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Connecting To Advance
TED Talks
Ghanaian economist Prof. George Ayittey unleashes a torrent of controlled anger toward corrupt leaders in Africa — and calls on the “Cheetah generation” to take back the continent.
Please enjoy. Then contribute to the discussion. The space below is yours.
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Politics is a neutral game anchored in the body polity of political parties which serve as the platforms upon which political aspirants seeking for elective positions canvass for the support of the electorate. Therefore, political parties must be viable in terms of sound-minded men and women who are politically schooled in the game of politics. They ought to be guided by rules that are not partial and fair to all, robust political culture, devoid of grandstand personalities who exude an air of personal aggrandizement, ethnically balanced, religiously unprejudiced, as well as a near-perfect structure that train and breed future leaders.
But political parties in many African countries since their independence have been reduced to mere quasi family organizations, vendetta-spots, money-making machines for hungry and upstart politicians and surrogate aspirants. Besides, they lack internal democracy- the hallmark of party politics and, they are ethnically and religiously fragmented and ideologically divided with no clue for the progress of the society. These parties are built around an individual either because he is financially empowered or s/she is charismatic. They thrive in ethnic savor and most times lack national outlook and they are not institutionalized. They run party’s activities with thugs and pugilists in a macho-manner. As such, they push parochial agenda and programs, manipulate positions for wives and children and friends in an inheritance fashion, betray financially less-privileged candidates; while favoritism rather meritocracy, takes the driver’s seat.
The fallouts of lack of internal democracy in the conduct of political party’s affairs had led to the imposition of unpopular candidates on the electorate and the state in case they win elections, internal squabbles and political tension in the body polity. All these have grave implications for development. Above all, they undermine the strength of the party; breed unspoken animosity and breaks-away, cross-carpeting and in most cases make the party profoundly unpopular in strongholds of unsatisfied actors.
Meanwhile this also creates an avenue for the dominant party to lose elections. Break-away further leads to the formation of new smaller political parties as alternatives. Though, multi-party politics is robust and deepens democracy the world over, in Africa it has become the harbinger of ethnic tension and post-election violence. The reason being aggrieved political defectors erroneously believe they must win elections at all costs even before they are conducted. They threaten fire and brimstones on how best they would make their countries ungovernable if elections (yet to be conducted) results are not in their favor. Good omen for development?
Political parties these days hardly come up with viable options for development in their manifestos as they lack well-rounded ideology. The only program they always rehearse is how they will stamp-out corruption and provide modern infrastructure and eradicate poverty. Nothing more! This is because the caliber of people at the helms of affairs is self-serving and they are either looking for political appointments or contracts. So, what we have in Africa are political dealers who jump into the party’s executive race to deal on party’s juicy opportunities to further personal interest. They end up with candidates who are corruption driven, unable to deliver on fake fabulous electioneering promises. These candidates would not come back to their primary constituencies, except another electioneering calendar year is near. What an affront on the electorate.
It is pertinent to know that the future development of any country practicing democracy rests on the shoulders of political parties that have strong development program which embraces corrupt-free political actors, adhere to rules and subject all party players to the same part ethics, adhere to the guiding principle of election rather than selection in party primaries, discipline any act of real misconducts, no matter whose horse is gored. When political parties fail in their duty to educate and bring forth trust-worthy and popular candidates for elections, they will not only be bashed in the process, they are laying the foundation for future demise of the parties, while they inadvertently hold their country’s development to hurtful underdevelopment.
If you like this article, I’d recommend my book “If I Was Famous, I’d Have a Lot to Say”
In case you do not have enough time to read this brief piece, the answer to the question raised above is: corruption. Yes, sounds familiar? I am talking about politicians in developing countries. In general terms, politicians in developed nations are not angels but they are structurally constrained to corner public monies to build private mansions and buy private jets. They hardly can stash away their taxpayers’ monies in ‘foreign accounts’. Any time a leader in Africa is removed, what you hear next is that his assets (and many of the guilty leaders are men) are being frozen in Switzerland or London. It still beats my imagination why someone entrusted with public trust will embezzle public monies and lodge same in private accounts in foreign lands.
