Corruption in Africa: a cancer that will not
“Corruption is one of the most formidable challenges to good governance, development and reducing poverty “in Africa, says the 2008 report of Transparency International.
It said corruption in Africa is like cancer advanced or a tumor that can not be processed. Such as cancer, corruption has tragically torn African societies and millions of very poor people. South Africa Egypt, the tentacles of corruption reach all cases. Corruption knows no boundaries. From the offices of presidents and prime ministers in the administrative unit smaller government corruption is everywhere. According to the African Union (AU) about 148 million dollars have been stolen from the continent by management and staff of each year. The latest Forbes list of “the most corrupt nation was 9 of 16 countries in Africa.
In Africa, government officials and very few staff to provide free services. You may not obtain a birth certificate or passport, unless you bribe the officials. You can not get a quality education for your child unless you pay a bribe. You can not get electricity meter at home unless you pay a bribe. Unable to get their goods from the port unless you pay a bribe. Anything involving the signing of the documents involves the payment of incentives. In Africa, it is difficult to find someone who has not paid a bribe before anyway. For care when ill have to bribe hospital officials.
In Ghana, officials 15 illegally share and 150 Ghana cedis for a birth certificate and passport, respectively. Again the police officers openly asking drivers to Ghana Bus and taxi pot to pay before they are allowed to cross barriers mounted. Customs officials to take all sorts of tactics to collect money from importers and exporting their products before they are allowed to output ports.
Most projects in Africa, are performed by contractors that corrupt collusion and complicity with the officials to inflate the cost of the project in order to enrich themselves. Therefore, every project takes three times the usual cost and is always taxpayers who are bearing the brunt of it. Because of corruption, inspectors are not doing their project work and provide a lower quality work to the detriment the people and the nation.
In Africa, it is totally unnecessary to bid for contracts because the contracts are awarded entrepreneurs who are capable to pay the largest bribe. In most countries there are no listings for deals and contracts are not awarded to companies that pay large sums of secret commissions to officials government.
For example, September 17, 2002, a Canadian engineering firm Acres International was convicted call for a Superior Court Lesotho to pay $ 260,000 bribe to obtain contracts 8000000000 dollars in the small dam in the southern African nation of Lesotho.
Acha Partners, a Swiss and an Italian Progress has been accused of corruption officials from Somali transitional government to secure contracts to deposit industrial waste highly toxic in the waters of Somalia.
In 2002, Halliburton, a U.S. company has been charged with the creation of funds of 180 billion dollars game with the intention of using it to bribe officials in Nigeria to get $ 10 billion of liquefied gas in the contract for the plant in Nigeria. In response to charges Company dismissed Mr. Albert Jack Stanley. Mr. Stanley a former executive of Halliburton (KBR), pleaded guilty of having orchestrated the 180 million U.S. dollars fund game. Although Halliburton has denied any knowledge of the background, a British company report later named as an intermediary named Jeffrey Tesler behind the corruption. These corrupt practices by Western companies seeking contracts in Africa are not uncommon.
In contracts in Africa are given to the faithful party, in turn financial contributions to repair the ruling party. Because of corruption and nepotism, no one can become an entrepreneur in Africa. In Africa, State funds or the Treasury are personal property of the Minister President / Prime Minister, his family, his friends and his political party. In most African countries no separation or difference between resources and the decision of the State party.
Corruption is so endemic in African societies, Political parties are committed to the fight with deadly force, but nothing, if elected seems to change. When former President John Kuffour of Ghana took office said “There will be zero tolerance for corruption in his government, but his party just lost power amid allegations that failed to tame its corrupt officials.
Despite years of oil exports, gold, diamonds, bauxite, tin, coltan, uranium, manganese and several other wood precious minerals on the continent continue to be classified as the poorest in the land because most of the recipes these exports are not people, but find their way into the bank accounts of corrupt officials, public officials and their allies.
