Corruption has become a serious problem in Africa and elsewhere in the World. People often wonder how the billons of dollars of development aid pumped into the countries of Africa have not alleviated the development problems of the people. Africa still languishes in poverty. Famine, disease and ignorance are still rampant in most parts of Africa.

On the other hand, democracy has become the buzzword for African governments to get foreign economic assistance to support their country’s budget. In many countries of Africa, the funds received as development aid are not accountable. Since the fund is given as direct budgetary aid to governments, there is no mechanism to control how the funds are managed because it is the government of that particular country, which has the upper hand to redirect the fund according to its political priorities.

In Africa as elsewhere in the world, most governments declare democracy as the political system upon which their governments are based. The question comes whether they are democratic enough to fight corruption. What can democracy do to avoid corruption? If democracy is working in the Africa, then corruption should be avoided. In fact, democracy and transparency are inseparable as they are two sides of the same coin. When one looks at the way public fund is managed, one cannot speak of transparency, because government officials do not give information about the activities of their governments to the private press. It is, therefore, clear that the widespread embezzlement of public fund is a reflection of the absence of democracy in most of the counties of the continent.

What is more, bribery and corruption are widespread. The notion of equality is undermined. Government officials are robbing the people. This erodes the foundation of trust between the people and public officials. Corruption and bribery weaken the rule of law and undermine the foundation of the political system thus creating an impediment to the consolidation of human rights, peace and democracy. It has often been underlined that the low level of economic growth in most cases is often associated with the unbridled misappropriation of wealth by public officials. Bribery and corruption are not healthy to the development of a country. Development efforts are being thwarted, as investors are not motivated to invest in the development endeavor of a country because of the extra cost involved in the process. Corruption is an obstacle for effective implementation of democratic policies and leads to unofficial channels of communication.

Africa should not keep quiet to threats of underdevelopment such as corruption and bribery. It is high time Africa did every effort to stop it. The effort to reduce the problems of corruption will naturally help to consolidate democracy and the rule of law while at the same time preventing the illicit enrichment, embezzlement, bribery that are rampant in many countries in Africa.

Laws aimed at eliminating corruption should be introduced into government systems. It is important that African and International organizations pull collective effort toward controlling corruption in order to advance the development effort of people for better life.

Of course, it is not easy to put an end to corruption overnight. First and foremost, controlling corruption needs commitment on the part of government officers and the public. Once the commitment of public officers has been established through trainings and workshops, governments need to introduce policies aimed at controlling corruption. In this connection, anticorruption commissions need to be put in place to translate the laws into practice.

Of course, the effectiveness of these commissions depends on the availability of trained personnel and organizational capacity that can lead to the establishment of a transparent process that would gradually do away with corruption and bribery thereby helping Africa to overcome the problems of poverty, disease and ignorance.

March 2006

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