The following was written by ASFL executive board member Peter Yakobe

Corruption has cost  Africa more than it has received in foreign aid. It is retarding the development in Africa and has disturbed the major operations in all sectors of society on the continent. In all of these sectors, the major operations have been going down because people in these sectors have been involved in rampant corruption hence increasing their own pockets at the expense of the poor people. Transparency International’s Corruption Perception index for 2013 confirms that corruption is highest in Africa compared to other parts of the world.
Corruption is an effect and a cause of poverty in Africa. We can reduce it.

First, there is a need to change the mindsets of people from seeing the abuse of public trust for personal gains as the usual. Awareness campaigns highlighting the dangers of corruption should be embarked on.

Parents and guardians should be teaching their young children the dangers of corruption. Once corruption is treated as immoral in our families, it will be seen as such by the younger generation. Children are influenced by what their parents do. This behoves on parents to avoid corruption at all costs in order to set good examples for their children. From the families, the next step should be to influence the school curriculums. Our curriculums from the lower classes should incorporate the lessons about corruption and its dangers. It should always be preached to our children as an immoral and dangerous to our development. We should include the anti corruption message in our songs and poems. We must ensure that the minds of people have the anti corruption message.

Secondly, we must guarantee the independence of anti-corruption bodies. In many African countries like Nigeria, Kenya and Malawi, the independence of anti-corruption bodies is questionable. It is often seen as partisan because directors of these bodies are appointed by the president. Since the directors are appointed by the president, their decisions are influenced by president and the ruling party. That is why corruption is very high among public officials. Many people who belong to ruling political parties, abuse government offices and are highly involved in corruption because they influence these bodies. Normally, once a person joins the ruling party, he becomes immune from corruption cases.

In Malawi most of the people who have been jailed for corruption have been members of the opposition. Most of the people who have been arrested in the recent cashgate scandal which saw the embezzlement of billions of kwacha’s have been ordinary people. Influential members of the ruling party who were connected to the scandal have been spared. In Africa, joining the government side shields one from corruption cases. The anti corruption bodies are just used to fight the opposition parties. The Anti corruption body should be its own organization with its own leadership style and its own way of running its own affairs. Once this is done, the bodies will not be used as a stick against the opposition, it will serve everyone.

In addition, we need to work on the security of the whistleblowers. These are the people who risk their lives to reveal about corrupt practices. Being a whistleblower is risky, it is more so in Africa where they are often be killed. Since being a whistleblower in Africa is very risky, many people fear for their lives when it comes to reporting corrupt practices. There is a need to establish an excellent system of whistle blowing which will be used for people to report corruption practices to the anti corruption authorities. When the people have been assured that they will be safe, they will be free to report them and many corruption cases will be exposed.
Finally we must enforce asset declaration to those who hold public offices. Although civil servants have many benefits, it really amazes to see how they accumulate wealth within a short period of time. To be specific, I would like to mention the presidents, cabinet ministers and other senior government officials. In Africa, once someone becomes a president or a senior government official, it means the end of his personal and clan poverty. This is witnessed by how much wealth they accumulate within a short period of time once elected to serve in government. This is a clear sign that most of the people we trust with huge government responsibilities abuse public funds.
Corruption is slowing the pace of development. It is a burden we cannot afford to bear along with the continent’s present challenges. We should stop corruption before it stops us.