After decades of efforts by both internal and external stakeholders to
help with the political and economic development of African countries, there is
still much to be done to realize these goals. There is, sadly, very little the
African continent can boast of in terms of economic growth though modest gains
have been made in the area of political development. Obviously, political
independence is now a given on the African continent, but the economic growth/
development that was expected to accompany it has eluded the continent until
date. The continent is ravaged by the chronic economic disorders of
unemployment, war, hunger, disease and extreme poverty and deprivation and
lasting solutions to these problems do not seem to be anywhere near in sight.
So why is a continent so blessed with natural resources, good climate plus lots
of manpower so underdeveloped?
As a political medic, I have taken the time to analyze the
underdevelopment problems of the continent in an attempt to find a cure for the
continent’s chronic economic and political ailments. I have read the literature, observed the
symptoms, analyzed samples, performed the necessary tests and reached a
plausible diagnosis. My diagnosis, Africa’s underdevelopment is the result of a
cancer, a cancer caused by the polygamous marriage of the 3 deadliest political
diseases known to man- power, wealth and
greed- and worsened by its adulterous relationship with bribery. This cancer is a super-cancer,
it is almost untreatable and can never be totally cured; this cancer is corruption. Yes, corruption; the
unethical use of power and influence to gain or take unfair advantage of others
and available resources and opportunities for personal gain.
Any literature on corruption in
Africa soon becomes a cliché topic because the cancer is so common and so
observable it has almost lost its abhorrence and is now even embraced,
tolerated, condoned and accepted as a part of life, politics and business in Africa.
But to accept this twisted and erroneous notion (which is itself a corrupted
mindset) is to be defeatist in the face of a cancerous canker that is eating
away Africa’s economic promise. In order to spur economic growth and win the
fight against extreme poverty, hunger, disease etc. Africa must first tackle
corruption because it is the main barrier to getting things right. But how do
we do this? First, let us identify the factors that make corruption in Africa a
widespread, endemic and terminal cancer. These contributory factors are not
exhaustive, they are the key ones I have identified, there many others.
First on my list is the greed of the
citizenry, both the rulers and the ruled. Corruption is endemic because it is
everywhere; from the topmost echelons of political office to the bowels of the
populace. At the top are the corrupt and corrupted “stomach” politicians who
are not committed to the improvement of the living conditions and standards of
the people but to amassing wealth to enrich themselves, their families and
their cohorts. These demagogues see use political power as a stairway to riches
and more power, an act fueled by their greed. They siphon billions of public
funds into personal offshore accounts while infrastructural projects and policies
remain either underfunded or totally ignored. Just recently, leaked reports
revealed that millions of dollars in “black money” have been stashed in tax
free HSBC accounts by African politicians and business magnates. At the bottom
of the ladder are the “ordinary” citizens who condone these corrupt politicians
and replicate their corrupt practices in their everyday dealings. It is a
common African “norm” to use just part of designated funds and pocket the rest.
In fact, many people will describe those who do so as smart and sharp while
those who rightfully do otherwise are often labelled shallow minded and
self-righteous. We praise corruption and idolize the corrupt and their
ill-gotten wealth while we detest the honest and transparent because we see
them as obstacles to our own corrupt “get-rich-quick” schemes. Greed pushes us
to want more than we need and then some. We want it all but we want it all the
easy way and that is why corruption is so attractive to us. Businessmen and
women will bribe their way into the hearts and minds of politicians and
bureaucrats, buying their bodies and consciences and making them their
puppets. From top to bottom, corruption
is celebrated and guarded by its beneficiaries while opponents are vilified and
promptly done away with, shameful.
