- The West must respond to this cry; but Africa too must provide it with accurate and adequate details
Although no one knows its exact size, almost everyone is agreed that vast fortunes, stolen by political officials in Africa from the very people they claim to serve, lie domiciled in European and American banks; and in Caribbean safe havens for funds of questionable origin.
The practice goes back to the 1960s, when a majority of African countries won independence from their colonizers; and governance passed into the hands of indigenous leaders, who had led or participated actively in the independence struggle.
Some of the new leaders ran their states as fiefdoms. The most notorious of them, President Mobutu Sese Seko, was rumoured to be wealthier than Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo). It was, therefore, not unusual for him to lend some money to the national treasury whenever it was empty, so that Zaire could keep up the appearance of being a thriving state.
Jean Bedel Bokasa thought it beneath his dignity to be a mere president of the Central African Republic. So he renamed it the Central African Empire and crowned himself emperor in an orgiastic festival that drained the state treasury; while his vast personal fortune lay secure in the vaults of the most secretive banking institutions in France and Switzerland.
The loathsome Nigerian dictator, General Sani Abacha pursued the twin goals of personal enrichment and self-perpetuation with maniacal frenzy. Funds so far recovered from his secret accounts – a fraction of his loot, according to the best authorities – is bigger the budget of some African countries for an entire year.
Only a vast fortune stashed offshore can sustain the obscenely lavish lifestyle of Teodorin Obiang Mangue, son of the president of Equatorial Guinea. He lives in a five-story 101-room mansion, a monument to excess, on the fashionable Avenue Foch, in the French capital, Paris. Last year, he forfeited to the United States assets worth $30 million that government officials say was looted from his country.
His father the president, Teodoro Nguema Mbasogo and his family are widely believed to be at least as wealthy as their oil-rich country.
It is paradoxical that Western nations that will not tolerate any fiddling with public funds all too readily serve as hospitable depositories for the pillage that political officials in Africa systematically visit on their countries.
According to informed estimates, if just a fraction of it were repatriated and used judiciously, the impact on the economic and social development in Africa would be nothing short of transformative.
The church, public-spirited organizations and persons of conscience worldwide have called again and again on Europe and the United States to move their financial institutions to repatriate this wealth, as have the United Nations and the African Union.
The chair of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) Abubakar Lamorde, who has been leading investigations into money laundering and illegal financial flows, recently joined the call for repatriation of Africa’s stolen wealth.
The call is warranted. But it does not go to the heart of the matter.
Those who looted the funds must be identified. The amounts looted should be documented as far as possible, and their location should be ascertained.
These are complicated tasks requiring a great deal of expertise. No effort should be spared in procuring such expertise. Armed with the data amassed by the experts, African countries can then confidently face the authorities of the nations where the funds are domiciled to demand repatriation.
It is an indictment on the systems of checks and balances in African countries that such vast sums were ferreted out undetected in the first place.
African countries must devise a robust mechanism of accountability; and enforce it to prevent such illegal flows, and to convince a skeptical world that they are serious about fighting corruption in its many guises and disguises.
