Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in Governance
Mo Ibrahim is a Sudanese-British businessman who founded the mobile phone company Celtel. In 2005 he sold it for $3.4 billion.
He set up the Mo Ibrahim Foundation. Their website says, “The Mo Ibrahim Foundation is an African foundation, established in 2006 with one focus: the critical importance of governance and leadership for Africa.”
Each year the foundation gives the Mo Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership.
Liberia’s Former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf won this year’s prize, “which awards a $5 million initial payment, and a $200,000 annual payment for life to African heads of state who deliver security, health, education and economic development to their constituents and democratically transfer power to their successors.”
I have to wonder which European or American head of state could qualify for the Mo Ibrahim Achievement Award! Perhaps it’s just as well it’s confined to African leaders.
Mo Ibrahim
The website statement says, “It is our belief that governance and leadership lie at the heart of any tangible and shared improvement in the quality of life of African citizens.”
I love the effort by the foundation to reward true leadership by an African head of state. There are so many pressures on an African leader; it is certainly challenging for someone to govern effectively.
It’s important that the prize shows that a leader does not have to leave office with wealth. Of course, one would hope that a head of state would govern responsibly because it’s the right thing to do!
It’s what today’s young Africans seem to want. I think people are seeking good leadership and rejecting the corruption of the past. The prize recognizes this aspiration.
Biafra Conference in Baltimore
This was day one of the two-day conference at UMBC, the University of Maryland Baltimore County. The theme is, “Women and the Nigeria-Biafra War: Reframing Gender and Conflict in Africa.” The conference commemorates the 50th anniversary of the war.
This morning David Koren, Ned Greeley, and I presented a panel called “Waging Peace, Unique Experiences of Former Peace Corps Volunteers.”
I began by recounting my husband’s important role as a civilian leader of the power sector in Biafra. He also was head of the civilian Airports Board, overseeing the two airports and the building of mini-airstrips. I interspersed accounts of his work with stories of my time in his village from September 1967 to September 1968.
Python, like the snake I saw.
I related the experience I had with a very large, very frightening snake. You can read it in my memoir!
David wrote the book Far Away in the Sky, recounting his time as a cargo handler and much more during the Biafran War. He had been evacuated from his teaching job in Biafra and was recruited by UNICEF to assist with relief flights. He gives detailed accounts of the difficulties of landing relief planes when Nigerian bombers wanted to prevent their landing.
He gave particular attention to the Nigerian tactic of denying food relief in an attempt to get Biafra to give up.
Ned spoke about his work in Washington after he’d been evacuated from Biafra. He testified before Eugene McCarthy’s sub-committee on African Affairs, hoping to get the U.S. to support the rebel Biafrans. Apparently the U.S. State Department felt compelled to support Great Britain and Nigeria, he said. Why? In return for British support for American efforts in South Asia, specifically Vietnam.
The audience, including David’s son and granddaughter, seemed to like our panel. I enjoyed presenting and hearing most of the comments and questions. I didn’t like the woman from the Indigenous People of Biafra Movement who wanted to make a speech. In fact, I stopped her and suggested she ask the conference organizer to give her time of her own if she wanted to speak!
Obioma Nnaemeka
The other morning events included a welcome from the President of UMBC. Then we had the keynote speaker Obioma Nnaemeka, who talked about “Gendered Spaces and War: Re-imagining Biafra – Not as a Territory.”
She said, “I use Igbo and Biafra interchangeably.” I found that strange after hearing Phillip Effiong, not an Igbo, speak last year at the London Biafra Conference.
He was clearly committed to the Biafran effort, and was in fact the person who surrendered on behalf of Biafra after the head of state had left for Ivory Coast.
Tomorrow there are more panels and a second keynote by Jim Phillips, also a former Peace Corps volunteer. We close with a banquet tomorrow evening.
Last year’s London conference on Biafra was also a 50th anniversary event. Liz Bird, whom I met there, is here. I enjoyed getting caught up with her and look forward to her presentation tomorrow. The Biafran War started in July 1967 and ended in January 1970, so the anniversary can be honored for two and a half years!
