INTRODUCTION

The inaugural part of this treatise was necessarily introductory as it explored
the concept of good governance, its meaning, the test for determining its
presence (its main indicators) and its incidence on a country-by-country
basis. This week, we shall examine the themes of governance,
democratuzation and followed by a discussion of corruption as the enemy of
good governance. Enjoy.

GOVERNANCE, DEMOCRATIZATION, AND AFRICAN REALITY
A. The Link between Corruption, Governance and Economic Growth
Corruption poses a serious developmental challenge. In the political realm,
it undermines democracy and good governance by flouting or even
subverting formal processes. Corruption in elections and in legislative
bodies reduces accountability and distorts representation in policymaking;
corruption in the judiciary compromises the rule of law; and corruption
in public administration results in the inefficient provision of services. It
violates a basic principle of republicanism regarding the centrality of civic
virtue. More generally, corruption erodes the institutional capacity of
government as procedures are disregarded, resources are siphoned off,
and public offices are bought and sold. At the same time, corruption
undermines the legitimacy of government and such democratic values as
trust and tolerance (Wikipedia, the free online encyclopaedia.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_corruption#Electoral_fraud).
When the Berlin-based anti-corruption organization, Transparency
International, issued its 1998 Corruption Perceptions Index ("CPI"), its Vice
Chairman Frank Vogl made the following observation:
The CPI scores, with their shocking portrayal of so many countries
perceived to be home to rampant corruption will spur Transparency
International to be even more aggressive in mobilizing initiatives to
counter corruption worldwide. Securing democracy, alleviating
poverty and human suffering, and sustaining investment and

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commerce, are inextricably dependent upon curbing corruption in
most of the developing nations and across Central and Eastern
Europe (See TI Press Release: 1998 Corruption perceptions Index.).
Transparency International's pronouncement was merely echoing others
previously made by members of the international community in recent years.
Together, they boldly underscore the universal condemnation of corrupt
practices by public officials and a general interest in cooperating to suppress
them. This widespread condemnation of acts of corruption is reflected in the
preambles of a number of multilateral anti-corruption conventions and
resolutions of international organizations. Reading through them leaves one in
no doubt as to the seriousness with which the international community as a
whole views the problem of corruption as a subject of global concern.
The Council of Europe's 1999 Criminal Law Convention on Corruption
set out in its preamble a concise outline of the serious and varied forms of
damage caused by corruption and the urgent need to combat it through a
multi-disciplinary national and international approach. The Parties to the
Convention expressly acknowledge that corruption "threatens the rule of law,
democracy and human rights, undermines good governance, fairness and
social justice, distorts competition, hinders economic development and
endangers the stability of democratic institutions and the moral foundations of
society." In the 1994 Summit of the Americas Declaration of Principles
and Plan of Action, the Heads of State of 34 nations of the southern
hemisphere pointedly linked the survival of democracy and good governance
to the eradication of corruption. "Effective democracy," they declared,
"requires a comprehensive attack on corruption as a factor of social
disintegration and distortion of the economic system that undermines the
legitimacy of political institutions (Summit of the Americas: Declaration of
Principles and Plans of Action, December 1994)."
In the preamble to the Inter-American Convention Against Corruption
(Adopted at the third plenary session, held on March 29, 1996), which
followed on the heels of the 1994 summit, again the leaders of the
Organization of American States came back to the theme of corruption as a
phenomenon that "undermines the legitimacy of public institutions and
strikes at society, moral order and justice, as well as the comprehensive
development of peoples."

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On December 16, 1996, the United Nations General Assembly, acting on
an earlier recommendation of the Economic and Social Commission, adopted
the United Nations Declaration against Corruption and Bribery in
International Commercial Transactions. Member States pledged in the
Declaration to criminalize bribery of foreign public officials in an effective and
coordinated manner and to deny the tax deductibility of bribes paid by any
private or public corporation or individual of a Member State to any public
official or elected representative of another country. Corruption was also the
subject of a 1997 United Nations General Assembly Resolution entitled
"Action Against Corruption". This resolution underscored the General
Assembly's concern about the serious problems posed by corrupt practices to
the stability and security of societies, the values of democracy and morality,
and to social, economic and political development.

CORRUPTION: THE ENEMY OF GOOD GOVERNANCE
The direct opposite or antithesis of good governance is the scourge of
corruption, which has been defined by the United Nations as “the abuse of
entrusted public power for private benefit”. (Boyle B “Holding
themselves to a higher standard” Sunday Times 30 th April 2006 p 4. The
African Peer Review Mechanism Process was adopted at the 6th Summit
of the NEPAD Heads of States and Governments, Abuja Nigeria in March
2006. A number of countries such as Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa has
subjected themselves to such review).
For the purposes of this paper it is important to emphasise that corruption
is a universal problem, “cutting across faiths, religious denominations and
political systems (Mbonu C Corruption and its impact on the full enjoyment
of human rights, in particular, economic, social and cultural rights
E/CN.4/Sub2/2004/23 (7 July 2004) 4.).” It is endemic in all governments
and is found in democratic and dictatorial politics, feudal, capitalist and
socialist economies. It has been aptly described as “a cancer festering
within society, enriching a few and impoverishing many”( Mbonu (fn 17
above) 4. E/CN.4/Sub2/2003/18 para 4.). The corrosive effects of
corruption have been well articulated by Mbonu (Mbonu (fn 17 above) 4-7).
First, in relation to the exercise of state power, corruption weakens the
accountability of state officials and reduces transparency in the work of
state institutions. Corrupt government officials fail to offer citizens adequate
and accurate information about government and policies, curtail the public’s
opportunities for participation, and violate the public right to be informed about

