It’s no secret that presidents of countries in Africa are considered quite corrupt. This emerges from the open criticism of the public, foreign states and non-governmental organizations. Although corrupt African leaders may be controversial, the reasons why African presidents are considered corrupt are as follows:
1. Tremendous Wealth
African leaders are consistently featured in the list or statistics of the richest people in the region. For example, Forbes recently released its list of the richest people in Africa, and a slew of the continent’s presidents were featured. Oddly enough, they didn’t have that much wealth prior to their presidency.
2. Overnight billionaires
Creating prosperity and getting rich doesn’t happen overnight. It’s a slow and painstaking process. Well, that cannot be said of African presidents. Many have acquired a great deal of wealth in a short period of time. In fact, some of them are ranked as the richest in the country in their first term.
3. High compensation
Africa as a continent is mostly knownconsisting of least developed and developing countries. All this means is that the country’s GDP (gross domestic product) and per capita income are far below those of developed countries, especially western countries. However, in terms of pay, benefits and allowances, African leaders are among the highest paid in the world.
4. Association with the corrupt
Every other day there will always be cases of surface corruption. This is now widespread in African countries. Oddly enough, the presidents, their companies or employees are associated with corruption. In addition, people known to be corrupt support the President in political campaigns or in the initiation of development projects.
5. Keep an eye out for corruption
Corruption seems to be the order of the day across Africa. This will be from the very simple and basic services like health to high quality and sophisticated national security agreements. While even the little kid in the village knows about corruption, the big man at the top seems at a loss.
6. Working with the enemy
The urge for “world peace” has always been widespread. Many countries are praying for lasting peace in the world, but there are states that seem less concerned. These countries will encourage child labour, disregard human rights and also interfere with individual rights and freedoms. Many African leaders are more willing to work with the “bad” than the “good” people.
7. Manipulate the Constitution
While the world seems to be embracing a system where a president can only lead for a limited time, African leaders seem to have a different opinion. They are ready to cling to power at any cost. Recently, some leaders in Africa have amended the constitution to extend their tenure at the top.
8. No political will
In order to govern a country well, it is important for the leaders to have the political willpower. This simply means that he stands by the right decision, no matter how negatively it affects his close allies or the government. Unfortunately, this cannot be said of most leaders in African countries. For them, political growth is more important than social or economic growth.
9. Stay in power for too long
It has become typical for African heads of state to remain in power for many years. They used all the tricks in the book to implement their agenda. For example, some create a one-party state; others use the constitution to extend their term as president, while some wage coups and civil wars.
10. African Presidents do not have a decisive position
Presidents of African nations are notoriously indecisive. They will change their position to suit a particular interest. This is usually blamed for their lack of a clear agenda for dominating a country. Unfortunately, they will utter the words to appease a political crowd.
We simply cannot deny the fact that African presidents are corrupt. Nonetheless, this has become an acceptable norm as most corrupt individuals are re-elected in general elections. Some will also receive support from the same people who point the finger and blame. Well, the facts above about why African Presidents are perceived as corrupt should shed some light on what needs to be done.
Editor’s recommendation:
- A Brief History of Famous African Coups and Their Ends
- The political maturity limits in different African countries
- Military takeover of Zimbabwe: everything you need to know about the bloodless transition