Last updated on March 7, 2011
The March 7, 2011 issue of The New Yorker had a good article on Mo Ibrahim, the Sudanese founder of Celtel, Africa’s most important cell phone provider:
“Each year, he offers the Ibrahim Prize, which bestows five million dollars on an African leader who is elected to office, promotes democracy, does not steal from the people, and cedes power peacefully. Essentially, Ibrahim pays leaders to stay honest.”
Ibrahim’s reasoning is that while Western leaders can receive a substantial advance to write their memoirs or get paid high fees on the lecture tour, African leaders do not have such opportunities, so they tend to cling to power.
For Ibrahim, governance and corrupt leaders are Africa’s main problems:
“‘We are a very rich continent, the second-largest continent in the world, lush-green, plenty of resources. Everything we have. Yet we are the poorest people on earth. So, rich continent, poor people. After 50 years of independence, I don’t think we can continue to blame the colonialists.’ (…) “The problems are since due  to ‘a catastrophic failure of leadership and governance. There is no other explanation. We have had to a very large extent very lousy leadership in Africa: too many dictators, too many megalomaniacs, too many thieves, who bled this continent for their personal and family interest.’ He continued, ‘All those leaders love Western culture when it comes to expensive French wines, expensive American cars, mobile phones, air conditioning, aircraft, whatever. They love Western culture. When you speak about human rights, they say ‘No, no, no, no. Those are Western values.'”
If someone knows of an ungated version of the article, I would be happy to link to it.