dollars for being a good African leader. A bribe or a form of recognition?

Festus Mogae, the former president of Botswana, has won the second annual Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership.

As reports state, Kofi Annan, the chairman of the prize committee and former United Nations secretary general, said Mogae won the $5-million US prize for outstanding leadership that had ensured Botswana’s ongoing stability and prosperity.

“The prize committee believes that good governance requires an environment conducive to peace, security and development, based on the rule of law and respect for human rights. Botswana has had to address the challenge of advancing each in a balanced way,” Annan said.

“President Mogae’s outstanding leadership has ensured Botswana’s continued stability and prosperity in the face of an HIV/AIDS pandemic which threatened the future of his country and people,” Annan said.

Mogae, who studied economics in the United Kingdom, worked for the International Monetary Fund and the Bank of Botswana before serving as vice president for six years, and becoming President in 1998.

Critics have dismissed the prize as just a bribe to get African leaders to behave themselves. Perhaps, but 5 million dollars is not that much money when it comes to amount available in the state treasury for most African countries. Is 5 million dollars- which doesn’t come in a lump sum, but rather is allocated over 10 years, – really enough to successfully bribe a leader into doing well when they could just loot their countries for all its worth?

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