Socio-legal Evaluation of Grand Corruption in Africa

• Jurisdiction: South Africa
• Citation: (2017) 4(1) Journal of Comparative Law in Africa 86
• Date: 16 August 2019
• Pages: 86-124
• Author: S A Igbinedion
• Published date: 16 August 2019

86

SOCIO-LEGAL EVALUATION OF GRAND

CORRUPTION IN AFRICA

SA IGBINEDION*

Department of Jurisprudence and International Law,

Faculty of Law, University of Lagos, Nigeria

This article undertakes a socio-legal evaluation of grand corruption, which prevails

in most parts of Africa. Grand corruption is the genre of corruption perpetrated by

high-profile public officials who are responsible for statecraft. Apart from the usual

categorisation as a crime, the nature of this conduct is yet to be adequately explored.

This has largely led to the poor appreciation of grand corruption and, ipso facto, of

adequate countermeasures against it. This article seeks to fill that void by critically

undertaking a socio-legal analysis of the nature of grand corruption. This approach

is geared to help African citizens, stakeholders, policy makers and legislatures

understand the nature and substance of grand corruption so that they can properly

aggregate, articulate and design adequate measures against this menace.

Résumé: Cet article entreprend une évaluation sociojuridique de la grande

corruption, qui prévaut dans la plupart des régions d’Afrique. La grande corruption

est le genre de corruption perpétrée par des fonctionnaires de haut niveau sur lesquels

incombe la responsabilité des affaires de l’État. En dehors de la catégorisation

habituelle de la conduite comme un crime, sa nature est encore inexplorée. Cela

a largement conduit à une mauvaise appréciation de la conduite et, ipso facto, des

contre-mesures inadéquates contre elle. Par conséquent, cet article cherche à combler

ce vide en entreprenant de façon critique des analyses sociojuridiques de la nature

de la grande corruption. Une telle approche vise à aider les citoyens africains, les

parties prenantes, les créateurs de politiques et les législatures à comprendre la

substance de la grande corruption, afin qu’ils puissent correctement agréger, articuler

et concevoir des mesures adéquates contre sa menace.

Keywords: grand corruption, crime, civil wrong

Introduction

In bygone years, Africans believed only foreigners could harm their

interests.1 However, contemporary events belie this belief as states in

sub-Saharan Africa are caged by their very own – high-profile public

officials – who, in betraying the mandate of rulership entrusted to them,

have routinised the massive plunder of the common wealth for their

* This article is based on aspects of the author’s unpublished PhD thesis submitted in 2007 to

the Faculty of Law, Gakushuin University, Tokyo, Japan.

1 For example, see the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, art 21(5) in which

African countries obligate themselves to eliminate all forms of foreign economic exploitation

without the complementary duty to free themselves from internal economic plunder.

(2017) 4(1) Journal of Comparative Law in Africa 86

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SOCIO-LEGAL EVALUATION OF GRAND CORRUPTION IN AFRICA 87

personal greed to the detriment of their compatriots.2 A few examples

should suffice. President Mobutu Sese Seko, who ruled Zaire (now the

Democratic Republic of the Congo, or DRC) from 1965 to 1997, left

office with between $5 and $8 billion of his country’s wealth.3 Also,

President Gnassingbé Eyadema of Togo, a dictator who wielded power

from 1965 to 2005, left his country worse than he found it by amassing

a personal fortune, plundered from the Ivorian treasury, valued at over

$2.8 billion.4 Similarly, Daniel arap Moi, who ruled Kenya from 1978 to

2002, is believed to have siphoned an amount of more than £1billion

in collusion with his family members and associates, and illicitly acquired

properties in London, New York and Australia.5

Those who may be tempted to believe that such excesses reflect the

pastime of outgoing African gerontocrats must take note of the escapades

of a younger generation of African r ulers and their agents. In the UK,

the former governor of Delta State, Nigeria, James Ibori (56), was

convicted and sentenced to 13 years’ imprisonment for fraud and money

laundering involving about $77 million.6 He plundered these assets from

the treasury of Nigeria, a country hugely blessed with oil and mineral

resources but populated by citizens most of whom barely survive on less

than $1 per day. In Equatorial Guinea – an oil-rich country of miserably

poor citizens – Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue (46), the son of the

country’s president, replicated this high-profile plunder while he served

as Minister of Agriculture and Forestry in his father’s Cabinet. In that

official capacity, he earned a monthly salary of €3200. However, his illicit

2 See LA Adusei. “Corruption in Africa: a cancer that won’t go away”. Available: http://www.

modernghana.com/news/199975/50/corruption-in-africa-a-cancer-that-wont-go-away.html.

(Accessed 5 December 2016); and W Michael Reisman. 1989. “Harnessing international law to

restrain and recapture indigenous spoliations”. American Journal of Inter national Law, 83:56.

