Former Liberian president Johnson-Sirleaf receives the Ibrahim Prize
BY USMAN MAMA
Picked in February as the 2017 winner of the Ibrahim Prize, the former president of Liberia, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, today received the prestigious award in Kigali, Rwanda. The award, which comes with whopping $5-million cash paid out over 10 years, with another $200,000 annually throughout the winner’s lifetime, celebrates excellence in African leadership. It is awarded to a former African head of state by an independent Prize Committee composed of eminent figures, including two Nobel Peace Prize laureates.
Sirleaf, Africa’s first democratically-elected woman president and a Nobel Prize laureate, used the occasion to speak for the first time in public about what she intends to do now as a private citizen: to empower women.
“I will work with a small team of people to establish the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Presidential Center for Women and Development, designed to support women as agents of change, makers of peace, and drivers of progress.”
This commitment should come as no surprise, given the role Sirleaf said women have played in her journey as a politician. The former Liberian leader pointed out that support in her biography, “This Child Will Be Great.”
Looking back, upon receiving the award, Sirleaf recalled her successes and challenges as the president of Liberia, a country she referred to as “complex, post-conflict society, on a continent of uneven progress, during a time of global uncertainty.”
In a wide-ranging speech that touched on local, continental and global issues, Sirleaf also said she will continue to advance the cause of governance across Africa. She focused on fighting corruption, promoting civil service engagement, good governance, youth involvement in leadership and Africa’s continued march in search for deepening its democratic credentials.
The event saw the attendance of President Alassane Ouattara of Cote d’Ivoire alongside his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame; also present were former Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, and, obviously, the founder and head of the award foundation, Mo Ibrahim, and members of the foundation’s award committee.
The former Liberian head of state is the fifth recipient of the award which is in its tenth year. Founded in 2007 by Sudanese telecommunications tycoon Mo Ibrahim, the prize has not been awarded in several years because the Mo Ibrahim foundation has not found any leader it considers worthy of it.
Past recipients of the award are: Joaquim Chissano of Mozambique, Nelson Mandela of South Africa, Festus Mogae of Botswana, Pedro Pires of Cape Verde, and Hikilkepunye Pohamba of Namibia.