Not all politicians make empty promises, and some of them do try to deliver. Human problems cannot be solved a hundred per cent. Some politicians sincerely want to make a difference in the lives of the electorate. Some want to genuinely improve the welfare of the people; build more roads to connect rural farmers to urban consumers, make drinking water available to millions who need it, make environment clean to reduce health hazards, and pay more wages to teachers, civil servants, doctors and nurses to deliver services. But public funds cannot duplicate themselves. As promises and plans are made, and contracts awarded, the same politicians or their cronies or their patrons are somewhere busy, planning and promising themselves and their concubines some big mansions and exotic cars and jets in Dubai, London, New York and Geneva. You see, out of nothing, nothing comes. And the cycle continues till the next election. To break such an ugly trend, people will generally need to wake up, vote right leaders into power and devise means to hold them accountable.
Germany, Ireland and Sweden have suspended payments to the Global Fund to fight Aids, TB and Malaria over the corrupt use of grants by African countries. Could the media storm trigger a domino effect among donors that could severely undermine the fund’s capacity to help the poor?
Until a few days ago, the Global Fund to fight Aids, TB and Malaria had the enviable reputation of being one of the cleanest and safest channels of donor money to the poor in the developing world. Everybody knows there is corruption in Africa – but it never tainted the Global Fund. But now Germany, the third biggest donor to the fund after the US and France, has suspended the €200m it pledged for 2011, asking for an investigation into the fraud and misuse of money in four countries – Mauritania, Mali, Zambia and Djibouti. Ireland has also put its wallet away for the moment, delaying a decision on whether to continue its donations to the fund.
What a difference a few days makes – and how fragile is reputation. The fund now fears a domino effect. As bank crashes have taught us, loss of confidence can do terrible things. And at a time of economic recession, revelations like these can give donor governments just the excuse they need to pull the plug.
So the consequences are potentially very serious. But what has happened to cause the first dominoes to tumble? You’d think it must be some new and terrible revelation. In fact, it was a story on an agency newswire based on a report from October that is on the Global Fund’s website. Although the fund does well in preventing its money being misused, it can’t stop it entirely. The report of its inspector general detailed the corruption that had been found in a number of countries – and the steps that had been taken to root out the corruption and get the money back. The total amount of money involved is US$34m. That is 0.3% of the $13bn the fund has dispensed for disease-fighting programmes since 2007.
The frauds were not a secret. The fund, which has in the past been praised for its transparency, issued a series of press releases – the first one in September 2009, when it suspended grants to Mauritania. In June 2010, it announced that action had been taken against Zambia, which I wrote about. In December, the fund announced it had suspended grants to Mali.
So given that 0.3% ended up in the wrong hands is pretty good going – as many an NGO or business working in Africa will tell you. This should have been a storm in a teacup. But the agency story was followed up by Fox News, which laid into the fund with both fists.
Germany’s decision may have much to do with disagreements between development minister Dirk Niebel and chancellor Angela Merkel over how to prune the aid budget. Ireland’s is inevitably connected with its financial problems. Ironically, Sweden, which suspended its grant to the fund last October after seeing the inspector general’s report, was thought to have been completely satisfied by the explanations it was given and be about to announce its reinstatement, but is unlikely to do so until things quieten down.
But the real fear for the fund’s supporters will be that the storm may have been whipped up by those who want the US to slash its spending on foreign aid and will not only have the Global Fund in their sights, but also the UN. The Global Fund is already short of the money it hoped it would have to pass on to developing countries in the next two years. If the US cuts back, there can be no doubt that the cost will be measured in lives.
Sarah Boseley has won a number of awards for her work on HIV/Aids in Africa, including the One World Media Award (twice)
About the Speaker
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a director of the World Bank, was Nigeria’s Finance Minister and then briefly Foreign Affairs Minister from 2003 to 2006, the first woman to hold either position.