Secondly, the unchecked excesses of
Africa’s corrupt politicians are fed by the steady supply of foreign aid from
the continents development partners. The vast majority of Africa’s political
leaders and many of their government officials have either been ousted as
corrupt or alleged against. Yet, what do we see, development partners raise
funds to help combat the problems of Africa only to put these funds into the
hands of these corrupt leaders. Financial assistance designated for relief projects
like disease control, poverty alleviation and hunger relief end up in the
private accounts of corrupt politicians because there is a disconnection
between foreign donors and the actual victims they set out to help. With years
of government to government relations has come a reliance on African government
to be the mouthpiece of the people as well as the coordinators of all relief
efforts. Due to the lack of channels of communication between the people and
donor partners, African governments have become the indispensable middlemen and
women who convey the problems and plights of the people to potential donors and
humanitarians and, when the relief comes in, act as the distributors of relief
assistance, or better yet, what’s left of it. A number of scholars of politics
have written and spoken of how many African governments simply sit back,
inactive, and wait on donor governments and agencies to pour in that aid money
so they can misappropriate, embezzle and steal. To this end, Africa’s
development partners are, whether knowingly or unknowingly, feeding into the
cancer they are supposed to be helping to cure. Very little of the millions in
relief aid ever really get to those who need it most, the largest sum is sucked
up and lost in an elaborate maze of bureaucratic red tape, politics and theft.
I hope that having said this donors will opt to deal with their beneficiaries
directly rather than through governments because that is just
counterproductive; it’s like doubling your cigarette sticks after being diagnosed
with lung cancer and still hoping the disease goes away; you must be either incredibly
steeped in faith or outright crazy. Donor governments and agencies are privy to
the ostentatious and lavish lifestyles of corrupt African politicians yet many
of them finance these corrupt regimes expecting that a still unfulfilled
promise to eradicate corruption in Africa will be miraculously attained this
time round. For decades we have been doing the same thing and expecting
different results, that’s what Albert Einstein calls insanity. Poorly monitored
and unaccounted external aid may not be causing corruption (at least not
directly), but it sure it perpetuating it by dangling money before the eyes of
our greedy, corrupt politicians and giving them a reason to launch at it. For
the record, I do not advocate for an end to foreign aid to Africa countries.
What I admonish is that donor agents should distribute all aid and relief
resources directly to the target groups and subject the entire process to
strict accounting, monitoring and supervision. As far as possible, politicians,
state representatives and bureaucrats should not be allowed to act as middlemen
and women for the process, that is how they get access to funds and rob
targeted beneficiaries blind.
A third reason for Africa’s cancer of
corruption is the fact that many known corrupt individuals are never formally
charged and prosecuted let alone found guilty and punished for their
dishonesty. There are countless known corrupt political figures and business
magnates in Africa whose power and wealth insulate them from the heat of the
law. Politicians live extravagant lifestyles but are not formally charged to
declare their assets and source(s) of their wealth. Unexplainable wealth goes
unquestioned, conflicts of interest and misappropriation of funds often go
unpunished and the masses avail themselves as stooges of the corrupt, rich few
because the culture of corruption has made them sycophants whose tongues are
stained with the polish of the shoes of their corrupt benefactors. The
“culture” of corruption I speak of does not refer to a “custom” of corrupt
practices but to a socially accepted (although popularly undesired) habit of
initiating, condoning and benefitting from the corrupt practices. Corrupt politicians
rob their countries off wealth and opportunity and yet have the guts to seek
the votes of the people in the next election because the people fail to realize
that the power to effect changes is in their hands- on their thumbs, to be more
specific. This lack of action in the citizenry could pass in totalitarian
African states like Gambia where there isn’t much political freedom, but in the
democratizing, politically open countries, this is just too sad to know. If
citizens of African countries would stand up to corruption, oppose it and
demand the prosecution and punishment of corrupt individuals, I believe it
would help stamp out the cancer and set the continent on a much better route to
economic development.
Having identified the key factors
behind corruption in Africa, I will next provide cures to the disease. My next
post “OPENOTHERAPY II: CURING AFRICA’S
CORRUPTION CANCER” will be on how Africa’s cancer of corruption can be
addressed and overcome.
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