Since oil was discovered in Nigeria last 50 years, more than $ 400 million sale was made, but today the total population still lives in extreme poverty and the country has no do or to account for billions of dollars it has been for years. Those who have benefited from the oil are the corrupt politicians, civil servants, a parallel economy, armed bandits, army generals and oil companies like Shell, Mobil, BP and their American counterparts. So men able and women face dangerous seas just to enter Europe and some luck. Others have given rise to 419 popular scam used to get people to give money and items value. In fact, Nigeria has always been at 1% of the most corrupt nation in the world.
Between 2005 and 2007, several state governors and their families Scotlandyard were immediately arrested by London on charges of corruption and money laundering.
Among them, James Ibori of Delta state oil-rich and his wife who had frozen the assets of 35 million U.S. dollars by an English court Teresa. Mr Ibori wins a thousand dollars a month, but during his eight years as governor state, managed to acquire the wealth of some $ 35 million and was a key element in the exercise of the current president of Nigeria. It has a private jet and a luxury London home.
Another is corrupt governor Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, governor of oil rich Bayelsa state, who was also arrested in London for alleged laundering money. Alamieyeseigha broke bail conditions and evaded capture in the UK by dressing as a woman. When police searched his home in London found the value of £ 1,000,000 cash at home.
Another governor, who was arrested in England Joshua Dariya Plateau State. He was arrested in a London hotel for stealing money earmarked for the development of their condition.
However, these thieves have no place in comparison with heavyweights like Abacha, Mobutu, Eyadema, Lansana Conte, Obiang Nguema, Omar Bongo, Mubarak and Arap Moi.
In the economic difficulties of the decade 1990 the extreme poverty and environmental destruction forced Ogoni people in Nigeria to demand that word, in which Shell operates, but the military regime headed by General Sani Abacha arrested environmentalists led by Ken and Sorowiwa were executed. You may wonder why Abacha killed his country instead of protecting people and meet their needs. According to lawyers for the Nigerian government data for the period of Abacha became chief of state somewhere between 1993 and 1998 donated $ 4 billion in oil money Nigeria and hidden in various secret bank accounts in Switzerland, Great Britain, Luxembourg, Jersey and Liechtenstein. In April 2002, these countries agreed to return one billion U.S. dollars of money stolen from the people of Nigeria. So far, about $ 2 billion has been returned to the Government of Nigeria and the rest the money is still sitting in bank accounts in Western countries, including Switzerland and Britain.
A visit to the region Niger Delta shows that the majority of the population, especially young people are unemployed. Oil Spills years made the soil unsuitable for agriculture. Their wells and streams are polluted and the people have no access to basic necessities of life, because their leaders became rich with the money.
All efforts to ensure that the Nigerian government to develop oil fell in areas rich death ears until the young unemployed rose in arms against the federal government and oil companies. Off foreign oil workers and demanded a ransom before their victims were released. It have disrupted oil production requires oil companies to travel several miles out of their own safety, but were not sure either. Finally, companies had to reduce its output by 25% in 2007-8. These disruptions affected the supply of oil in the world market forced the price up to 140 arrow dollars per barrel in the summer of 2008.
If Abacha could steal 4 billion U.S. dollars in 5 years, then I can say how leaders who ruled for decades robbed. For example Gaddafi of Libya has been in power for 39 years. Omar Bongo of Gabon 31 years, Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea 28, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe of 28 years, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt, 27 years, Paul Biya of Cameroon for 26 years Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, 22, Omar Al Bashir of Sudan 19 years Iddriss Derby of Chad for 17 years, Yahya Jammeh of Gambia 14.
Now I think you have the image and understanding why the African Union said that 148 billion dollars leave the continent each year.
The end of Guinea, Lansana Conte agreed by 24 years from 1984 to 2008. Sometimes having a leader to maintain stability in a country could lead to economic prosperity, but this is not the case in Guinea. Although Guinea is the world’s leading exporter of bauxite, the nation’s few people can display. Besides bauxite, Guinea also have large deposits of diamonds, gold, iron, nickel and uranium is still poverty is so severe that the country ranked from 1% of the most corrupt countries in Africa. In fact, according to a report UN, Guinea ranks 160 out of 177 in the United Nations development at all.
