Mo Ibrahim Fails To Give Prize To Tanzanian ‘Bulldozer’ President John Magufuli

The Tanzanian bulldozer, president is by all means an enigma and one of the best serving presidents and presidents in African history. A humble man, the president has lead by example, nicknamed “the Bulldozer,” since assuming office just four months ago, John Magufuli has transformed his country and set the pace in Africa.

In a jaw dropping video narration of John the Bulldozer’s few days in office, Adeola of SaharaReporters described his the President on his first day in office walked to the Ministry of finance and told them to clean their act.

She described how he went to the state hospital and finding the new machines were not working in a scam to divert government hospital patients to private clinics, he immediately fired the hospital director and gave a two week ultimatum to get the machines working. The machines were repaired in three days!

The list of Magufuli’s achievements is lengthy and quite impressive. See more here. It was therefore a shock that Magufuli failed to bag the Mo Ibrahim prize. Perhaps it is because he has not yet hit a year in office, elected only in October of 2015. 

The Mo Ibrahim prize, as Vanguard describes, is the largest annually awarded prize in the world, which was instituted in 2006 by Sudanese telecoms entrepreneur, Mo Ibrahim, rewards former African leaders who demonstrated sterling qualities while in office, served their constitutionally mandated term; and demonstrated exceptional leadership.

“The Prize recognises and celebrates African executive leaders who, under challenging circumstances, have developed their countries and strengthened democracy and human rights for the shared benefit of their people, paving the way for sustainable and equitable prosperity.” It said.

The award is also “a standard for excellence in leadership in Africa, and not a ‘first prize’, there is not necessarily a Laureate every year,” the foundation said.

A winner enjoys $5m over 10 years and another $200,000 yearly for life and can also ask for another $200,000 for good causes he or she supports. So far, only the former presidents of Mozambique, Joaquim Chissano; Botswana’s Festus Mogae; Namibia’s Hifikepunye Pohamba; and Pedro Piers of Cape Verde have clinched the award. Ex-South African President Nelson Mandela was awarded an honorary prize in 2007.