Cape Verde ex-Pres Pires wins US$5m leadership prize
This year’s Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership valued at US$5m has been won by former Cape Verde President Pedro Verona Pires.
According to the prize committee, ex-President Pires said he had helped make the archipelago off the West African coast a "model of democracy, stability and increased prosperity".
He stepped down last August. This year’s awards ceremony coincides with the fifth anniversary of the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, which was established in 2007.
The prize is supposed to be awarded each year to a democratically elected leader who has voluntarily left office, but there had been no winner in the past two years, because the committee said there was no suitable candidate.
Previous Laureates include Festus Mogae (2008), former President of Botswana, Joaquim Chissano (2007), former President of Mozambique, and Nelson Mandela who was made an Honorary Laureate in recognition of his extraordinary leadership qualities and achievements.
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