Corruption fuels poverty

dents had stolen over US$500 billion during their tenure. That is many times the total value of the Marshal Plan for the recovery of Europe and probably exceeds the total foreign aid to Africa over this period. In 40 years of Independence the income per capita of the average Nigerian has remained the same – about US$250 per annum.
Here in Zimbabwe over the past decade we have seen incomes slashed by two thirds, the buying power of our currency knocked down to 1,6 million to one US dollar from the level of over US$1 to Z$1,70 at Independence in 1980. We have seen the savings of 100 years of hard work and enterprise simply swept away by a flood tide of mismanagement and corruption. Zimbabweans are now poorer than at any time in the past half-century.
How does the President of Nigeria steal more than a billion US dollars a month? What happens to all that money? What was the role of major companies and international Banks – these are the supplementary questions that should be asked. Mabuto of Congo fame was reputed to have accumulated a personal fortune greater than the national debt of his country. When he died, a paltry US$350 million was found and the family claimed they needed that to live on! Where is the rest of his fortune – in banks in tax havens across the world?
In Angola, now supplying a significant part of the oil needs of the United States, the leadership simply siphons off into overseas bank accounts a percentage of all sales. Even on what is left, the Angolan economy will expand this year by nearly 30 per cent and this shows the inherent wealth of many African countries – Nigeria as perhaps the most extreme example.
This state of affairs is by no means Africa-wide. Countries like Botswana have increased the average incomes of their people 10 fold in the past quarter century. Ghana, which in 1983 was a complete basket case after decades of misrule, is now seeing incomes rising on an annual basis. Take Zimbabwe, Swaziland and South Africa out of the SADC region and the countries that are left will grow this year at an average rate that will rival the growth rates being achieved in the Far East. – Own correspondent