Wade, Compaore & Jammeh Loss Ethics Award to Malian President

www.dailynews.gm

By Baboucarr Ceesay

The Malian president, Amadou Toumani Toure is named the winner of 2011 Keba Mbye Ethics Prize.

Toure was nominated for the award alongside President Abdoulie Wade of Senegal, Yahya Jammeh of The Gambia and Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso.

The judges of the award are said to be displeased with the way Abdoulaye Wade, Blaise Compaore and Yaya Jammeh manage funds coupled with draconian undemocratic acts.

For instance, Abdoulaye Wade’s problems are the recurrent financial scandals, including the Segura case, the gerrymandering of the Constitution among other cases.  

For The Gambian President Yaya Jammeh, the ongoing kingship campaign by loyalists which constitute National Assembly members and traditional chiefs to make him  "emperor" of the Gambia; refusing emergence of an opposition worthy of the name and the gagging of freedom of expression have played against him.

As for the President of Burkina Faso, Blaise Compaore, his accession to the presidency by a military coup and the results "exaggerated" (80%) in an election have been a drag on the alleged torture of Thomas Sankara and Norbert Zongo.

Mouhamadou Wakhab Talla, the president of the foundation said they are bound by the secrecy of deliberations. However, sources close to the foundation said President Yahya Jammeh of The Gambia, President Abdoulaye of Senegal, president Blaise Compaore of Burkina Faso were on the list of nominees in competition with the winner.

President Toure first came to power when he led a military take over that ended 23-year regime of Moussa Traore on 26 March 1991. He organized the national conference between 29 July and 12 August 1991 which drew up the Constitution of Mali and the legislative and presidential elections in 1992.

When the results of the election were released he relinquished power to the newly elected president, Alpha Oumar Konaré. Because of this, he gained the nickname "The Soldier of Democracy”.

In June 2001, he became the special envoy of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to the Central African Republic after the failed coup attempt there. Toumani was later demanded by his people and elected president in 2002 and also re-elected in 2007.

Toure’s excellent track record attracted the board of Keba Mbaye Foundation selection committee composed of seven eminent personalities from the world of law, ethics, economics and sport to select him as winner.

The Malian President Amadou Toumani Toure, will on April 16, 2011, receive the "Keba Mbaye Ethics Prize," to be enveloped with a "symbolic" financial FCFA 5,000,000 at Daniel Sorano Theatre in Dakar, Senegal.

The foundation’s president, Talla said: “After the military operation he led, Amadou Toumani Toure was elected president of the National Reconciliation Committee in March 29.

He led the transition that lasts 14 months and garnered significant results for the young democracy in Mali in particular the convening of the National Conference in the record time of 15 days which produced texts of importance, such as: project Constitution, the Electoral Code, the charter party, the state and the nation.

His share in the areas of humanitarian and mediation are numerous. In total, the Republic of Mali has now become an exemplary democracy, it owes largely to Amadou Toumani Toure.

Given all these qualities, Talla said that the jury chose the right man for this award, adding they were comforted in their decision and they did not make a mistake.

The prize is not reserved exclusively for Africans, but to the whole world.
The awarding foundation is named after Keba Mbaye, a Senegalese judge who held several high-ranking positions in the International Olympic Committee, and died in 2007 at the age of 82 at his home in Dakar, Senegal.
He was an I.O.C. member from 1973 to 2002, serving as vice president from 1988 to 1992 and was an executive board member from 1984 to 1988 and 1993 to 1998.
Mbaye was president of the Court of Arbitration for Sports, the highest tribunal in the Olympic movement, since 1983 and chairman of the I.O.C. ethics commission since 1999.
He was a former vice president of the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
Mr. Mbaye played a pivotal role in bringing South Africa back into the Olympic fold after the apartheid era. He has been in charge of a new ethics commission to police the conduct of I.O.C. members and onetime head of the I.O.C. panel on legal matters.