Is Corruption the Result of Poor African Leadership?

IS CORRUPTION THE RESULT OF POOR AFRICAN LEADERSHIP

INTRODUCTION

Since the beginning of known African American history , Africa has been flooded with numerous and manifold problems which continue to this day . Among the common problems of poverty , illiteracy , disease and food shortages , the most serious and alarming is the problem of poor African leadership . Even the advent of the new millennium has done little to solve this problem . Due to the poor African leadership most of the problems has intensified . The biggest being the civil wars which have been raging in

many countries since the last two and in some cases three decades . The weak and feeble leadership of the past and present is at a acceptable to all involved

The following are some of the reasons behind this poor leadership

CORRUPTION

Corruption plays the most important rule in the politics of Africa . The poor and weak leadership raise all forms of unethical techniques to strengthen their leadership and to gain a political advantage . Bribery , embezzlement of state and private funds has also led to the build up of poor leadership . The problem of corruption is touching dangerous levels . David Bailey says Corruption while being tied particularly to the act of bribery is a general term covering the misuse of authority as a result of consideration of personal gain , which needs not to be monetary ' But money is definitely involved in each and every contract awarded , in any development plan of each and every leader or bureaucrat of Africa

Incompetence and inefficiency among civil servants have been instrumental in the rising corruption in countries of Africa . To effectively carry out national development plans and promote entrepreneurship and to boost the economy , the government bureaucracy must be responsive class . In utter disregard to these goals , bureaucrats have resorted to bribe , nepotism , amassing wealth and misuse of national exchequer has been the policy of the corrupt of officials of Africa . The poor leadership of Africa has corrupted the bureaucrat to such an extent that they exploit their public positions to generate benefits for themselves , their families and their ethnic or social cleavage . To quote Gould and Mukendi : a weak or diffuse sense of national interest and the absence of a commitment to public service

WESTERN INFLUENCE

Western and vested interests are playing an important role in providing the African people with a morally corrupt , weak and irresponsible leadership . The persons ' chosen to govern the African people , only amass personal wealth which in some cases exceed the wealth of the central Banks of the respective countries . Western powers also fan civil and military unrest to sell their arms and weapons International especially western arms dealers also play a central role in the making and breaking of civil and military government . In most African countries military rule turns into dictatorship and the men in arms become greedy land , money and top post grabbers . They have the full backing of the western powers , and all the national resources especially of the mineral rich African countries...