By Daniel Benson Kaaya
“One of the saddest lessons of history is this: If we have been bamboozled long enough, we tend to reject any evidence of the bamboozle. We are no longer interested in finding out the truth. The bamboozle has captured us. It is simply too painful to acknowledge, even to ourselves, that we have been taken. Once you give a charlatan power over you, you will almost never get it back” – Carl Sagan
Amongst the oodles of challenges Africa as a continent faces is corruption and unscrupulous governance—if we have any to boast about. Weight will be on the former. Most leaders to whom power was bequeathed by colonialists were excellent if not magnificent – inter alia, Julius Nyerere, Kwame Nkrumah and Nelson Mandela (after apartheid). After that phase came a pool of leaders who, over the years, have either clung onto power or become reliably unreliable! I have reservation for leaders who cling onto power and say to the populace “why change a winning formula?”
Over the years many African countries have set up anti-corruption institutions and also crafted laws to curb the vice. In my opinion, these institutions and laws are merely a façade that the government of the day is fighting corruption. Scholars have noted that these institutions have two major functions or responsibilities: to ensure that theft goes undetected, and two if or when it is detected, they should conjure up stories to the contrary or conduct deficient investigations that cannot either initiate a suit or maintain it in a court of law.
Michela Wrong author of the acclaimed book “In the Footsteps of Mr. Kurtz: Living on the Brink of Disaster in the Congo” is one such scholar. She compares Kenya’s corruption to a huge garbage dump that has grown higher and higher over the years. “Each stratum has a slightly different consistency – the garbage trucks brought mostly plastics and cardboard that week, perhaps, less household waste and more factory refuse – but it smells identical, letting off vast methane sighs as it settles and shifts”. This is an equivalent diagnosis for the entire Africa. Sergio Mattarella, lawyer, judge and the current president of Italy, once hypothesized that “…corruption has stretched an undesirable level. It devours resources that could be devoted to citizens. It impedes the proper carrying out of market rules and penalises the honest and capable”.
From the foregoing chronicle, it is fair to conclude that Africa has not failed tragically to fight corruption because it either lacks the personnel or means, but it is because we love, adore and cherish corruption. If one doubts this, I recommend that that one should doubt one’s doubts first. The love and affection for corruption is the only reason that corruption is tolerated and brooked in Africa. To bolster my assertion I will delve into the South African Nkandla scandal and tongue-lashing given to Transparency International by African leaders in Addis Ababa during the African Development Week, among others. Corruption, however we might christen it, is our beloved. The dearth of opportunity to eat loudens these anti-corruption screams. If these anti-corruption activists acquire a chance to eat, they’ll be as silent as stones!
Jacob Zuma’s latest scandal, reaction and the outcome thereto is the very quintessence for the affection I want to dissect. Zuma has been jinxed by allegations of corruption since before he was elected president in 2009. If this in itself is not a colorful demonstration of the love for corruption, what could be?
Raymond Bonner a fêted journalist and author observed that, the Philippines is a country in which a man of morals can’t be president, in which a politician who hasn’t been linked to any wrongdoing isn’t assumed honest, but merely better at hiding his corruption. Africa shares Bonner’s observation. We love corruption; all the blares to the contrary are mere façade and hypocrisy that daunts the devil.
Banally, Zuma has been at his superlative form again after it emerged that he used $23 million (Sh2.2 billion) of public money to upgrade his private home in the rural area of Nkandla in KwaZulu-Natal province. South Africa’s highest court ruled that he had breached the constitution by failing to repay public money used to upgrade his private home. Consequently, the governing African National Congress (ANC) defeated the opposition sponsored motion, asserting that Zuma was not guilty of serious misconduct. It is always difficult if not practically impossible to put a leash on a dog while you have put a crown on it! This motion was to fail on the premise of numbers which ANC had over the opposition. An impeachment motion floored a constitutional court decision; can there be any better archetype for this love?
Parallel to the above chronicle, which displays the lack of accountability in African leadership, are the steps taken by former Iceland Prime Minister amid a controversy over his offshore holdings. Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson resigned after the Panama Papers leak mentioned him in the tax evasion claims. Only the public demanded his resignation. In South Africa not only did the public want Zuma to step down; also the court ruled that he should repay the money (a demonstration of his unfitness to serve). This illustrates that nothing can stand between this unalloyed affection!
The ‘African way’
African leaders have lately demonstrated what one ought to do for love – shielding one’s beloved from accosters. Our leaders want an African way of measuring, analysing and assessing corruption which will encapsulate the realities in Africa. They maintain that Transparency International and other like institutions produce perception-based corruption assessments. When these institutions give rankings on happy nations, negligible economic growth and any other finding that does not perforate Africa’s beloved, no leader will stand out and question the authenticity of the report. Corruption is dearly loved, do not be misled! This protection is educated by the fact that African leaders have caused the continent to lose between $1.4 trillion (Sh139 trillion) between 1980 and 2010 according to African Holocaust. Africa loses such kind of resources either to the West or to the leaders’ treasuries.
Coming home, there has been a series of corruption scandals; Chickengate, Eurobond, NYS among others. It should not surprise any person that there has been no conviction yet for these cases. Chickengate is still at infancy when it comes to investigation – no need to say the upshot given the conduct of our investigations. Eurobond is long forgotten; do not be deceived that much will be done. NYS scandal’s little wolves are in court but the alpha wolves are still out there hunting for bigger game. These inactions and façade are an unadulterated demonstration of a legendary romance that squashes Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet to the extreme. Recently, the Attorney-General and EACC reported that Kenya has made gargantuan paces in fending off corruption. Ironically, Kenya still tops Africa in corruption.
The EACC states that her principal job is to investigate corruption and that of prosecution is not hers. Tritely, if a criminal case flops, blame or credit, for this matter, should go to the investigating agency. All these are a display of this love story. Realistically, corruption is here to stay—no, it’s not pessimism. Africa is not ready to divorce corruption and it never will. A marriage does not divorce when parties are exuberantly happy.
To be fair to Africa, I share the wisdom of Alan Greespan that corruption, embezzlement, fraud are characteristics which exist everywhere. What successful economies do is keep it to a minimum. No one has ever eliminated any of that stuff. I propose that what we can do as a society is to implacably continue combat this love. This is because fighting it is not just good governance, it is self-defense. Fighting corruption is possible if we all decide. John Pombe Magufuli and Buhari have demonstrated it is possible! Strong bonds can be broken.
This love must be obliterated whatever the means and cost!
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