Mo Ibrahim Award for good governance

On my morning walk on Remembrance-Day Monday, November 11, 2024, (11-11), the top item on a local 6 a.m. news was the 2024 Report of the Mo Ibrahim “International-Index-of-African-Governance” (IIAG).

Four main areas the Index considered were Security and Rule of Law, secondly Participation, Rights and Inclusion, thirdly Foundations of Economic Opportunity and fourthly Human Development.  

Overall, Ghana was ranked seventh out of the 54 African countries. While that could be considered above average, what was disturbing was the perception of the integrity of our Judiciary.

From a score of 100 per cent in 2017, 2024 recorded only 50 per cent.

So, who is Mo Ibrahim and who was his first recipient of good governance by African Presidents? My article in November 2022, “Happy 83rd Birthday, President Chissano” read:                  

On Saturday, October 22, 2022, I called the former President of Mozambique and the first recipient of the Mo Ibrahim Award,  Joaquim Chissano in Maputo, Mozambique, to wish him a happy birthday on his 83rd birthday.

At the end of our conversation, both of us excitedly wished each other well and hoped that sooner than later, we shall meet again.

In 2006, the UN Secretary-General HE Kofi Annan appointed former President Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique as his Special-Envoy (SESG) for the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA)-Affected

Areas of Northern Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), South Sudan and the Central African Republic.

The UN then selected as President Chissano’s Senior-Military-Adviser, Ghana’s Brig. Gen. Dan Frimpong. For about a year-and-half between 2008 ‒ 2009, our destinies were intertwined as we embarked on the dangerous mission of searching for the elusive fugitive leader of the LRA, Joseph Kony.

Born on October 22, 1939, in the remote village of Malehice, Gaza Province, Mozambique, then a colony of Portugal, Joaquim Chissano was the first black student to attend high school in Lorenco-Marques, today Maputo.

After high school, he went to Portugal to study Medicine at the University of Lisbon. His political inclinations as a student politician, however, created problems, forcing him to relocate to France to the University of Poitier.

In 1962, he left for Tanzania where together with other freedom fighters such as Samora Machel, he was one of the “Founding Fathers” of the Mozambican Liberation Front (FRELIMO).

At independence in 1975, newly-elected President Samora Machel made Joaquim Chissano Mozambique’s Foreign Minister. In 1986, following the death of President Samora Machel in an air crash still considered controversial/contrived on the South African border, Joachim Chissano became Mozambique’s second President in 1986.

As President of Mozambique between 1986 — 2005, he refused a third term as allowed by the Constitution and handed over the presidency. He is credited for transforming Mozambique into one of Africa’s most successful democracies at the time of leaving office.

SESG, dangers

Kofi Annan appointed President Chissano his Special Envoy in 2006. What is the difference between a Special Envoy of the Secretary-General (SESG) and a Special Representative of the Secretary-General SRSG)?

Status-wise, they are equal and both report directly to the Secretary-General as Under Secretary Generals. However, while an Envoy heads an office of Advisors under the UN’s Special Political Office, a Representative heads a Force in the field with peacekeepers.

As a Special Envoy, therefore, President Chissano had a political, gender/legal, as well as a senior military advisor. We were based in Uganda with an office in Kampala. We also had an office in Juba, South Sudan manned by a political advisor.

Our job involved a lot of flying which sometimes could be dangerous. On one occasion, the pilot had to abort a take-off with tyres screaming/screeching frighteningly.

He later joked that, if we had taken off from the Entebbe Airport, we would have plunged into Lake Victoria just at the end of the runway and provided a good lunch for the fish!

On another occasion, flying from the Garamba Forest in the DRC after a failed attempt to meet Joseph Kony, our helicopter ran into bad weather with the pilots meandering through the mountains and the tall trees. When we heard a loud bang, we thought it was over for us.

Eventually landing in Juba, drenched with sweat, the captain told us, the helicopter’s rotors must have missed the mountain by only a few feet.

Prize for leadership

President Chissano’s leadership qualities are admirable. His intelligence and knowledge aside, his humility is striking.

Perhaps, starting life as a poor village boy and later living in the bush as a freedom fighter, he understands poverty and has absolute respect for everybody. His speech is decent and his sense of humour makes everyone around him comfortable.

At the internally displaced (IDP) camps we visited in Gulu, Northern Uganda, he was loved for his empathy with poverty/ adversity.

On one occasion, I invited him to a Ghanaian Restaurant “Mama Africa” in Kampala for lunch. Knowing East Africans to be no lovers of pepper like us West Africans, I warned Chef Kofi to use very little pepper.

Course One was light soup. After two spoons, President Chissano sneezed loudly. Shaking his head, he said,

“General the ‘piripiri ‘(as he called pepper) is hot, but it has cleared all the cobwebs from my head!”  As we all laughed, he continued with the light soup and everyone followed suit happily! 

With all his admirable qualities, it was no surprise when he became the first recipient of the African Prize for Leadership instituted by Sudanese/British billionaire entrepreneur Mo Ibrahim for former Presidents/Heads of State.

Incidentally, the fourth recipient was the former President of Namibia Hifikepunye Pohamba. When I swooped in on Presidents Kufour and Chissano during the reception after President Pohamba’s award at the Great Hall, University of Ghana Legon, President Chissano happily introduced me to President Kufour as his former Senior-Military-Adviser in Uganda.

Interestingly, since Mo Ibrahim instituted the African Leadership Award in 2007, it has been awarded to only six former Presidents: 2007 —President Chissano of Mozambique; 2008 — President Mogae of Botswana; 2011 —President Pedro Pires of Cabo/Cape Verde; 2014 —President Hifikepunye Pohamba of Namibia;2017 —President Ellen Sirleaf Johnson of Liberia; 2020 — President Mahammadou Issoufou of Niger.

During our travels, it was interesting hearing President Chissano switch over to any of the many languages he speaks fluently; Portuguese/French/English/Swahili.

Discussion

On his 85th birthday on November 22, 2024, I called President Chissano to wish him a Happy Birthday. It was all joy as the two of us chatted happily.

While Ghana is yet to win the Mo Ibrahim Award (IIAG), a drop from 100 per cent confidence in our Judiciary in 2017 to 50 per cent in 2024 is a matter of concern! Galamsey is an existential threat to Ghana and must be attacked seriously with selflessness/commonsense, not selfishness! So must the killer DDEP be scrapped to save lives.

Leadership, lead by Example! Fellow Ghanaians, wake up!

The writer is a former CEO of the African Peace Support Trainers Association, Nairobi, Kenya/Council Chair of the Family Health University College, Accra.  
E-mail: dkfrimpong@yahoo.com