They say it takes two to tango and yet the Western world has exonerated itself in the role it plays concerning corruption in Africa.
Together with war and poverty, ‘corrupt Africa’ has become a favourite cliché of Western writers when describing the desperation of the continent.
Even lauded organisations like Transparency International (TI) which publishes the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) is usually silent on the role the Western world plays in corruption in Africa.
Despite TI publishing the CPIs since 1995 ranking countries by their perceived levels of corruption as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys, very little is said about countries that keep looted money from Africa.
TI also publishes the Global Corruption Barometer, which ranks countries by corruption levels using direct surveys instead of perceived expert opinions.
Understandably, though a lean choir of critics find corruption to be a serious ill in developing countries, they feel this pardonable sin compares to failure to lump the connivance of countries like Switzerland.
The silence to condemn Western countries that connive with looters in Africa can be likened to Western countries’ earlier support of the apartheid regime and slavery.
While it is not news that large amounts of money stolen from the coffers in Africa end up at Swiss Banks and other parts of Europe like the United States of America (USA), taking these countries to task is a subject that is rarely debated.
Why then have European leaders and imperialist organisations like the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) deafened us with talk of corruption in Africa?
Note that since Africa and Europe came into contact, exploitation of Africa by Europeans has taken many forms at different times.
It all started with slavery, then colonialism and now it is supporting corrupt leaders to deposit large amount of money in off shore accounts which can safely be termed as a modern version of exploitation akin to earlier ills cited above.
With this information, we should even question the so called aid the West pumps into Africa.
Isn’t it just part of the looted money that is ploughed back into the continent with numerous strings attached to it?
The African Union (AU) should lobby the West to bring back all the money banked in European countries like Switzerland.
Why is Switzerland credited as having one of the best banking systems  in the world when the large number of depositors included people with dubious sources of wealth, especially from Africa?
According to a report from Global Financial Integrity, total illicit outflows from Africa between 1970 to 2008 may be as high as US$1.8 trillion; Sub-Saharan African countries experienced the bulk of illicit financial outflows with the West and Central African region posting the largest outflow numbers.
The top five countries with the highest outflow measured were: Nigeria ($89.5 billion) Egypt ($70.5 billion), Algeria ($25.7 billion), Morocco ($25 billion), and South Africa ($24.9 billion).
According to investigation conducted in Europe by a group of African journalists, many African leaders have amassed wealth in Swiss banks.
With this information, you would wonder then why the Western media bombard us with news on how poor and corrupt Africa is.
The Western media is completely silent on the role the Western world plays though Western banking institutions, property development and estate companies, technology corporations, oil and mining cartels, defence and engineering companies, and Western political and business elite in promoting corruption in Africa.
Next time you hear an item on corruption in African on imperialist new conduits like CNN, BBC, ABC, CBS, ITN, and Skynews, take it with a hefty pinch of salt.
What these media institutions fail to tell us is that one reason corruption is rife in Africa is because banking institutions in Europe, especially Switzerland, France, Jersey Island, Britain, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Austria and United States among others accept money from African leaders without questioning its source.
Only recently this week on Tuesday, the government of Switzerland said it is prepared to transfer to the Nigerian government, another $300 million recovered from the family of former military ruler, Sani Abacha.
The money is part of an estimated $5 billion stolen and stashed in foreign accounts by the late dictator.
Nigeria has in the last 10 years received over $1 billion from the Swiss and American governments, but there are growing concerns past administrations misused the large sums of money.
Though the Western media covered this story widely, it never blamed Switzerland for its role in abetting corruption in Africa.
Over the past 25 years, Switzerland has returned $1.8 billion in stolen or embezzled funds seized from accounts held by dictators in Swiss banks.
While this is not news to me, what is news is the silence of the Western media to criminalise Switzerland, a country which is among the richest in the world.
What Switzerland and other European countries are doing is no different from what privateers used to do many years ago.
Privateers were some sort of licensed thieves in that they were authorised by a government to attack foreign vessels and loot goods on board.
Some privateers were even knighted by the Queen for their ‘bravery’ and ‘chivalry.’
Since nothing is new under the sun, here we are again revering countries whose institutions are fuelled by stolen money.
The next time an NGO organises a corruption workshop, the organisers should extend the discussion to the role the West plays in abetting this act.