Chu'Emeka Makata, MD.

The world economies are beginning to show signs of recovery. Ironically, I am saddened by that as an African- because this will only make money available to the developed countries, resuscitating the impetus to give to Africa in form of illicit aids, grants and loans directly by states or indirectly via the World financial Institutions like the world Bank and the IMF.For these monies are never deployed for their intended purposes. They usually end up in private pockets.  Most are laundered back to Europe and America where they either end up in bank accounts or are used to purchase exotic properties. At the end of the day, the future of Africans and that of African children unborn is debited. Simply stated, all African children are born into the world heavily indebted. We grow up taking responsibility for debts we neither solicited nor benefited from. The world is aware of this dynamics yet the faulty approach towards solving the perennial African political and economic question by what I term “alms” giving persists.

Be that as it may, I must commend the developed countries for their large hearts nay magnanimity. It must however be clear to Africans that the solution to the problems of Africa cannot come from outside the continent being that most are self inflicted. African leaders must get rid of their beggarly nature and make the most of opportunities presented by positive international cooperation avenues such as trades and globalisation.

Despite wide spread pseudo academic attribution of all African political and economic peculiarities  to the effects of slavery and other negative activities of the west in Africa and the attendant suspicion of any concept western - induced in  Africans by dubious commentators, I believe in globalisation. This is because given our huge natural endowment we can earn a place in the value chain even if we do not have the environment or expertise to turn our natural resources into finished products. With this mindset, I dare proclaim contrary to popular opinion that the problem of Africa is neither poverty nor the west. They are multiple though. They include absence of leadership, insincerity, ethnicism, nepotism, lack of structures that will ensure the emergence of only the best as leaders, complete absence dynamic civic engagement and fellow feelings among a fatally ignorant citizenry and more. All these nurture the cankerworm known as corruption which is the greatest threat to peace, development and democracy in Africa as at today.

Unenviably, Africa is the focal point of emerging world interventionist agenda that encourage “alms” giving without a proportional burden of accountability and, or guarantee from organs and states benefiting on behalf of the people to strictly deploy such for the purpose it is given. This way, the west unconsciously becomes the greatest threat to democracy in Africa by providing funds which are diverted into sundry means of holding the populace down while absolving herself of the responsibility of intervention when consequences  arise in the guise of respect for national sovereignties.

These monies often stolen empower anti democratic leaders  helping them to further subjugate their people-the same people whose future have been already mortgaged through reckless borrowing and shameful solicitation of grants. The world therefore must adopt a different approach if in all sincerity, the essence of financial aids is to improve the lot of deprived populace .There must be an institution of sincere mechanisms to ensure that leaders who loot the treasury are brought to book and the looted funds retrieved. To achieve this, the following recommendations will be helpful:

1. The United Nations must classify corruption as a crime against humanity and empower the International court of criminal justice to adjudicate on cases of corruption in any part of the world. Citizens should be able to file cases against their leaders in cases of corruption as the UN should equally prosecute corrupt leaders as it is with genocide and other crimes against humanity.

2. The G8 and all other organised bodies and developed countries should set as a matter of urgency, the minimum standard of human right, financial and political responsibility necessary to entitle African leaders to privilege of association and or participation in western fora.

3. The European Union should adopt a  common standard of ethics for banks and financial Institution in Countries within the Union and those wishing to subscribe to the Union  and this should include strict penalty for any bank within the Union that is found to maintain account for corrupt African leaders, their families as well as associates.

4. The United Nations should adopt Transparency International as one of its agents or at least partner and use their indices to sanction or reward developing countries as a way of encouraging corruption free governance in Africa.

5. The United Nations should stop with immediate effect the continual habit of rewarding corrupt ex- presidents and heads of state in Africa and indeed other parts of the world with ambassadorial positions as this does not only damage the faith of world citizens in her but as well mutilate the spirits of the oppressed all over the world. The UN should not be seen as showing bad example by delegating responsibility to leaders whose standing in their immediate constituency negates everything the UN stands for.

These recommendations are out of a personal conviction; nevertheless, I am convinced that their implementations will more than all the financial aids, grants and loans in the world set Africa towards the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) whose chances of realisation in Africa remains a mirage, no thanks to  corruption.

In 2006, the voices agitating for a wholesale cancelation of debts for Africa constructively interfered leading to unprecedented resonation. The voices Included those of Star Activists around the world. They also included the voice of the global body of Medical Students, the International Federation of Medical Students. (IFMSA) .Recently, the voice of the popular Musicians cum activists, Bob Geldof, Bono and the Philanthropist billionaire Bill Gates were heard around the world as they questioned the commitment of Italy and France to the pledge they made to Africa. It is also high time these voices that agitate for aids for Africa asked how the aids are spent for the sake of the target group who more often than not do not benefit from these aids .A supporting analogy to this is what a good friend of mine observed sometime ago-that while the officials of anti HIV/AIDS agencies are getting fat, the victims are getting thinner.

As the world, donor agencies and Credit Clubs listened to the voice of the people and relived some heavily owing African countries of their debt burden, one would have expected the leaders to see it as an opportunity for a fresh start. That is sadly not the case. Most of them are back borrowing again accumulating debt profile that will only choke the fragile economies in the end. With the benefit of hind sight, the sequelea is clearly predictable. They will borrow, misappropriate some and steal the rest. They will continue until they build up a huge debt profile whose servicing will exact a lot of strain on the GDP of the countries involved. They will fail to fulfil the basic obligation to citizens and then blame it on huge debt burden and debt servicing obligations. The people will be thoroughly short-changed while the ones stealing in their name will consolidate beyond imagination. With their empowerment, they will sustain their strong hold on the polity thereby continuing the subjugation the people. In view of this scenario, I appeal to all mankind who appreciate the magnitude of the problem posed by corruption in Africa to join the fight against corruption by calling on world leaders and the United Nations and her agencies, the European Union and every other world body committed to upholding the right of man to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to consider the recommendations herein for adoption and implementation.  I also appeal formally to anybody or organisation that receives this mail to forward it to the next person or organisation for the purposes of stimulating discursions and actions. In doing this, we will all be contributing a little towards making our world a better place. It is high time the world adopted a better approach towards solving the problem of corruption in Africa and indeed in every other part of the globe where same has held back the energy and spirit of mankind. I am sending this to the UN and other regional/world bodies. Join me in the struggle and God bless our continent and our world!

Robot  # 1 | 30.06.2009 05:17

Despite wide spread pseudo academicattribution of African political and economic peculiarities to the effects of slavery and other negative activities of the west in Africa and the attendant suspicion of any concept western - induced in Africans by dubious commentators, I believe in globalisation....Read the full article.

eire  # 2 | 02.07.2009 07:17

this headline is like something you might read from a white neo-con controlled media house in the middle of Germany or France. What a sweeping generalisation, is there such troubling corruption in Ghana or Libya as to suggest the entire continent deserve to have a western style article about it? Could it not be narrowed down to say Nigeria or Zaire instead the entire continent?