Mills, 4th best President in Africa

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

By Edmund Mingle
President John Evans Atta Mills has been ranked fourth best performing President in 2010 among Africa’s 52 leaders.

He was graded with an A on the African Presidents Index undertaken by The East African Magazine, a renowned magazine in its year long survey of the performance of leaders on the continent.

Only five leaders where in the A category, with Navinchandra Ramgoolam, Prime Minister of Mauritius gaining A+ with 83.54 points, while Presidents Pedro Peres of Cape Verde(78.98), Seretse Ian Khama of Botswana (78.7), Atta Mills of Ghana (72.56), all had A, and Hifikepunye Lucas Pohamba of Namibia had A- with 71.07.

The ranking was based on the leaders’ performance and contribution to the development of their countries with regard to progress and achievement in the fight against poverty, corruption, human and drug trafficking, as well as the socio-economic growth, the promotion of press freedom, peace, democracy and political stability.

The ranking was also influenced by the scores by the leaders and their countries on various indexes including the Mo Ibrahim Index of African Governance, The Democracy Index, Freedom House’s Press Freedom Index Transparency International’s Corruption Index and the UN’s Human Development Index in addition to the magazine’s Nation Media Group Index.

In its December 27, 2010 to January 2, 2011 issue in which the rankings were published, the Magazine praised President Mills for the commitment to the nation’s development agenda, the strides in economic growth, the consolidation of peace and democracy, and measures being taken to ensure that Ghanaians benefited from the oil production.

Among others, Presidents Jacob Zuma of South Africa’s was ranked sixth, James Michel of Seychelles, seventh, Amadou Toure of Mali,eighth, Ernest Bai Koroma of Sierra Leone, ninth, Jakaya Kikwete of Tanzania, tenth and Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf of Liberia, 11.

Presidents Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria had the 25th position, Pierre Nkurunziza of Burundi, 26, Muamar Ghaddafi of Libya was 27, Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria, 28. Alpha Conde of Guinea 29 and Hosni Mubarak of Egypt had the 30th position.

At the tail end are Presidents Paul Biya of Cameroon (44), Andry Rajoelina of Madagascar(45), Francois Bozize of the Central Africa Republic(46), Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe (47), Sheikh Ahmed of Somalia (48), Idriss Deby Itno of Chad (49), Teodoro Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea (50), Omar Al-Bashir of Sudan (51) and Isaias Afweriki of Eritrea taking the last slot.