The Nation Media Group has published its second annual scorecard for African leaders, in which the score for the leader of each African country is rated using a composite of the Mo Ibrahim Index (15%), the Democracy Index (15%), the Press Freedom Index (15%), the Corruption Index (15%), the Human Development Index (5%), and the Nation Media Group Political Index (35%). Leaders with a score of 70 to 100 were awarded an “A”, while those with less than 30 were rated “Morgue”.
Only four African countries received A ratings for their leaders this year: Botswana (75.2), Cape Verde (73.2), Mauritius (73.2) and Ghana (70.1). Countries rated “Morgue”, with worst first, were Zimbabwe (16.9), Chad (18.3), Equatorial Guinea (18.8), Democratic Republic of Congo (18.9), Sudan (19.8), Central African Republic (21.8), Eritrea (22.2), Swaziland (23.1), Djibouti (25.1), Gambia (26.1), and Angola (28.8). Somalia and South Sudan were not awarded scores because complete data was not available.
Although Human Development Index indicators for many countries had improved since last year, the political situations in many countries had deteriorated, with the result that the leaders of most countries received lower ratings this year than last. Only 16 countries received a rating of 50 or above, with the significant majority of countries having their leadership rated at below 50.