Brussels sprout

It is a rare statesman who introduces a style of government so distinctive that a word has to be coined to do justice to it. Step forward alumni to be proud of No 78: President Mobutu Sese Seko of Zaire, who in 31 years of government has contrived to become one of the richest men in the world while his country has remained one of the poorest. Some cynics have even gone so far as to call his system a "kleptocracy".

Whether he learnt how to do it during his higher education - described in the International Who's Who as "course at Institute of Social Studies, Brussels" - is doubtful, unless of course that was the year when they ran "Looting the Treasury" as an option.