LETTERS TO AFRIQUE
Dear
AFRIQUE,
It is
impressive that you decided to
take the bull by the horns,
literally. The issue of
corruption in Africa, in
particular, is one that stinks
to high heaven and has attracted
world concern and scorn. But in
your bid to deconstruct the
rationale behind Mo Ibrahim's
Prize for Achievement in African
Leadership, you do little in
explaining why it is you are
convinced that this incentive
will do little in making these
"leaders" keep their hands out
of government funds. Listing a
number of Presidents who have
embezzled state funds is good,
but it does not tell the rest of
the story. The rest of the story
may have to do with the reasons
that propel these leaders into
bankrupting their nations. For
instance, is there any reason
for them not to steal? Think
about it... Now, what the Mo
Ibrahim prize could succeed in
achieving is a situation where
by a leader actually has reason
to earn something and feel
morally justified with that
income. It may not account for a
lot, but moral value is
something that is a little
difficult to discern. It also
tells them that there is a
watch-dog out there monitoring
the corruption index in their
respective countries. Compared
to other such organizations that
are eyeing the continent, the Mo
Ibrahim prize actually
compensates those leaders that
are not corrupt. It is a
different philosophy and one
worth giving it a try.
Best
regards,
Innocent
Chia
Dear
AFRIQUE,
A
Nigerian once asked me, Mr.
Shoody, “With your virtue, if
you have the chance to rule
Nigeria tomorrow, what will you
do first to discourage
corruption? I told him, I will
build more jails. Because, after
I examined African communities,
it seems that Africans don’t
want to go to jail but they
continue to do the things that
will land them in prison. If we
develop the culture of putting
our corrupt leaders in shame and
in prison and declared all their
earthly wealth to the state, it
will send a lesson to the lesser
ones not to be corrupt. I
congratulate the Sudanese cell
phone mogul (Mr. Mo Ibrahim) for
offering money to any African
head of state that proves to be
corruption-free. But I don’t
think it will be effective. In
this age, monetary incentive is
not what we need to be giving to
leaders. We need to be giving
our leaders a “value”
orientation so that instead of
being corrupt they are looking
into the future of how their
values can become valuable. Only
when a leader knows that he or
she is valuable, will he or she
not be looking for corruption
cash. Instead we must teach our
future leaders that virtue,
prudence and wisdom is all that
they need and not trillions of
dollars for them to be enshrined
for life. By this, we can have
leaders that are
corruption-free.
Mashood
Adediran
