CORRUPTION IS AN ATTITUDINAL PROBLEM IN AFRICA.
CORRUPTION IS AN ATTITUDINAL PROBLEM IN
AFRICA.
Aside war, another devastating thing that stampedes
development is corruption. It is the
main reason aside political instability that is behind the struggle of Africa
over the years to capturing commanding height in global economic development.
It is not too ambitious a dream to controlling and dictating the pace of
economic development in the developed economies since Africa contributes
significantly in the world market in terms of raw materials. We get chunk of
money from our exports but our national coffers continue to leak hence our
inability to experience a significant growth in our lives. We keep on
envisaging all sorts of lofty economic policies in our quest to bring about
progress and prosperity but one issue we fail to fight against as a people is corruption.
In my piece today, I consider corruption, only as a crystal manifestation of a
society that is characterized by moral degringolade.
In my view, corruption in Africa has grown to a sophisticated stage
that it is quite problematic to understand. Yes we have come to know of the
tendencies of individuals to use national resources for their selfish gains
though we have all developed a lackadaisical attitude to nibbling the bud. It
is not as though we lack the wherewithal to fight but the approach we often adopt
is absolutely hypocritical, discriminatory and purely pretentious. You cannot fight such a dangerous canker with
such approaches. We are only creating a breeding ground for this canker to
escalate. In fact, it has escalated to the extent that no methodology has been
invented yet to measure the amount of resources we continue to lose as a
continent. Not even the corruption perception index reports have been able to
give accurate reports on the effects of this silent enemy called corruption.
It is high time we developed new approaches to tackle it. Any canker that is largely attitudinal
requires a long term approach in fighting against it. Let’s all agree that we
have all been wrong and create a new path again through a positive attitudinal
approach.
The worse I fear about corruption has started manifesting in
those who are supposed to lead us to wage a continental war against this canker.
It would be very hazardous and perilous, should that development is not curbed
with urgency. I am talking about mental corruption, a situation that
is affecting our reasoning abilities to the extend we take joy in thinking
negatively and producing negative results. We lack the sense of logical
reasoning and sense of fair judgement. In my view, this is caused by our
political history that was largely shredded with intimidation and force to the extent
that people had to speak to satisfy their political masters. The African
culture is older than western democracy and we should not swallow democracy
hook line and sinker. This is what the late KOBINA SAKYI of Ghana
warned us about, decades ago. No wonder people just say anything today even
when they know it is not the truth. That is the mental corruption which is
rather precipitating famine, poverty and sometimes war in our continent. We can
fight corruption better through culture and tradition. We have a rich culture
that used to churn out honest citizenry.
Politicians have largely been blamed for the growing levels
of the canker. Though I share the view that most African politicians are
corrupt, they cannot be solely blamed. Politicians are the direct product of
society and if they are corrupt as we see it, then the canker has really
engulfed the whole society. Always pointing fingers at politicians cannot be
the ideal way to go. Over the years, the top button approach has failed to
produce any positive results. We must begin to think of the button
top approach where growing a more honestly patriotic citizen right from
school going age, should be a long term priority.
I say this because, many of we the ordinary citizenry have
equally engaged in the act either consciously or unconsciously. To me, the
civil servant is the worst offender of this act. They have the technical long
hands to professionally perpetuate the act. Ironically, we concentrate too much
on the vulnerable politician, creating a comfortable room for the old
experienced civil servants to orchestrate the act with impunity. In Africa, you
hear of so many accusations and counter accusations from incumbent and previous
governments but that never minimize corruption. The fact is that government
goes and government comes, but the civil servant remains in the office. They
are so experienced in the field that any government who fails to endorse their
diabolic plans would be sabotaged. They easily incite the public against the
government. This is enough a demonstration that, we need to be fair to
ourselves and at least, adopt a holistic long term approach in our quest to
combating the situation.
The holier than thou attitude over the years has been a catalyst
to the canker and the earlier we adopt the long term attitudinal change approach,
the better. We are all at fault. The most annoying thing is that, though there
is a seeming proliferation of churches all over the corners of Africa, so
called men of God preach little about attitude. They preach prosperity and
demand humongous offers. That in itself is fuelling corruption. Pastors do not
care where their congregants get their wealth from. Rather they are interested
in gargantuan donations from members and in some cases, those who donate more
are considered more religious and often received all sort of positive
prophesies from their pastors. Men of God in most cases are not even
accountable to their church members. The congregants see nothing wrong with that
and that is a recipe for others to consider corruptions as normal.
I hope you have seen where we have all gone wrong? Let’s
agree that we have all gone wrong and rejuvenate the whole society by ensuring
discipline, real citizenship that has Africa at heart. Building a very ideally
principled society cannot always be a night day wonder, as has always
been the method adopted by our leaders. We need a long term approach.
Shall be back soon…………………………
Denis Andaban
0549734023.
No comments