In a recent instalment of this column, I waxed lyrical about former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, highlighting how she had restored peace to the country, which had been ravaged by civil war, crowded in donor funds to rebuild its dilapidated infrastructure and promoted economic and social development.

It turns out that this lowly journalist was not the only outsider to notice how credibly she had performed during her 12 years in office, which ended last month, when she handed over power to George Weah, a former sportsman whose prowess on the football field was the stuff of legend – he plied his trade in the top leagues of Europe and the high point of his career was when he clinched the Fifa World Player of the Year accolade in 1995.

Back to Johnson Sirleaf, a woman whose supporters hailed her as ‘Our Man’ when she campaigned for her first six-year term. Last week, the Mo Ibrahim Foundation awarded her the $5-million Ibrahim Prize for Achievement in African Leadership (IPAAL). The prize citation reads: “Ellen Johnson Sirleaf took the helm of Liberia when it was completely destroyed by civil war and led a process of reconciliation that focused on building a nation and its democratic institutions . . . [She] laid the foundation on which Liberia can now build.”

Launched in 2006 by Mo Ibrahim, a Sudanese-born billionaire who made his fortune in telecommunications, the IPAAL’s prize money is disbursed over ten years – with $200 000 paid out each year thereafter until the laureate breathes their last. It aims to incentivise good governance on the continent, with eligible recipients being democratically elected former heads of State or government who would have left office during the preceding three years.

As regular readers of this column will recall, finding a deserving laureate has never been an easy task for the independent prize committee, which is chaired by Salim Ahmed Salim, a Tanzanian national who had a stint as secretary-general of the Organisation of African Unity, which morphed into the African Union (AU) in 2001. Nelson Mandela was named an honorary IPAAL laureate in 2007, the same year Mozambique’s Joaquim Chissano was awarded the accolade. Other winners have been Botswana’s Festus Mogae (2008), Cabo Verde’s Pedro Pires (2011) and Namibia’s Hifikepunye Pohamba (2014).

Salim’s committee did not find any deserving winner in 2009, 2010, 2012, 2013 and 2016. Not even the Pipe Smoking One (aka Thabo Mbeki) made the grade. This is despite the fact that, during his years in office, South Africa’s gross domestic product grew at an average of 4.5% a year, the black middle class expanded significantly and the country attracted the lion’s share of Africa’s foreign direct investment, making it the focal point of growth on the continent.

Mbeki was the driving force behind the establishment of the AU’s New Partnership for Africa’s Development, which aims to develop an integrated socioeconomic development framework for Africa, and also successfully mediated in conflicts in Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Côte d’Ivoire.

I am sure it was matters such as his stance on HIV/Aids – which consigned an estimated 350 000 people to a premature grave – that dissuaded Salim and Co from honouring him with the IPAAL when his party, the African National Congress, fired him as State President in September 2008. Of course, they did not say to him: “We are firing you”, choosing instead to introduce the term ‘recall’ to the political lexicon.

As far as I am concerned, his so-called quiet diplomacy on Zimbabwe also counted against him. Thanks to this policy, Robert Mugabe was able to survive as long as he did as President of Zimbabwe, thus prolonging the suffering of millions upon millions of people.

So, it is heartening that Africa can still produce leaders who are worthy of the IPAAL. I know that some Liberians may not agree with the Mo Ibrahim Foundation’s decision, including her erstwhile colleagues in the Unity Party, who will never forgive her for not supporting former Vice President Joseph Boakai in the last election. Is this a question of a prophetess not having honour in her own home town?