{UAH} Why the corruption index drives me around the bend - Comment - www.theeastafrican.co.ke
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Why the corruption index drives me around the bend - Comment
A few days ago Transparency International released its 2013 Corruption Perceptions Index. In East Africa, Rwanda held on firmly to its position as the least corrupt nation. Next was Tanzania, followed by Kenya, with Uganda and Burundi being the worst.
In Africa, Rwanda was fourth. The top 10 were, in order of cleanliness: Botswana, Cape Verde, Seychelles, Rwanda, Mauritius, Lesotho, Namibia, Ghana, South Africa, and Senegal.
The bottom 10 in Africa, in order of villainy, are: Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, Libya, Guinea Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Chad, Zimbabwe, Burundi, and Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Corruption Perceptions Index drives me round the bend every year. It is hard to find factors, other than leadership and political will, to explain low levels of corruption in Africa.
There is a view, for example, that in Rwanda, the corruption fight is a President Paul Kagame thing. That the day he leaves power, the country's leaders will return to the trough.
It has been suggested that countries where there are competitive elections are likely to be less corrupt (because the government of the day is at risk of being ousted in an anti-corruption vote) than those where there is less of it (because even if the rulers are corrupt, the opposition is too weak to defeat them).
However, though elections are less competitive in Botswana, it is better placed in the rankings than Senegal, where they are cutthroat. And there is less political competition in Rwanda, than in Guinea Bissau, which is one of the worst cases.
Size of country and population also don't correlate perfectly — although the top six most honest African nations are also among the smallest in land size. Perhaps thieves just don't have enough nooks to hide in in small countries.
Location seems to play some role. Mauritius, Cape Verde, and Seychelles are far flung islands. Their case might suggest that being cut off helps, especially if it puts some distance between you and crooked neighbours. Maybe some strains of corruption are contagious.
Lesotho is surrounded by South Africa, which shares a border with Namibia and Botswana. That corner of Africa seems to be a good address for a country to be.
It seems to suggest that living next door to an honest neighbour can rub off on you, although it doesn't explain Senegal and Rwanda that live in zones of squalor.
There are two other feeble, but interesting, factors that may explain why corruption thrives in some places in Africa and not in others. All the countries that have never had military rule in Africa — Botswana, Mauritius, Senegal, and Cape Verde — are in the honest camp.
And though some like Ghana and Seychelles have had coups and military dictators, they have not endured civil war. Rwanda is the only country in the top 10 that has had a civil war.
Civil war, and some types of military uniform, it would seem, are not good for clean government in Africa.
So here's the recipe for improving your standing as an honest state in Africa: Be small, be an island, disavow military rule, avoid civil war, live next to a clean country, and pray that you don't get a president who is sticky-fingered.
Charles Onyango-Obbo is Nation Media Group's executive editor for Africa & Digital Media. E-mail: cobbo@ke.nationmedia.com. Twitter: @cobbo3
http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/OpEd/comment/Why-the-corruption-index-drives-me-around-the-bend/-/434750/2102684/-/lrsv72/-/index.html
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