During her tenure as Finance Minister, she worked to combat corruption, make Nigeria’s finances more transparent, and institute reforms to make the nation’s economy more hospitable to foreign investment. The government unlinked its budget from the price of oil, its main export, to lessen perennial cashflow crises, and got oil companies to publish how much they pay the government.
Since 2003 — when watchdog group Transparency International rated Nigeria “the most corrupt place on Earth” — the nation has made headway recovering stolen assets and jailing hundreds of people engaged in international Internet 419 scams.
Okonjo-Iweala is a former World Bank vice president who graduated from Harvard and earned a Ph.D. in regional economics and development at MIT. Her son Uzodinma Iweala is the celebrated young author of Beasts of No Nation.
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TED TALK
Corruption is a worldwide problem. For convenience sake, it has been widely associated with developing countries for the most part. It would be dishonest on my part to defend the developing world against charges of corruption. But the story is never complete when we only call the developing country like Ghana or Nigeria corrupt. That means we are only looking at one side of the coin.
Multi-national Corporations (MNCs) with roots in the developing world have a dominating role in propagating this disease in the developing world.
Last week, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) of Nigeria announced plans to charge Dick Cheney, former Vice President (VP) of the US, with corruption. Mr. Cheney acted as the CEO of Halliburton from 1995 to 2000. Documents coming to light reveal that during that time, the company participated in corrupt and fraudulent activities in Nigeria. One source states that about $180 million was used by Halliburton to bride its way to acquire lucrative natural gas contacts in Nigeria.
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This is just one example of large companies who have the resources to hire experts who can cope with the bureaucratic hurdles normally characteristic of most African countries and obscure rules of play.
I’m very much aware of the situation in Ghana. Local entrepreneurs fight and give up in securing land and other licenses to start operating businesses while International Corporation can work around the system overnight and be in business the next morning. They have the means to “oil” the administrative machinery and speed up long drawn-out decision-making processes.
These corporations are not only infecting our system with the disease that we’ve been fighting for decades, in fact, some of them are directly or indirectly responsible for civil unrest and wars.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), it is estimated that nearly five million people have died in wars, the primary drive of which is the fulfillment of the Western economies and people’s unquenchable craving for high-quality jewels and precious minerals such as diamond. Where do the rebels get their arms from? They’re surely not locally made.
The educated elite in Africa benefit from this serfdom. This has become a war of attrition. The system of corruption propagated by MNCs in collaboration with African politicians has become a type of civil war in which the man or woman on the street cannot distinguish between a friend and a foe. They know that these corporations and their local leaders are making fortunes but they see none of the benefits in their everyday lives. Gold and diamonds from Ghana, diamond from the DRC, oil from Nigeria, cocoa from Ivory Coast and the list goes on, but a tin of milk is a luxury to most families.
It is easy for richer countries to attribute African development problems to corruption by African leaders. That is just part of the story. The role multi-national Corporations play should be addressed by their respective governments if these governments really care about Africa. The Western media needs to do a better job covering their corporations doing business in Africa.
I trust that the Nigerian EFCC hold Halliburton according to the very letter of the laws of the land. I’ll also have my ears widely open with regard to what steps the US Department of State takes. If I find something that I think will interest you, I’ll report it as usual. After all, that’s the very purpose this website was built to serve. Please check back
(Image credit mccoy.lib.siu.edu)
The world is considered a more corrupt place now than it was three years ago, a poll suggests.
Some 56% of people interviewed by Transparency International said their country had become more corrupt.
The organisation put Afghanistan, Nigeria, Iraq and India in the most corrupt category, followed by China, Russia and much of the Middle East.
Meanwhile, a BBC poll suggests that corruption is the world’s most talked about problem.
About one in five of those polled by the BBC said they had discussed issues relating to corruption with others in the last month, making it the most talked about concern ahead of climate change, poverty, unemployment and rising food and energy costs.
In the Transparency International survey, political parties were regarded as the most corrupt institutions, and 50% of people believed their government was ineffective at tackling the problem.
One in four of those polled said they had paid a bribe in the past year – the police being the most common recipient.