According to documents available in 70% of all income from mineral exports each year makes its way into the bank accounts of Lansana Conte and his henchmen. Nowadays, people lack electricity and portable water. Roads, railways, telecommunications, schools, hospitals are in deplorable conditions while the money would be for repair and maintenance to serve Europe and America are protected by bank secrecy. According to Al-Jazeera a credible news anchor and popular, corruption is so interwoven in Guinean society that girls should not study the school of their promotion to the next always guaranteed by their male teachers that soliciting sex from them. As students, those who refuse to sleep with their teachers are made to repeat a year in class. Teachers demand pay money for another in exchange for higher grades.
Why can not people be poor when their livelihoods were taken away from them? Why?
Friday 31, 2007, The Guardian in Britain reported a scandal of corruption committed by former Kenyan President Daniel Arap Moi and his family. According to The Guardian, a report prepared by the Page 110 of the risk consulting firm Kroll exposed Arap Moi International and his family and accused the bank of £ 1 billion in 28 countries including Britain. The report goes further to say that the family had a habit of Shell Oil Company, secret trusts, compared with men and their environment to siphon money aside.
Besides money, the family also bought several properties of several books in London, New York South Africa, including 10,000 acres ranch in Australia and bank accounts containing hundreds of millions of pounds. It is common knowledge that the son of Gideon and Philip Moi is £ 384m and £ 550m wealth, respectively. Although most Kenyans live in rural areas, and live in mud / thatched houses with bamboo leaves raffia / cover sheet that the family living in a house of 4 million 2 million pounds in Surrey and £ flat in Knightsbridge. Moi years of rule 24 was largely corrupt and contributed to endemic poverty seen in Kenya today.
How do you want the continent to develop when development funds are stolen by their leaders and maintained by the countries who rent as civilized cultured, loving and democratic?
In South Africa, Jacob Zuma continues to struggle with the court for his involvement in the multibillion-dollar arms sale South Africa in 2001. He was forced to resign the Vice-President of South Africa a clear embarrassment for the government of the former ANC President Mbeki.
In 2006, former President Bakili Muluzi of Malawi has been arrested for pocketing 12 million U.S. dollars paid their poor countries by foreign governments. Again, the former president Frederick Chiluba in Zambia was arrested along with two businessmen Faustin Kabwe and Aaron Chungu and charged with 11 counts of stealing money earmarked for the development of Zambia.
In Equatorial Guinea, where oil exports earned the country billions of dollars, 600,000 people in the country still live in poverty, while Teodoro Obiang Nguema and his cronies continue to divert oil revenues, without liability.
Gabon and Angola both exporting countries Oil is no different. In fact, the governments of Gabon and Equatorial Guinea are best described as a kleptocracy that is government by thieves. In countries such as Nigeria, Egypt, Cameroon, Gambia, Sudan, Uganda, Libya, Tunisia kleptocracy replaced class people have no democracy. In these countries, very few people are kept in power and people have no say in how their country is run or execution. For example Gaddafi of Libya has been in power for 39 years. Omar Bongo of Gabon for 31 years, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Equatorial Guinea 28 years, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, 28 years, Hosni Mubarak of Egypt 27 years and the list is endless.
How can you expect a person to rule for 30 years without being damaged?
What is clear is that these unelected leaders continue to accumulate wealth at the expense of poor countries and poor management follow the rest of his corrupt activities. Because most leaders are former rebels and former military without going into the economics and management, which are unable to formulate economic policies that favor will transform and grow their economies, where poverty has become a part of the population, but their leaders do not know what poverty is.
In DR Congo, an estimated gold deposits and diamonds alone could recover U.S. $ 23 billions of dollars in countries not to mention the abundance of minerals and timber are several others in large quantities as columbite-tantalite (coltan) and cassiterite (tin ore), but the years of corruption, mismanagement, conflict and participation of foreigners have made this nation rich in the world’s poorest.
