Taming Corruption in Africa: A Comparative Examination of South Africa and Nigeria (original) (raw)
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The corruption race in Africa: Nigeria versus South Africa, who cleans the mess first?
De jure, 2020
The aim and objective of this article is to unpack in a comparative format the fiend of corruption in Africa, using Nigeria and South Africa as the giant in corruption alongside Somalia, South Sudan and Madagascar in the continent of Africa. It is true that corruption has been imported and/or incorporated into the African political space; although, the dimension and effects of corruption differ from country to country in Africa. In Africa, corruption is clearly visible culminating in several high-profile scandals standing out. In Nigeria for instance, former and late military head of State, Sani Abacha and South Africa's Jackie Selebi were some among many public office bearers indicted in corruption mess. Kofele-Kale noted that corruption is punishable in all African countries, prohibited in their Constitutions and in various regional and pan-African anti-corruption instruments. In fact, Africa's leaders are concerned about the problem of corruption that hardly a day goes by without some government entity criticising corruption and its cancerous effects on African society, yet, Africa has made little or no progress on this front. The article examines corruption in Nigeria and South Africa and tries to find out which of these two countries will be first in the complete eradication of corruption.
Corruption: Africa’s Encumbers
International journal of scientific and research publications, 2021
This paper attempts to provide an accentuated understanding of corruption in Africa by delineating the role of Africa’s leadership and donor agencies in abating mismanagement of public resources. Through a systematic approach, this paper reviews existing evidence on dynamics of corruption in Africa and notes its implications in the modern underdeveloped Africa. The paper notes that good governance, transparency, and accountability are sine qua non building blocks of 21 st century democratic societies. African countries can reduce corruption by formulating tough anti-corruption policies, such as high profile convictions, ensuring that companies operating in Africa are more transparent in their dealings with the government and tougher on those companies and individuals paying bribes, just as African leaders must be ready to take a tougher stand on corrupt officials that take the bribes. Importantly, countries in the Global South should strengthen their institutions and create efficien...
International Journal of Criminology and Sociology, 2016
Corruption has become a full blown cancer in Nigeria, Africa and other Global South countries, consequently bringing about economic backwardness, political instability, social insecurity, infrastructural decay, unaccountability, negation of the principle of law, etc. Efforts towards curbing it have failed woefully. It is evident that there are missing links towards effective management and control of the phenomenon in these areas. Based on secondary data, and using Nigeria as sample, this paper examined these missing links towards effective management and control of the phenomenon. Since corruption is multi-faceted i.e. manifests through multiplicity of factors ranging from ethno-religious, and sectional sentiments on one hand, and on the other, reflected in the social classes of active, and non-active players of the phenomenon; as well as international factors sustaining the menace; not leaving the mechanisms for control and management of the whole process of its prevalence. Thus, an integrative theoretical approach was used to explain these missing links which have been identified as corrupt individuals in the corridors of power; defective/imbalance of political and social structure; legal justice; social justice; and international collaboration. Findings reveal: political powers in the hands of corrupt individuals; poor implementation of legal and social justice among others account for the persistence of corruption in these areas. Some of the recommendations include: having individuals with proven records of integrity vie for political elective positions; there should be no sacred cows in the fight against corruption; and, there should be a redefinition of the core values to define corruption.
The International Journal of Business & Management, 2020
There is general consensus among scholars, governance practitioners and other stakeholders that corruption remains the major hindrance to the prosperity of the African continent in all spheres. Corruption could rightly be regarded as the single greatest challenge to Africa's realization of human rights, democracy, economic growth as well as peace and stability. Barrack Obama, the former President of the United States of America while addressing a delegation of African Union officials in 2015 noted as follows: 'Nothing will unlock Africa's economic potential more than ending the cancer of corruption. This is not unique to Africa-corruption exists all over the world, including in the United States. Here in Africa, corruption drains billions of dollars from economies-money that could be used to create jobs and to build hospitals and schools' (Africa Justice and Faith Network, 2015). It is due to entrenched corruption that citizens in African countries continue to wallow in poverty many years after independence. Corruption has had devastating effects on the economy of African states with studies estimating that about 43 per cent of Africans live in poverty, despite the African states being endowed with immense natural resources. Over 50 Billion US dollars-worth of assets are stolen out of Africa each year. For instance, Kenya loses a third of its national budget to corruption annually, a reflection of what happens in other African countries. This paper flows from the background of widespread and deeply entrenched corruption in Africa despite continuous implementation of numerous national and international mechanisms ostensibly designed towards curbing it. Whereas it cannot be denied that some African states have made notable strides towards securing democratic and anticorruption reforms, high prevalence of corruption is a challenge that cuts across the entire African continent. Various research reports and analyses show that corruption in Africa has remained prevalent for decades. For instance, the Transparency International's Annual Corruption Perception Index (CPI) Report, 2019 revealed that more than two-thirds of the 180 countries scored below 50 points, with a global average score of just 43 out of the highest attainable 100 points. Denmark and New Zealand were ranked position 1 with a score of 87, meaning they were the cleanest countries as at 2019. Turning to Africa, Seychelles earned the highest mark of 66 points in Africa, making it the cleanest country in the continent. Botswana was ranked position 34 with a score 61 followed by Rwanda at position 51 with 53 points. Africa scored an average of 32 out 100 points. Somalia was ranked the world's most corrupt country, at position 180, with extremely high levels of political corruption. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was ranked position 168 with a score of 18 points. It is instructive to note here that political integrity among government officials in DRC is reported to be extremely low, with 79 per cent of DRC citizens believing that all or most parliamentarians are involved in corruption. The report further showed that majority of countries are making little to no improvement in tackling corruption. These few examples illuminate the general state of good governance in Africa. In the history of global surveys on corruption, African countries have always led from the bottom. Ironically, the African continent has conspicuously maintained a top lead in the adoption of international initiatives for promotion of the
