If an intervention repeatedly fails to bear the intended results, it is imperative for initiators to go deeper in understanding its root causes.
One such thorny issue that seems unattainable in Africa is fighting corruption.
Despite many people understanding the grave consequences of this deep-rooted parasitic culture, the plague has calcified, almost becoming part of our culture.
Even though corruption has always existed throughout the history of mankind, it has lately become the major concern of international communities working in Africa where the scourge seems to be entrenched in our DNA.
In some African countries, almost everyone is corrupt starting from the politicians, public officials and religious leaders who all insist on kickbacks from anyone asking for a favour.
In short corruption is very much part of our societies that we ignore its underground characteristics and corrosive impact on economic growth.
Analysts of corruption in Africa note that every year, billions is paid in bribes around, enriching the corrupt and robbing generations of a future.
Little do the perpetrators of this bane realise that each act of corruption contributes to national poverty and ultimately obstructing development.
The question is why is corruption so endemic in Africa?
Some scholars have traced the genesis and institutionalisation of corruption to colonialism arguing that the incidence of corruption could be best understood in the context of colonialism.
They insist that the systematic use of material inducements to compel African chiefs and administrators to collaborate with them in the pursuit of their colonial project of dominating and exploiting their own peoples was responsible for corruption which has persisted to these days.
The practices of post-colonial Africa’s political and bureaucratic elites are merely an extension of such colonial policies and practices which have served to entrench it.
That corruption has become one of the most notoriously persistent and progressively worsening social problems afflicting virtually all sub-Saharan African countries today is indisputable.
Colonialism and corruption relied on local African leaders, especially chiefs. Where chiefs did not exist or were uncooperative, new ones were appointed by the colonial powers.
In countries like Zambia, the creation of native authorities saw representatives of the colonial system partner with chiefs to exploit the natives through forced labour and taxation, systems that benefited the two strange bedfellows – colonialists and traditional leaders.
Above all, to motivate chiefs to generate as much tax revenue as possible, and do so with zeal, the colonial administrations allowed them to retain a part of it.
In other regions like Bechuanaland (Botswana), for example, the Dikgosi (chiefs or kings) were mandated to collect the taxation and retain 10 per cent of the total tax collected in their area.
This practice amounted to the taking of kick-backs by African chiefs. It gave an entirely new meaning to the traditional practice of giving gifts which had existed in different parts of Africa long before colonialism.
In post-colonial Africa, modern leaders were no different from African chiefs who preceded them.
Take an example of the former Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) in which the late President Mobutu Sese Seko was able to become one of the wealthiest men in the world through large kick-backs on government contracts and outright embezzlement which he practised with impunity.
Yet other critics argue that corruption is afro centric since receiving kick-backs from someone who has done you a favour was widely practised in ancient Africa.
Many African chiefs rewarded the closest kins and kith with land, wealth and protection.
Helping your relatives and close friends when you are in power or in a position to do so was never considered as a bad practice.
Is the term corruption then a creation of Europeans since it seems to be compatible with the African way of life?
Consider this: Even Africans who are claiming to fight corruption are unconsciously being caught in its web when they demand sitting allowances for pointless committee meetings and workshops being held throughout Africa.
These proponents of the anti-corruption crusade usually get free 5-star accommodation and dollars per night in luxury safari lodges where they usually hold wasteful meetings.
Instead of continuing with the anti-corruption battle, isn’t it time we paused to take stock of our futile efforts since it seems we are catching the smoke and missing the fire?
Let’s ask hard questions like why other mortals in European countries are not as affected by corruption as Africans?
Take an example of a public employee in a country like USA. He can expect to be paid a salary that exceeds the minimum wage many times over, every weekend.
He can also count on health insurance, paid vacation, paid tuition and safe working conditions. Unfortunately, such basic tenants of public employment are not assured for African public employees and thus, many are forced to take bribes just to survive. True, there are African public employees that are simply greedy. But if many people are faced with the choice of taking a bribe and surviving, or not taking a bribe and starving, most people will choose the former.