In 2007, he established the Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership which awards a $5 million initial payment and a $200,000 annual payment for life to African presidents who deliver security, health, education and economic development to their nations. In 2007, the prize was awarded to President Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique; in 2008 to President Festus Mogae of Botswana. No African president qualified for the award in 2009 and 2010. In 2011, it was won by President Pedro Pires of Cape Verde. No African president performed well enough to earn it this year. The Mo Ibrahim Foundation also publishes the Ibrahim Index of African Governance ranking the performance of all 53 African countries. This year, both Sudan and Southern Sudan were not evaluated for lack of sufficient data.
This year, the best performing country by the index is Mauritius. And the top best 10, apart from Mauritius, are Cape Verde, Botswana, Seychelles, South Africa, Namibia, Ghana, Tunisia, Lesotho and Tanzania in that order. For the first time since this governance assessment started, Nigeria is graded among the worst 10 governed nations of Africa. This should hardly surprise us, except that we have not heard any abusive condemnations of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation from Jonathan’s verbose aides.
Nigeria shares this infamy of being among the worst 10 with Equitorial Guinea, one of the most corrupt countries in the world; Guinea Bissau, which is technically a failed state; Cote d’ Ivoire; Zimbabwe where Robert Mugabe still looms large; Central African Republic; Eritrea; Chad; Democratic Republic of Congo, another failed state perpetually at war; and, of course, Somalia, which has been taken over by thugs, terrorists and pirates. Jonathan’s Nigeria is clearly in good company.
Many of us have had cause to declare that, even by Nigeria’s very poor governance standards, the Jonathan government stands alone and apart. Our current problem is monumental corruption which robs vital sectors of funding, and also incompetence in governance. “Incompetence” and “clueless” are words that have been freely associated with the Nigerian president all over the world. Borno and Yobe states are the headquarters of Boko Haram operatives and Yobe, especially, is a completely failed state. The Yobe governor doesn’t even live in the state anymore.
The situation in Yobe is worse than the situation in Somalia. Yet, the president has not visited there – not even once. When asked recently, the president said the Maiduguri Airport was not functioning, but every Nigerian knew that was a presidential lie. I have never seen a commander-in-chief so afraid of felons like our president. Because Jonathan has refused to go there, it should not be any surprise that many people including Boko Haram chieftains now believe that the president has ceded those two states to Boko Haram, just like we have al-Shabaab-controlled areas of Somalia.
It is the type of corruption that allows as much as N2.6 trillion to be stolen from a single subhead in a single year that has deprived the nation of funds to tackle the insecurity in the country. As I have always averred on this page, security is the first and basic responsibility of every government. And if any government fails in this index, it will fail in all the other indices. It is also corruption that has prevented the country from making any meaningful progress in education, provision of healthcare services, development of infrastructure as well as all aspects of human and material development.
I hope that this year’s very damning Mo Ibrahim report on Nigeria would be very useful in serving as a wake-up call to President Jonathan to know that it’s not only Nigerians that are watching him. The world is also watching and the verdict on him so far is very, very bad.
EARSHOT
Between Oshiomhole And Amnesty International
Governor Adams Oshiomhole has come under criticism from Amnesty International because he granted a go-ahead for the execution of two persons sentenced to death for murder by the courts. Those who criticise the governor have not said that the convicts are not murderers. No, they are only against the death sentence as a policy.
I believe one of the problems of this country is that we have not been convicting and executing murderers enough in this country. Death sentences and executions are not punishment for the convicted. They are deterrents to those with murderous instincts who are still alive. And that is a very good and valid reason to continue with the death sentence as a policy. A major reason why there is so much anarchy and disorder in this country is that crimes are not punished. That is statecraft 101. And anyone who is ready to kill should also be ready to die. We only need to look around the world and compare those countries with strong rule of law which execute murderers with those who think they are “too civilised” to execute murderers and see which ones are more liveable. I advocate the death sentence not only for murderers but also for kidnappers and arms traffickers who are the facilitators of these crimes.
Until we start executing all those who kill either in the name of armed robbery, religion, kidnapping or terrorism, bad people would continue to kill innocent people just for the fun of it. Until there are grave consequences for murder, Nigeria will continue to be one of the most dangerous countries to live in. If the rule of law has been followed and the convicts have exhausted their appeals, Governor Oshiomhole should ensure that the death sentences are carried out as soon as possible.
Leadership
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