It is often said that Western nations can not keep their style current life without Congo and most societies in the West may go bankrupt without Congo. The question is whether the Congo is the blood line of the west and is rich because of the Congo Congo is why if poor?
Where are the billions of dollars from the sale of minerals? The answer lies in the history of the nation’s endemic corruption, colonialism, armed conflict and foreign consequences. Mobutu during his reign of 32 years seems to have taken thousands of millions of dollars in cash and deposited in several Swiss bank accounts. When President Kabila asked the Swiss that the money be returned, he said Mobutu had $ 7.6 million. President Kabila frustrated and disappointed by the announcement of Switzerland said he expected the Swiss to announce some sort of like a billion or more.
But unconfirmed reports that the Swiss decided not to issue billions of dollars the Government of Congo, fearing that he would be stolen by Kabila and his regime are just as deadly corrupt. Mobutu had several villas and mansions in France and Switzerland bought with money stolen from the people of Congo. In 2001, the auction items at his home Swiss luxury recovered $ 100,000. The billions of dollars withdrawn from the country have made the poorest African Congo. In Congo, now there are no schools, hospitals, roads, telecommunications, railways, electricity and drinking water. The only means of transport is by the river Congo.
Daily Walikale about 16 aircraft flying out of town with a lot of ores to Rwanda. These minerals are even stolen their way into the mineral markets of the west London and Switzerland. Revenues are shared by politicians in general, businessmen Rwanda Western companies, warlords of the Congo to use a portion of shares to acquire the weapons used to terrorize the population and prolong the war. See Video below the Congo.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Io8c81xHLmw
Conclusion
Western governments are quick to preach good governance in Africa but they do not preach the same message to their banks that act as safe havens for these corrupt leaders. Western governments have forgotten that the existence of bank secrecy laws in Switzerland, the Isle of Jersey, Great Britain, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Austria encourages These corrupt leaders are far from the bank for the development of their country.
On behalf of Switzerland, Britain, France, Jersey, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg came several times during the study of corruption in Africa, trying to establish where Most of the stolen funds to go. Even if these countries to present themselves as civilized and cultured in the hearts of the angels, not to recognize that maintaining amounts that were obtained fraudulently by the poor on earth all the taste of fame you have. In the case of Switzerland and its allies hold the stolen money, is so pathetic to know that you still receive stolen funds because of greed, did nothing to stop it.
The next time you’re looking for money stolen from your country are urging the Swiss government and Swiss banks always have an idea of it, where approximately.
Africa today is low because the collusion and complicity in Switzerland and other Western banks and plutocrats who rule Africa. Corruption is ubiquitous on the continent, because those who steal the money never lost a place to hide.
Fighting corruption should not be left only to poor countries.
media West Africa is always portrayed as underdeveloped and expose the banks in their countries that serve as safe havens. The media should put pressure on politicians in Europe and America the reform of banking secrecy and is liable to receive money from these corrupt leaders. Once again, the media West should undertake a vigorous campaign of all looted funds returned to their rightful owners in Africa. Western media should associated with civil organizations to expose Western firms that pay bribes to get contracts in Africa, and Acres International, Halliburton, Trafigura, Acha Partners and Progress.
Western countries have a duty to put an end to their countries to be used as safe havens for the continent to steal money Africa. Western countries must reform its banking laws. You must return all looted funds put there by corrupt African leaders to Africans. Must have an international coalition dedicated to tracking all the money stolen from the earth with Africa, given the priority.
Africans must set independent monitoring bodies and funded anti-corruption to investigate, prosecute and severely punish corrupt officials who engage in corrupt practices. Africans must demand transparency and accountability in government. Laws must be taken in Africa to protect whistleblowers who take the risk of exposing the practices corrupt.
It is by joining the fight against corruption that Africa can dream of separation from poverty.
About the Author
James Burke : Connections, Episode 4, “Faith In Numbers”, 4 of 5 (CC)
 