3 See Heidi Kriz. 1997. “When he was king: on the trail of Marshal Mobutu Sese Seko, Zaire’s

former Kleptocrat-in-Chief. Metro, 22–28 May. Available: http://www.metroactive.com/papers/

metro/05.22.97/cover/mobutu-9721.html. (Accessed 7 June 2016). See also Arthur Agwuncha

Nwankwo. 1999. Nigeria: The Stolen Billions. Enugu: Fourth Dimension Publishing Co at 32

(indicating that, at the height of Mobutu’s infamy, he owned 23 estates around Europe, a 32-room

mansion in Switzerland, a luxurious house in Paris on the French Riviera, a 16th-century castle in

Spain, 11 magnificent presidential palaces in his country and $10 billion).

4 See Gabriel Ijewere. 1999. Accountability Politics and Development in Colonial and Post-Colonial

Africa: A Case for Democracy and Federalism in Sub-Saharan Africa. Lagos: Impact Press at 253.

5 See Xan Rice. 2007. “The looting of Kenya”. The Guardian, 31 August. Available: http://www.

guardian.co.uk/world/2007/aug/31/kenya.topstories3. (Accessed 25 September 2016). See also the

comments of Prof Michael Chege, stating that Arap Moi secreted away $3 billion abroad: M Chege.

2002. Recovering Dictators’ Plunder. US House of Representatives, Subcommittee on Financial

Institutions and Consumer Credit, Committee on Financial Services, Washington, DC: Thursday,

9 May 2002 at 14. Available: http://commdocs.house.gov/committees/bank/hba79943.000/

hba79943_0.HTM. (Accessed 26 December 2015).

6 “Former Nigeria governor James Ibori jailed for 13 years”. 2012. The Guardian, 17 April;

and My Continent. Is Corruption in Africa a new Cancer? Available: http://mycontinent.co/

corruption.php#gallery. (Accessed 27 December 2016).

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88 JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE LAW IN AFRICA VOL 4, NO 1, 2017

acquisition of massive assets far above his lawful income to satisfy his lavish

lifestyle alerted the anti-corruption sensibilities of the US and French

governments. In 2011, the USA commenced legal process to recover his

ill-gotten assets (including a Gulfstream jet, a mansion in Malibu and

Michael Jacksonmemorabilia) worth over $70 million, while in early

2012, France seized a mansion, valuable paintings, vintage wines and 11

multimillion-dollar luxury cars.7 Lest we forget, the ex-minister was in

May 2012 elevated to the position of Second Vice-President of Equatorial

Guinea! Also, Karim Wade (47), who was a Minister in the Cabinet of

his father and Senegalese President, Abdoulaye Wade, from 2000 to 2012,

is believed to have illicitly amassed a fortune of more than $1.3 billion.8

Lastly, Mohammed Abacha (about 46 years old) is the eldest son of the

late General Sani Abacha – the dictator who ruthlessly plundered billions

of dollars from Nigeria’s national treasury.9 Despite the recovery of part

of the loot from the estate of the deceased,10 it is widely believed that the

estate Mohammed Abacha inherited from his late father is still filled with

billions of dollars looted from Nigeria.11

The foregoing instances of corruption in high places are a microcosm

of an enduring macrocosmic regime of endemic corruption across the

length and breadth of countries in sub-Saharan Africa where both the

old and the young have a field day outdoing one another in the corrupt

enterprise of dispossessing Africa and its people of collective patrimony.

7 Including a Maserati, a Porsche Carrera, an Aston Martin and a Mercedes-Benz Maybach: My

Continent op cit note 6.

8 “Son of ex-Senegalese leader charged with corruption”. 2013. France24, 17 Apr il. Available:

http://www.france24.com/en/20130417-senegal-karim-wade-son-former-senegalese-leader-

charged-with-corruption/. (Accessed 17 June 2016).

9 See footnotes 136–137 and the accompanying texts. Instructively, Mohammed and Abba Sani

Abacha actively participated in Sani Abacha’s merciless looting of the national treasury. See United

States Minority Staff Report for Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations Hearing on Private

Banking and Money Laundering: A Case Study of Opportunities and Vulnerabilities (“Minority

Staff Report”), 9 November 1999 at 33–38.

10 To date Switzerland has recovered and repatriated about $700m of Abacha’s loot to Nigeria:

S Daniel & C Ndujihe. 2012. “Abacha loot: Switzerland has returned $700m to Nigeria – Swiss

envoy.” Vanguard, 5 December.

11 Thus, as recently as 2014, the US froze $458m of Abacha’s loot: “US freezes $458m Abacha

loot”. 2014. The Nation, 6 March. Similarly, the Nigerian Supreme Court ordered the country to

prosecute Mohammed Abacha for his alleged complicity in the illegal diversion of public funds to

a foreign account that belonged to his father. See Ikechulwu Nnochiri. 2014. “Money laundering:

S-Court orders FG to prosecute Mohammed Abacha”. Vanguard, 17 January.

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