No Prize for Achievement in African Leadership: : Good or Bad Omen?

The Mo Ibrahim Foundation announced this week there will be no winner for the annual Prize for Achievement in African Leadership. The Prize is usually awarded to a democratically elected former African head of state who has left office in the past three years and it is designed to encourage Presidents to do the right thing in office. It is said to be the largest individual annual award in the world, with the winner receiving $5 million plus $200,000 a year for life. Amongst the candidates for this year's prize were Thabo Mbeki, former President of South Africa, Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigeria's leader between 1999 and 2007, and John Kufuor of Ghana.

What does the decision not to award the Prize say about the state of African leadership? Is it one to commend or condemned? What is the impact of the prize and is it working?

Henry Bonsu, journalist at VoxAfrica's Shoot the Messenger, is joined in the studio by NUHU RIBADU, former Founding Chairman of Nigeria's Economic and Financial Crime Commission, and currently Senior Fellow at St. Anthony's College at Oxford University. And NANA YAA MENSAH, Chief Sub-Editor of the New Statesman. Also featuring interviews with Dr Mo Ibrahim, Richard Dowden from the Royal African Society, Desmond Davies from African Prospects Magazine, Labour MP Diane Abbot and Omar Ben Yedder from IC Publications.