Meles for Mo Ibrahim Prize: The Prize for Achievement in African Leadership

Mulu GS(12/22/06)

Now that PM Meles Zenawi has repeatedly hinted to relieve himself from the daunting job of premiership it is important that we rationally support him to bid for this prize. It is an impetus for positive thinking and for reassessing his future role in the politics of Ethiopia. The main aim of this article is to open an intellectual debate on this matter. For starters though, I argue that he qualifies for the prize. I will forward my points for why I believe he deserves it, but first the major points in the prize:

i. It gives a total of $5m prize for Africa's most effective head of state- award winning leaders $5m (£2.7m) over 10 years when they leave office, plus $200,000 (£107,000) a year for life.

ii.  The main objective is to remove corruption and improve governance.

iii. It involves one of the best universities in the world -Harvard University will assess how well the president has served his or her people while in office.

iv. It is supported by the world’s best people ever- Nelson Mandela, former US President Bill Clinton and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

Now back to my arguments. The gist of my argument is that Meles deserves to work towards getting the Mo Leadership Prize by the end of his term given he transfers power peacefully. As we all do, whenever there is a prize announcement in academic competition or any other competition we try our best to win. We write our applications and essentially nominate our selves and present our work to achieve it. It is not any different here. If the bylaws of the Prize are to nominate oneself by writing an application statement then he should do it. If it is by third party nomination, then we should support his nomination.

Why Meles deserves this prize? First and foremost, he is one of the very few leaders in the world who has successfully transformed himself from a second year medical student to a fighter, commander/leader, head of state, economist and intellectual, and from a communist to an architect of developmental state. He has passed through challenges-jungle life, within party fights (the 1984 and the 2000) and the recent election fights with people who have grave hate towards him. Shortly, he is tested!

On the other hand he is a very disciplined man. He values family- sticking to his “amin” first wife and has children. He has been seen accompanying his daughter to a high school graduation which is nice. These are characters that everyone envies. After all we all know how much key role this type of character plays in the USA elections.

He also has other qualities. As far as my knowledge is concerned he is the only leader in the history of Ethiopia who fluently speaks English, Amharic, and Tigrigna. He probably is the only leader who has achieved the highest ladders of education while in office. If the recent news is true he might get a PhD very soon. That would probably make him the first leader to achieve a PhD while in office. He articulates the issues fundamental in economic development. His nomination to the Blair African Commission, His recent role in the China-Africa partnership, his recent invited speech in the EU development conference, and other prizes that he got clearly show the high regard he is winning from the international community. He has had a key role in influencing the World Bank and IMF aid policy for the third world countries. His recent manuscript on the developmental state is simply put a great addition to the debate on the possible strategic solutions to the problems of developing countries (especially Africa). What makes it more interesting is that his background is from the poor like one of us.

I am not ignoring the fact that there are those who argue he is a monster. Those who accuse of everything bad that have happened during his reign. Some called him Grazianni, some Hitler, some worse than Mengistu.  And there are some moderate critics like Belihu Aychilim “who do not like his style of communicating his goodwill to the Ethiopian people and his manner of countering the irrational hatred the mostly urbanized population purveyed against him with doubled arrogance”. However, history tells us that nobody even Jesus Christ, would pass from this kind of labeling and bashing. I am not saying that he did not make mistakes, probably a lot, but that is part of what being human is. I wonder how many people would volunteer to be leaders of this very poor country and be able to surpass the infinite expectation of Ethiopians of all walks of life. 

Some of the shortcomings that I share with my fellow Ethiopians have to do with the handling of the Eritrean issue (not with the principle enshrined in the constitution). It is hard for me to explain why Meles ignored all the cry from supporters and opposition about the mishandling of the Eritrean issue- he has been against the majority. It starts from the road blocking by Shabia during the 84 famine-unforgettable and intolerable event. Add to this all that happened to Ethiopians who lived in Eritrea and the double standard to Eritreans who have been living in Ethiopia is unexplainable. I am still waiting to hear any justification for this. Frankly, he does not take all the responsibility but as a leader he gets a fair share of the blame.

The debate on whether Meles should stay beyond his current term or not has been in both directions. There are those who nicely argued that retaining Meles’ leadership can be advantageous. For instance, Getachew Mequannent gives three reasons, which all make sense (1) he has increasingly become self-conscious of his reputation and this means that he will be pushing ahead with policy reforms and the democratization process, (2) he has spent years learning and accumulating political and diplomatic experiences, which are assets and (3) he has a natural ability for sharp articulation of development issues and this will promote a good image of Ethiopia. Getachew argues that in many cases what matters in politics is not a change of leadership, but a commitment to working towards reducing poverty. There are also others who have beautifully argued, by peacefully transferring power he can leave behind a great Ethiopian legacy for the first time in thousands of years of our existence (Mekonnen Kassa). As it also argued by Belihu Aychilim, even for those who support most ideas behind the present government, the devolving power from Meles to another fresh blood is a matter of credibility and renewal of commitment to the EPRDF. It is important to be assured that EPRDF could handle change and continuity without having to narrowly rely on a single individual and clique. Meles should take the road less traveled - which is always the difficult path.

I do like all the arguments, but I argue that the key to all these qualities and of course to getting the Mo Prize is going to be the peaceful transfer of power to his successor. And I pray to God to help him in this respect.