Peace comes first - Mo Ibrahim says north should give south a chance to lead Sudan

Quote of the Day - Peace comes first

"The message to the Sudanese people is that peace comes first, permanent dialogue is an instrument to build peace and development in the country" - Joachim Chissano, former Mozambican President and African Union envoy for Madagascar, during a sideline event at the Pan African Media Conference in Kenya, Narobi, reportedly on 20 March 2010.

ALMOST 16 million Sudanese have registered for the April 11 election that will take place over three days. The elections were promised in the 2005 peace deal that ended more than two decades of north-south civil war.

There are 12 candidates running for the presidential position. There are two main contenders in the south: Salva Kiir, from the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement and Lam Akol, from the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement – Democratic Change.

Former African Union envoy for Darfur and former Organisation of African Union head, Dr Salim Ahmed Salim, says the north has to make unity attractive to South Sudan and admits that this has not been done. "My preference is to keep one country, a united Sudan," Salim said.

Mo Ibrahim says north should give south a chance to lead Sudan

This view was shared by Sudanese born British mobile tycoon Mo Ibrahim: "I hope Sudan stays one country, so that one day we can fix it. Because once it is broken, we can never put it back together again."

Ibrahim said that the north should give the south a chance to lead the entire country. Ibrahim suggested that North Sudan vote for a president from the south. This, he says, will convince the south to vote for unity in the 2011 referendum, when voters will decide whether to secede from the north.

"I always say one way to the miracle of solving the country’s problems, is why don’t we have a president from southern Sudan? Why don’t all the candidates say ok, let us have a president from the south? It does not matter whether he or she as long as it is someone from the south who is fit to run the country."

Source: IPS News report by Amelia Lawrence, Saturday, 20 March 2010, African Leaders Call for Peaceful Elections

Mo Ibrahim thinks Sudan is a failed state

Quote of the Day

Dr. Ibrahim said the secession of Southern Sudan will be the most painful event in the history of Sudan.

[Dr. Mo Ibrahim]: “The whole world is talking about unity, here in Kenya, people are talking about the union of Kenya with Tanzania and Uganda and Rwanda and we in Sudan are splitting the country into pieces. It is a sad situation indeed.”

SOURCE: Mo Ibrahim Says North Should Vote for Southerner
SRS - Sudan Radio Service, Thursday, 18 March 2010:

18 March 2010 - (Nairobi) – The Sudanese-born telecommunications entrepreneur, Dr Mohammed Ibrahim, says that the northern Sudanese should elect a southern Sudanese president of the republic in order to convince southerners to vote for unity.

Speaking to SRS in Nairobi on Wednesday, Dr Ibrahim says northern Sudanese politicians should give a southern Sudanese candidate a chance, for the sake of unity.

[Dr. Ibrahim]: “I always say one way to solve this problem is to have a president from Southern Sudan. Why don’t all the candidates say, "Okay, let us have a president from the south!" It doesn’t matter whether it is a he or she, anybody from the south who is fit enough to come and run the country. I am sure there are a lot of people fit enough to run the country. And if that will help the unity of the country, why not? What is the problem, why doesn’t al-Bashir, Sadig al-Mahdi, Nugud, or whoever is contesting this election, say that it is the turn of the South?”

He also described Sudan as a failed stated.

[Dr. Mo Ibrahim]: “I think Sudan is a failed state. How many Internal Displaced People do we have in the country? We have more refugees than the Palestinians, is that not true? We have more people in camps and the IDPs. How many millions of people live in shanty towns around Khartoum? People who have been displaced by war and by hunger and by all kinds of catastrophes. How many millions of people live on the outskirts of Khartoum, outside Khartoum, and yet Khartoum pretends that those people do not exist?”

Dr. Ibrahim said the secession of Southern Sudan will be the most painful event in the history of Sudan.

[Dr. Mo Ibrahim]: “The whole world is talking about unity, here in Kenya, people are talking about the union of Kenya with Tanzania and Uganda and Rwanda and we in Sudan are splitting the country into pieces. It is a sad situation indeed.”

The Mo Ibrahim Foundation, in collaboration with Inter Press Service, organized a media workshop in Nairobi on election coverage in south Sudan. The workshop was attended by 13 journalists from ten media houses in southern Sudan.

Map source: The Economist (KHARTOUM) Sudan's elections - They're off, How the government is stacking the odds in its favour Mar 18th 2010

Mo Ibrahim's mobile revolution - 'Africa must think big to thrive'

From BBC News 20:14 GMT, Sunday, 15 November 2009:
'Africa must think big to thrive'

Mo Ibrahim was speaking at a two-day forum in Dar es Salaam

Many African states are too small to continue to exist independently, Sudan-born magnate Mo Ibrahim has told a conference in Tanzania.

Mr Ibrahim said the idea that 53 small African countries thought they could compete with China, India, Europe and the US was a "fallacy".