Some 29% of bribes went to the police, 20% to registry and permit officials, and 14% to members of the judiciary.
Political parties have long been regarded as the most corrupt institutions – they topped the list in Transparency’s 2004 barometer with 71%. In this year’s report, 80% regarded them as corrupt.
Religious bodies experienced a sharp rise in people regarding them as corrupt – 28% in 2004 increased to 53% by 2010.
People from Afghanistan, Nigeria, Iraq and India were among those who perceived the highest levels of corruption in their daily lives.
At least half of the people surveyed in those countries reported paying a bribe in the past year.
While people from Cambodia (84%) and Liberia (89%) were the most likely to have to pay a bribe, the Danish reported 0% bribery.
Robin Hodess, Transparency’s policy and research director, expressed particular concern at the figures on bribery.
“Unfortunately people’s experience with bribery most often involves the police, and this is really worrying,” she said.
“It’s a figure that’s grown in the past few years. It’s nearly doubled, in fact, since 2006. Nearly one in three people who had contact with the police around the world had to pay a bribe.”
By region, people in sub-Saharan Africa were the most likely to have paid a bribe (56%).
Bribe taking was least common in EU countries and North America (both 5%) – although these were the two regions seeing the biggest increase in concern about corruption.
Analysts blame this rising concern on the global financial crisis for undermining people’s faith in government, banks and economic institutions.
The lobby group interviewed 90,000 people in 86 countries to compile its corruption barometer.
The opinion poll commissioned by the BBC sampled 13,000 people in 26 nations.
Respondents in Brazil, Egypt, Colombia, the Philippines and Kenya were especially likely to view corruption as a very serious issue.
In Europe, Italians were the most concerned about bribe taking.
Publication of the BBC poll coincides with anti-corruption day held by the United Nations.
Source: Global Corruption Barometer 2010
Percentage of responders who paid bribe last year
(Replotted. Data from Transparency International Global Corruption Barometer)
While global campaigns are gathering momentum to raise funds for malaria research and prevention, Malian officials have their own plan. Read on.
(AP)
BAMAKO, Mali — The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria said Tuesday that $4 million meant to fight disease in Mali has been misappropriated, prompting them to halt three grants.
The announcement came two days after Malian Health Minister Oumar Ibrahima Toure resigned without explanation on Sunday.
The Global Fund said Tuesday that Malian officials have arrested 15 people suspected of committing fraud; those include several senior health ministry officials.
The international fund said in a statement Tuesday that two malaria grants would be temporarily suspended and a tuberculosis grant would be terminated. Together the grants are worth $22.6 million. The fund has approved some $128 million in assistance for Mali since its creation in 2002. This has come in the form of eight grants – six of them administered by the government.
“The Global Fund tolerates no fraud, and we take public action to stop it, recover lost money and establish new and trustworthy channels for resources so they can reach those in need,” said Michel Kazatchkine, the fund’s executive director
Toure, the health minister, did not respond to requests for comment on Tuesday, nor did Malian government officials. But he had faced several public calls to step down over the Global Fund investigation, and Mali‘s president Amadou Toumani Toure vowed earlier to seek those responsible.
“Whenever someone is accused of wrongdoing, we will do what’s needed so that justice is done,” the president said Saturday. “We must not condemn people too quickly, however. It’s my desire that everyone arrested in connection with this affair has the chance to defend themselves, protect themselves and possibly prove their innocence.”
The fund said the $4 million appeared to have been skimmed through false invoices, fake bid documents and overcharging for goods and services.
The grants provided anti-malarial bed nets, malaria drugs and tuberculosis treatment for prisoners, people in mining communities and patients with multidrug resistant TB.
The fund says the malaria grants will be transferred to another recipient in Mali and treatment will not be interrupted. The tuberculosis patients helped by the other grant will also continue to receive assistance, the fund said.
The poor, landlocked West African nation relies on international donors to fund its health system. In August another international body, the GAVI Alliance, which helps get vaccines to developing countries, also froze the funds it gives to Mali because of corruption fears.