Even though kleptocracy (governance characterised by rampant thievery of public resources) has been largely synonymous with Africa’s immediate post-colonial dictators, it is still very much alive today but perpetrated through sophisticated procurement processes that appear legit in the eyes of the gullible public.
By side stepping institutions of governance in various subtle ways, greedy politicians have proved to be disastrous for economic performance and are a cause of the rampant poverty faced by innocent citizens across the continent. In most cases, success of kleptocrats rests in their ability to use divide and rule via patron clientalistic strategies to maintain power in weakly-institutionalised polities costly to society. Oversight institutions such as anti-corruption bodies do not work the same way in many African states so as to control corruption. These weak oversight institutions have not as a rule, up to this point worked with practical effectiveness in Africa. As a result, corruption has continued to hamper both economic and human development. As a foe to transparency and ethical business ambience, corruption in many African countries has tended to promote a trans-lucid accounting milieu, thanks to a bunch of irresponsible self-serving kleptocrats and their cronies who in many public fora would shamelessly claim to be the answers to their people’s socio-economic problems. Kleptocratic leaders and equally corrupt bureaucrats in Africa are in total control of states without constraints of institutions preventing self enrichment, states which do not need to have a public purpose for their existence.
