Superfluous Reward

I must admit, I do not always agree with Mr. Barney Mthombothi -
especially on his views about the kind of a political society our nation
and/or continent aught to be, but on his last week's piece (Editor's
note: Know when to go), he rightfully expressed skepticism about the
relevance of the "prize of good behavior" awarded to deserving Afrikan
leaders to encourage, inter alia, good governance in our continent.
"it's difficult, I'd humbly suggest, to justify giving so much money to
one individual, no matter how noble the cause, in a continent where
millions of its people are displaced by wars, dying from preventable
diseases, and dependent on foreign hand-outs to keep body and souls
together", writes Mthombothi.

No only this reward entrenches the unfortunate stereotypes about
Afrikans (mostly leaders) and their unscrupulousness, but it also serves
as a living proof of such stereotypes.

Neo-colonial views and western political philosophy are resolute in the
emphasis on their definition of democracy. Democracy through
their lens is the superior democracy. If for instance, the ruling
party of any Afrikan state decides to democratically re-elect its leader
for a third or forth term, this will be undemocratic and will be a
further justification of the unscrupulousness of Afrikan leaders...
However, when a certain leader from a European country is
democratically re-elected for the third or forth term - this will be
perfectly fine.
The choice of a leader by Afrikans in an Afrikan state is viewed as
undemocratic if it's not aligned with the neo-colonial constituency's
aspirations! Hence we need some sort of a "reward" to influence such an
individual's decision to accept or not to accept such a responsibility.
Besides, Afrikans (mostly leaders) are innately unscrupulousness; it
would be a challenge for them not to channel their efforts in getting
such a "reward"....
Mo Ibrahim Foundation deserves to be praised for such a great
innovation, I albeit I think their definition of "welfare" is a stuff of
nightmares, to say the least.