The Rotten Windfall
The rotten windfall we all scorn but don’t want to throw away...
We have all at some point moaned against corruption. According to a 2016 article by The Guardian, corruption robs Africa of US$50bn annually. I don’t know how much every single country contributes to this leaked bucket, but I’m certain my country has a substantial allotment pouring into it. Corruption has so many evils. Rightly, we ought to be past the stage of such discourses because the phenomenon is no longer alien. The question we should be attempting now is: why is fraud and embezzlement in public offices still towering debates on the continent at a time everyone claims to be corruption’s sworn enemy?
The most important perspective to the response lies in the question itself. It makes corruption appear as a phenomenon that is projected onto Africa by some alien forces bent to rid the continent of its citizens. Corruption has been othered in our discourses. When governments, Civil Society Organizations, politicians and ordinary citizens sit and debate on corruption, they all want to look in the other direction. Nobody wants to grab a mirror to check what is under their very nose. We don’t want to think that we sometimes do practice or encourage corruption.
I have boarded minibuses where after being impounded by traffic police, I have worried about the driver’s insistence that he isn’t on the wrong instead of just bribing an officer to let us go. I have been bypassed on queues at college cafeterias by friends well-known to service providers. Friends have testified about how being connected has helped them get assistance earlier than first-comers in hospitals. I have heard of friends who have been employed way before interviews simply because the boss is their dad’s friend or relative. Or worse, comes from the same village as them. After that, we all praise each other, and hail how warm-hearted we are.
Interestingly, when we want to talk about corruption, we will think of our governments first-and no one else thereafter. That is like slamming your son after catching him ravening a rotten fruit when that has always been your survival ploy every time you are hungry and away from home. The politicians plundering our economies are products of our society. They do not just become thieves overnight. We see them rise and we praise their small shady deals. Until they are too big and can no longer steal from the same pot as ours.
Then, tails between legs, we start barking. A little too late.... Continued on the next page...