Dear Editor,I would like to congratulate the late Zambian President, Levy P. Mwanawasa for Scooping the Zambian Chronicle, “Africa’s President of the Year Award” for 2008. During selection, rankings included among other things performance based criterion during a president’s tenure apart from national indices only. The Zambian Chronicle award was started last year as an alternative multi-media private enterprise committed to raising the standard of leadership, by awarding good leaders not only in Africa but also in the rest of the world. Last year’s award went to Zine El Abidine Ben Ali president of Tunisia. Mwanawasa was mainly awarded because nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita grew from as low as $360 to $1,400 during his time. Levy and his team also worked so hard that they negotiated outstanding public liabilities with donor nations and other creditors and managed to wipe out the Zambian national debt from a staggering $7 billion to as low as $500 million. He also fought corruption and therefore he deserved this award. I think that the next award should go to our President, Paul Kagame for his role in turning around Rwanda’s economy significantly and spearheading reconciliation among his people, within a period of only fourteen years. Congratulations once again. KICUKIRO