Trade within Africa accounts for just 4-5% of the continent's international trade, something that is "not viable".

The tycoon said Africa "needs scale" to compete with the big economic players.

"We need scale and we need that now - not tomorrow, the next year or the year after."

The BBC's Peter Greste in Nairobi says Mr Ibrahim was referring to economic integration rather than political unification.

Mo Ibrahim's mobile revolution

Speaking to an audience that included Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, Mr Ibrahim said Africans were poor, hungry and going without.

"Something is drastically wrong. I think we have the right to ask our leaders: are they really serious?" he said.

Mr Ibrahim surprised African leaders last month when the $5m (£2.9m) Ibrahim prize for good governance was withheld.

The prize is given to a democratically elected leader from sub-Saharan Africa who has served their term and left office.

South Africa's Thabo Mbeki and Ghana's John Kufuor had been among the favourites.

MO IBRAHIM

Sudan-born mobile phone entrepreneur

Moved to UK in 1974 to study

By 1983, director of BT Cellnet

Founded Mobile Systems International, which he sold to Marconi in 2000

Then set up Celtel, used by 25m Africans

2007: Started African leadership prize

2008: Named UK's most influential black person

Mo Ibrahim's mobile revolution

SEE ALSO

African leadership prize withheld
19 Oct 09 | Africa

Mo Ibrahim's mobile revolution
16 Oct 09 | Africa

Botswana's Mogae wins $5m prize
20 Oct 08 | Africa

African governance 'is improving'
06 Oct 08 | Africa

Is Botswana Africa's shining jewel?
01 Apr 08 | Africa

RELATED INTERNET LINKS

Ibrahim Foundation

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Sudanese born billionaire entrepreneur Dr Mo Ibrahim is named as Britain's most powerful black man

The 100 powerful black Britons who are changing the world. They have transformed lives, governments and even continents. A new Powerlist of the most influential black people in Britain paints a portrait of a confident, dynamic group who are defying stereotypes and reshaping the society around them.

Source: David Smith's report in The Observer - The 100 powerful black Britons who are changing the world - Sunday October 05 2008. Excerpt re Dr Mo Ibrahim:

Born in Sudan into humble surroundings, he used to describe himself as a Marxist. He became a billionaire entrepreneur credited with transforming a continent. You might not have heard of Dr Mo Ibrahim, but today he is named as the most powerful black man in Britain.

Ibrahim is credited with bringing the mobile phone revolution to Africa, making it the only continent where mobiles outnumber landlines and improving millions of lives. It is this achievement which gained the recognition of a judging panel which, after six months' research, has drawn up a 'Powerlist' of Britain's 100 most influential black people.

Celebrity is a stranger to Ibrahim, who has an estimated personal fortune of £1.2bn and runs a foundation for good governance in Africa. Yet the judges decided that he wields more influence than high-profile figures including the Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu; equality campaigner Trevor Phillips; government minister David Lammy; and England and Manchester United footballer Rio Ferdinand.

The top 20 achievers

Men

1 Mo Ibrahim, founder and chairman, Mo Ibrahim Foundation

2 Tidjane Thiam, group finance director, Prudential

3 Damon Buffini, chairman, Permira

4 John Sentamu, Archbishop of York

5 Trevor Phillips, chairman, Commission for Equality and Human Rights

6 David Lammy, Skills Minister

7 Rio Ferdinand, footballer, Manchester United and England

8 Kenneth Olisa, director, Eurasian Natural Resources Corporation

9 David Adjaye, architect

10 Daniel Alexander QC, barrister

Women

1 Baroness Scotland, Attorney General

2 Claire Ighodaro, independent director

3 Michelle Ogundehin, editor-in-chief, Elle Decoration magazine

4 Vivian Hunt, director, McKinsey & Co

5 Pat McGrath, global cosmetics design director, Proctor & Gamble

6 Carol Lake, managing director: head of philanthropy, JP Morgan

8 Tandy Anderson, co-founder and chief executive, Select Models

9 Sonita Alleyne, director, Somethin' Else

10 Abigail Blackburn, editor, Now magazine

Judging panel

Baroness Amos (chair); Annmarie Dixon-Barrow, headhunter; Kwame Kwei-Armah, actor and playwright; Michael Prest, physical oil trader.
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UPDATE WEDNESDAY 08 OCTOBER 2008 -
Mo Ibrahim shows interest to invest in Ethiopia

See Ethiopia Watch (sister site of Sudan Watch) Wednesday, October 08, 2008: Sudanese born billionaire entrepreneur Dr Mo Ibrahim, named as Britain's most powerful black man, shows interest in investing in Ethiopia
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UPDATE THURSDAY 09 OCTOBER 2008 -
Mo Ibrahim's annual $5 million African prize

Further details at Sudan Watch, October 09, 2008: Message for African leaders: Annual $5 million African prize is a 'developmental project', says Sudanese born British billionaire Dr Mo Ibrahim