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Mo Ibrahim Prize
MO IBRAHIM PRIZE | ||
| Five million US dollars is a lot of | electorates − and to create systems | |
| money. But will it be enough of an | of public accountability to make that | |
| incentive to keep an African head | debate well-informed. Mo Ibrahim is | |
| of state on the straight and narrow? | doing just that by setting up a rigorous | |
| The annual prize just announced by | new index to measure good governance | |
| Africa’s most successful businessman, |
 Mo Ibrahim | |
| the mobile phone entrepreneur Mo | ||
| Ibrahim, will offer a substantial | ||
| pension to leaders on that continent | ||
| who provide good government to | ||
| their subjects − and then leave office | ||
| when the constitution says they | ||
| should. | ||
| It is certainly a bold initiative. The | ||
| temptation for leaders in Africa has | ||
| been to line their pockets in | ||
| anticipation of the day when the | ||
| mansions, cars, banquets and fine | ||
| wines evaporate as they leave power. | ||
| The theory is that if a departing | ||
| president knows he is in the running to | in sub-Saharan Africa on a country-by- | |
| get $500,000 a year for the next | country basis − and ensuring its | |
| decade, and $200,000 annually for the | independence by having it run by the | |
| rest of his life, he won’t need to nick it | Kennedy School of Government at | |
| from the national treasury. The trouble | Harvard. | |
| is that many African politicians have | Information like that will put real | |
| seized the chance to purloin an awful | power in the hands of African voters. | |
| lot more than that in the past. | In the end, that is the only thing that | |
| But there are other ways to create | will improve standards of political | |
| incentives for political leaders to | leadership on that unhappy continent. | |
| do the right thing. Perhaps the best | ||
| is to promote debate among African | The Washington Post | |