Corruption in Africa â Part 2
History Compass, 2009
In order to succeed in minimizing corruption in the African countries, one must start by examining the nature of institutional arrangements in each country with a review to modifying them. This calls for the reconstruction and reconstitution of the post-colonial state through democratic constitution making to provide a new set of laws and institutions that reflects the values of each country's relevant stakeholders. Most of today's African countries have incentive structures, which actually encourage and enhance corruption. Increasing government intervention in the marketplace is not likely to reduce corruption as the evidence from more than 50 years of government attempts to control venality in Africa's public sectors shows. The most effective way to deal with corruption in Africa is to engage the people in comprehensive institutional reforms that modify existing incentives and produce new ones, which are capable of successfully inducing participants in both political and economic markets to undertake only activities that produce the outcomes desired by society. Thus, to cleanup corruption from the African economies, improve both productive and allocative efficiency, and generally enhance development, national leaders must engage their people in democratic institutional reforms to provide society with transparent, accountable, and participatory governance structures.
Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences, 2016
The fact and reality of systemic corruption in Africa is irrefutable. It is therefore not surprising that the subject has attracted quite a great deal of attention from the academia. Thus, to assert that corruption is the greatest impediment to the socio-political and economic development of Africa is a superfluous understatement and a mere reinstatement of the obvious. Across Africa, incredibly huge sums of money sufficient to conduct free, fair and credible elections, equip the military and the police for optimum performance, revolutionize agriculture, rejuvenate education, resuscitate infrastructures, reinvigorate the economy, revamp the industrial sector and achieve scientific and technological emancipation end up in private vaults and pockets. The consequences of this are impaired economy, immobile technology, fractured infrastructures, ill equipped armed forces, unmitigated poverty and unprecedented brigandage and banditry. This paper does not intend to contribute to the oversubscribed debate on the origins, theories and causes of corruption in Africa; rather, it addresses the question of the option(s) that could best combat systemic corruption in Africa. The paper argues that neither the altitudinal factor nor constitutional provisions could combat corruption in Africa and concludes that only attitudinal change or the confrontation option could liberate the continent from systemic corruption. The descriptive and analytical method of historical research was employed in the analysis of the data obtained for the study.
CORRUPTION AND GOVERNANCE IN AFRICA
The existence of anti-corruption laws and institutions in Africa has question the commitment of the African leaders in their efforts at combating corruption as it has remained a challenge to governance in the continent. This is because hardly will anybody read any of the national dailies in a week without the issue related to corruption not mentioned and this has become a great concern to Africans considering the damage it cause the continent annually. The aim of the paper is to assess the dimensions and challenges to anti-corruption efforts in Africa and recommend workable solutions. However, the institutional approach to corruption was adopted as Africa’s institutions remain the Centre piece where corruption emanates. This paper adopted descriptive and analytical methods in its discussion. Moreover, corruption in Africa has internal and external dimension which are interrelated in some respect. These are corrupt practices perpetrated by Africans and those carried out by foreigner via collaboration with corrupt Africans. Furthermore, demand for good governance by Civil Society Groups, stiffer penalty for corruption, relative autonomy for anti-graft institutions, are among others are internal mechanisms while, setting up International Government Organization at the global, regional and sub-regional levels to assess performance in governance, tying international aids/assistance and loan to performance in governance by international donors are among external mechanisms to combat corruption in Africa. Finally, failure to deal with the issue of corruption from both internal and external dimension is responsible for increasing level of corruption in Africa.
Corruption has always existed in different forms, and is not determined by politics or geography. It exists in rich and poor countries alike, it involves both individual States and international organizations and its costs are borne by the citizens. It affects the proper running of governments, distorts the correct functioning of economic and political institutions, and hampers transparency. While the manifestations of corruption are limitless, its roots seem to be identifiable in the immoderate inclination for material wealth and power. While wealth in the African traditional setting came along with the responsibility to promote the common good, today wealth seems to be an end in itself. It is a misdirected pursuit of happiness in wealth and power. Because of the many challenges that corruption brings to the society, it has become a cause of great concern today, not only to the church and the state, but also to the institutions of higher education.
Corruption and bad governance in Africa (Nigeria as a case study)
fighting corruption is just a governmental task but also an individual/collective task. Africa as continent needs to collective look into this case and find a safest and more assured way of tackling this virus that is eating up the good image that Africa once had. This project is comprehensively worked upon towards the achievement of a "corrupt-free" Nigeria and Africa at large