DRYING THE CORRUPTION RAIN CLOUDS OVER AFRICA
Okello Oculi argues for more creative measures to fight the cancer of corruption
On June 4, 2018, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), hosted ‘’A high level consultative meeting on corruption’’ in Abuja. As an agency in The Presidency, this action is a contribution to the potful of achievements that President Muhammadu Buhari will carry back to Addis Ababa in January 2019 to justify the trust put on him by other African leaders by adorning him with the toga of ‘’AFRICANUS REDEEMACUS’’ for a continental fight to dry floods of corruption currently drowning African economies.
This title probably put Buhari ahead of Tanzania’s John Pombe Magufuli when other leaders recalled his massive haul into prison of political office holders, businessmen and administrators for crimes fraud or ‘’eating power’’. Magufuli earned his colours first as Minister of Works when he conducted surprise raids on corrupt policemen by hiding in open trucks and springing up just as the offending officer was grabbing money from a driver the police stopped at a check point. Reports of these incidences fired public imagination and contributed significantly to Chama Cha Mapinduzi (or Party of Revolution) winning the 2015 general election despite vigorous efforts by American agencies, notably: The Republican Institute, to effect ‘’regime change’’ against a neo-socialist ruling party.
On his return to power in 2015, Buhari started beating the drum of anti-corruption with his flagship statement that: ‘’If Nigeria does not kill corruption, corruption will kill Nigeria’’. It was a call which put the fatal mission of corruption at par with that of malaria. His other image is that the devastating effects of corruption is like an ocean fishing net which damages lives of youths, women, children and deprives young people paths to growth. The gravity of this claim was supported by a report of a committee chaired by former president of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, that annually a total of 50 billion American dollars had been illicitly taken out of Africa to fuel development in foreign economies.
Nigeria had also waved flags of achievement in tracking and recovering significant amounts of funds. The tool of ‘’whistle blowers’’ had by 2016 enabled government to recover N9 billion. Despite cheeky ‘’conditionalities’’ insisted on by foreign countries holding stolen funds, Nigeria managed to get back 361 million American dollars from what the local media refer to as ‘’Abacha loot’’. A total of 54,000 ‘’ghost workers’’ were ‘’weeded out’’ of the federal salary bill, thereby saving 200 million American dollars monthly.
Nigeria has also invested considerable intellectual resources into the anti-corruption war. In 2017 Buhari signed three Executive Orders, including one which requires officials to write budget estimates in simplified format so that ‘’citizens and the media can do reviews
IT IS NOT CLEAR IF THE PRACTICAL MEASURES BY MAGUFULI AND BUHARI ARE STARTING FIRES UNDER SEATS OF OTHER LEADERS. OF THE 55 MEMBER STATES OF THE AFRICAN UNION, ONLY 38 HAVE SIGNED THEIR OWN CONVENTION FOR SWEEPING CORRUPTION FROM OVER AFRICA’ SKIES
of fiscal activities’’ to enable ‘’people know what government is doing’’. There are also novel measures for achieving ‘’transparency in financial flows in the exploitation of natural resources’’. Only 11 African countries have currently joined this initiative. There is a push by a think-tank in the Presidency to create measures which are superior and more relevant to the complex and ever-changing strategies of local and global corruption mafia than those advocated by International agencies, including the United Nations.
There are also novel judicial measures being considered. One is the notion that bank workers who handle stolen funds can be held liable to prosecution as ‘’middle men’’ in the corruption chain and drama. Pleading ignorance about how the money was gotten by a customer would no longer be a valid defence in court. There is also the notion that if the person who stole the money dies, the property he/she left behind ‘’will be put on trial’’. Failure to prove legitimate sources of the income behind the properties would ‘’lead to forfeiture’’.
It is not clear if the practical measures by Magufuli and Buhari are starting fires under seats of other leaders. Of the 55 member states of the African Union, only 38 have signed their own convention for sweeping corruption from over Africa’ skies. When President Magufuli was on a state visit to Uganda, his declaration that the political will to drive anti-corruption must come from the top, prompted his host to announce that he will borrow some of the measures used by his visitor. And when a journalist suggested to Magufuli that his summary punishment of offenders violated their right to defend themselves in a court of law, President Museveni jumped in with the assertion that perpetrators of corruption were violating human rights of millions of citizens and therefore had no claims to such protection.
In Buhari’s neighbourhood, the President of Ghana appointed the Opposition Party Leader to head the Anti-Corruption agency. Foreign academics and journalists claim that in Africa opposition politicians are regarded as ‘’enemies’’ to be crushed. This move is significant even if cynics may see it as giving the opposition leader a calabash of poisoned palm wine to drink and silence his chance of reaping from dangers to government from raving pains while squeezing out the nation’s corruption boil.
President Uhuru Kenyatta in Kenya may also have passed over to Raila Odinga the baton of threats of assassination which under President Mwai Kibaki sent John Githongo as anti-corruption warrior fleeing to London for safety. While these are positive signs, more creative measures are needed for cleansing local and state governments; while anchoring anti-corruption in actions of Africa’s peoples.