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government activities and procedures (Office of the UN High Commissioner
(fn 9 above) 59.).
Secondly, corruption is subversive of any country’s political system. In
the words of John Ashcroft, a former United States Attorney General, “a
corruption sap the legitimacy of democratic government, and in its extreme
forms even threatens democracy itself, because democracy lives on trust, and
corruption destroys trust” (ibid).
Thirdly, corruption is a threat to the rule of law and the administration of
justice. ‘The implementation of a country’s laws as well as efforts to reform
them are impeded by corrupt judges, lawyers, prosecutors, police officers,
investigators and auditors. In this respect, corruption in the administration of
justice compromises the right to equality before the law and the right to a fair
trial, undermines the poor’s access to justice because they cannot afford to
offer or promise bribes’ (UN High Commissioner (fn 9 above) 59.).
Furthermore, corruption in any legal system engenders a culture of
impunity “since illegal actions are not consistently punished and the country’s
laws are not consistently upheld”. Mbonu quotes, with approval, this most
telling observation on the impact of corruption on the judiciary and law
enforcement agencies: “a corrupt judge is more harmful to the society than a
man who runs amuck with a dagger in a crowded street. He can be restrained
physically. But a corrupt judge deliberately destroys the moral foundation of a
society and causes incalculable distress to individuals through abusing his
office, while being referred to as ‘Honourable’.”
Fourthly, corruption has a negative impact on the realisation of human
rights in that corrupt practices divert funding aimed at social services. In
the case of African countries, Mbonu cogently points to “the horrendous
depletion of Africa’s scarce capital and investible surplus through systematic
and official looting of the treasury for corrupt enrichment abroad”.
In similar vein, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
underscores the fact that corruption undermines the government’s ability to
deliver an array of services, including health, education and welfare services
(Office of the UN High Commissioner (fn 9 above) 59). To return to Mbonu:
“Think of the jobs, the infrastructure, the improved
educational system and the enhanced democratic

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institutions the looted funds could provide if they were
redirected from the personal enrichment of the corrupt to
the public service of the people. It is widely
acknowledged that as a result of the siphoning off of
these huge sums from the coffers of the developing
countries to developed nations, most of the States have
been failed States, unable to perform even ordinary State
functions, including providing water, electricity and
adequate housing for their populations.” (Mbonu (fn 17
above) 4.).
It is instructive to note that corruption is not confined to the public sector. The
well-known Enron and Parmalat debacles attest to similar decay in the
corporate world. Furthermore it is widely known that multi-national
corporations from the developed world often bribe public servants in the
countries in which they do business (ibid).
A. The new face of corruption in Africa
In a 1989 piece that appeared in the American Journal of International Law,
Professor Michael Reisman decried the preoccupation of traditional
scholarship with the exploitation of the natural wealth of developing
countries by transnational corporations while ignoring internal forms of
wealth exploitation. As he argued, the "ritual of condemnation of foreign
corporations' spoliations of the resources of developing countries and their
elevation to the level of international concern have obscured the problem of
spoliations by national officials of the wealth of the states of which they are
temporary custodians (See W. Michael Reisman, Harnessing International
Law to Restrain and Recapture Indigenous Spoliations, 83 AH. J. INT'L L.
56-57 (1989).".
Corruption is not a new phenomenon and "it is unlikely that there has ever
been a ruling class which did not exploit its political power to further its
private financial interests. (See European Parliament Resolution,
Explanatory Statement No. 2 (b)." But there is something extraordinary
about the corruption that now blights the entire African landscape. Three
things stand out from this new generation of economic crimes of Africa's
ruling elites. First, unlike past depredations where the wealth remained in
the territory for recycling, the modern context is characterized by "great
mobility of wealth and the capacity to hide and disguise it."

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A second feature of the modern version of indigenous spoliation is the amount
of wealth involved, usually in the billions of dollars. Indeed, so stupendous are
the sums involved that one commentator (Darrel Delamaide, The Debt Shock:
The Full Story Of The World Credit Crisis 60 (1984); see also Colette
Braeckman, Le Dinosaure: Le Zaïre de Mobutu (1990).), was moved to
describe these depredations as going beyond shame and almost beyond
imagination. And, finally, the victims of these acts are, in the main, the citizens
of some of the most economically impoverished countries in the world. (To be
continued).

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK

“We have to be bold in our national ambitions. First, we must win the fight
against poverty within the next decade. Second, we must improve moral
standards in government and society to provide a strong foundation for
good governance. Third, we must change the character of our politics to
promote fertile ground for reforms”. – Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.