Commentary

By Amin Kef Sesay

The term corruption comes from the Latin verb ‘to break’, rumpere – which implies that something is badly broken. This might be a moral or ethical code or more often  an administrative rule or law. The person who breaks it derives some recognition or benefit for him/herself, family, tribe, party, or some other relevant group.

After  independence, most  African  countries drifted  from a  bureaucratic  administration  that  emphasized  good  governance  to  one  that  emphasized the sovereignty of politics. This resulted in the emergence of a politicized bureaucracy which began to engage in centralized economic decision-making and patrimonialism.

The new states were not only autocracies rather political and economic monopolies now lacking in accountability, transparency and the rule of law.  Thus,  the  post-independence bureaucracy  that  emerged  in  most  African  countries  contributed  to institutional  instability,  the  politicization  of  the  State  and  patrimonial  economic management  and  incentives,  whereby  clientelism  replaced  moral  and  political legitimacy and political and personal loyalty and obedience were rewarded more than merited.

This was the genesis of corruption in Africa. The unethical politicization  of  the  bureaucracy  allowed  for  the  entrenchment  of  the  use  of  personal aggrandizement and  patronage  as  a means of  exercising authority  and  influence.  The politicians and the bureaucrats forged a dependent patron/client   relationship   through   which   administrative decision-making occurred. This process, inevitably led to a cooperative and institutionalized abuse of public office for private and personal gain. Corruption can now be defined against that foregoing background.

Corruption is seen, first  and  foremost,  as  the  utilization  of  official  positions  or  titles  for  personal  or private gain, either on an individual or collective basis, at the expense of the public good, in violation of established rules and ethical considerations, and through the direct or indirect participation of one or more public officials whether they be politicians or bureaucrats.

In  a  simplistic  sense,  corruption  may  be  seen  as  partisanship that challenges statesmanship. It is an act or acts undertaken with the  deliberate  intent  of  deriving  or  extracting  personal  and/or  private  rewards against  the  interests  of  the  State.

The development of resource rich countries like Sierra Leone were seriously held back in the decade after independence in 1961 by bad State governance, poor public sector financial management and the most cancerous disease of them all – corruption.

Corruption reached cancerous proportions in the 1980s when systems collapsed, the economy faltered, jobs disappeared, inflation set in followed by its attendant youth frustrations and hopelessness about a better future among the population. Presidents Ahmed Tejan Kabbah and Ernest Bai Koroma tried between 1996 and 2018 to put the disease under control, with mixed results; yet corruption continued to affect the nation’s future.

Corruption reflects the general climate of unethical leadership and bad governance found throughout most of the continent. The  pandemic  of  corruption  in  Africa,  and  it’s  extremely  negative  impact  on socioeconomic  development  and  the  fight  against  poverty  in  the  region,  became  matters  of  global  concern;  with the World Bank, USA, UK and other Western development partners  focusing  their  attention  on  the  root  causes  and  consequences,  as  well  as  on action  to  control  this  cancer  in  society.

At  the  1996  joint  annual  meeting  of  the World  Bank  and  International  Monetary  Fund  (IMF),  had former World  Bank President  James  Wolfensohn  declaring that:  ‘Let’s  not  mince  words,  we  need  to  deal with  the  cancer  of  corruption.  In country after country, it is the people who are demanding action on this issue’.  Mr. Wolfensohn also made similar statements in his  1997  address  to  the  Board  of  Governors  where  he  said:  ‘We  have  seen  how corruption  flourishes  in  the  dark,  how  it  prevents  growth  and  social  equity,  and how it creates the basis for social and political instability’.

Similarly and quite surprisingly, the United Nations General Assembly issued a resolution, on 16 December 1996, aiming at promoting social responsibility and ethics.  The  ‘UN  Declaration  Against  Corruption  and  Bribery  in  International Commercial Transactions’ emphasized the need to ‘promote social responsibility and appropriate standards of ethics on the part of private and public corporations, including  transnational  corporations,  and  individuals …’.  It  further  stated  that fighting  and  controlling  corruption  are  also  necessary  to  ‘enhance  fairness  and competitiveness in international commercial transactions’.

In the ACC’s fight against corruption, it is crucial that we the people talk  openly  about  how  our  everyday  lives  are permeated  by  behaviors  and  values  which  are  unethical  and  contribute  to  the entrenchment   of   norms   perpetrated   by   corrupt   politicians   and   bureaucrats.

Such  concern  is  a  good  thing,  for  until  we the people  decide  to react forcefully against the stench of corruption to which we are currently subjected,  it  will  remain  a  societal  norm  poisoning  civil  society  and splitting it into rent-seeking elites and helpless spectators.