Abstract
The significant increase in the attention given to corruption in recent times is largely due to an increasing awareness of the cost of corruption throughout the world and Africa in particular. In the African continent, corruption is a development issue that impedes the capacity and ability of governments to address the problem of poverty. In this chapter, a comparative analysis of how various forms of corruption have ravaged various African countries is made. The chapter draws on the literature of the conceptualization, causality, prevalence, socio-cultural underpinnings, manifestation and growth of corruption in Africa. A multidisciplinary approach and analysis of theories of corruption in the fields of sociology (collective action), economics (rational choice), cosmology (big bang theory) and criminology (general strain theory) were adopted and synthesized to explain the causality and nature of corruption in the continent, and draw policy-oriented conclusions. Secondary empirical data were sourced from Corruption Perception Index of the Transparency International, Africa Corruption Survey 2015 of Afrobarometer, as well as other institutes and individual researchers that have conducted transnational studies on corruption in Africa. In spite of the high awareness of and evidence showing the devastating effects of corruption on African development, this chapter concludes that for African leaders that engage in corrupt practices, the temptation to succumb to corruption is stronger and far exceeds any moral constraints or compassion for those that are victims of corruption. Therefore, aside from internal restraining measures to check corruption, there is a strong need for global leadership to constrain the behavior of corrupt African leaders through the placement of values on the reduction of poverty and suffering, and the resulting peace dividend.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Aborisade, R., & Fayemi, J. (2015). Police corruption in Nigeria: A perspective on its nature and control. Nigerian Journal of Social Sciences, XVII(2), 245–262.
Abraham, J. (2008). Corruption, social inequality and poverty in Mano River Union states of West Africa. http://repository.uneca.org/bitstream/handle/10855/3685/bib.%2029122_I.pdf?sequence=1. Accessed 11 July 2016.
Adesina, A. (1998). The political economy of stabilizations and income inequality: Myths and reality. In V. Tanzi & C. Ke-young (Eds.), Income distribution and high-quality growth. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Africa News. (2016, June 23). Ugandans believe police are 75% corrupt: Survey. Africa News. http://www.africanews.com/2016/06/23/ugandans-believe-police-are-75-percent-corrupt-survey/. Accessed 11 Aug 2016.
African Development Bank. (2014). Governance Strategic Framework and Action Plan II (GAP II): Promoting good governance and accountability for Africa’s transformation. http://www.afdb.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/Documents/Project-and-Operations/Governance_Strategic_Framework_and_Action_Plan__GAP_II___2014-2018_-_Appraisal_Report.pdf. Accessed 11 July 2016.
African Development Bank, UNDP and OECD. (2015). African economic outlook: Structural transformation and natural resources. www.africaneconomicoutlook.org/en/theme/structural-transformation-and-natural-resources. Accessed 10 July 2016.
African Peer Review Mechanism. (2015). Democracy and good political governance. http://aprm-auorg/democratic-and-political-governance. Accessed 10 July 2016.
African Union Commission. (2015). Agenda 2063: The Africa we want. http://agenda2063.au.int/en/sites/default/files/agenda2063_popular_version_05092014_EN.pdf. Accessed 10 July 2016.
Agnew, R. (1992). Foundation for a general strain theory of crime and delinquency. Criminology, 30(1), 47–87.
Agnew, R. (2001). An overview of general strain theory. In R. Paternoster & R. Bachman (Eds.), Explaining criminals and crime. Los Angeles: Roxbury.
Aguntansoolo. (2015, April 29). This yam, this goat, this country: PwC on NNPC. https://aguntasolo.com/2015/04/29/this-yam-this-goat-this-country-part-1/. Accessed 7 Aug 2016.
Akanle, O., & Adesina, J. (2015). Corruption and the Nigerian development quagmire: Popular narratives and current interrogations. Journal of Developing, 31(4), 421–446.
Adesina, A. (1998). The political economy of stabilizations and income inequality: Myths and reality. In V. Tanzi & C. Ke-young (Eds.), Income distribution and high-quality growth. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
AlixPartners, LLP. (2015). Cross-border M&A: Bribery and corruption issues in international transactions. http://www.alixpartners.com/en/Publications/AllArticles/tabid/635/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/1699/Cross-Border-MA.aspx#sthash.oyOSQbze.dpbs. Accessed 12 July 2016.
Alliyu, N. (2015). Leadership, followership and corruption in Nigerian society. In N. Alliyu (Ed.), Sociological issues in industry and Nigerian society (pp. 145–165). Ibadan: Ibadan University Press.
Andvig, J., & Fjeldstad, O. (2001). Corruption: A review of contemporary research reports. Buegen: Michelsen Institute.
Asongu, S., & Jellal, M. (2015). On the channels of foreign aid to corruption. Cameroon: African Governance and Development Institute.
Ayittey, G. (1992). Africa betrayed. New York: St Martin’s Press.
Ayittey, G. (2012, May 24). Defeating dictators. Speech given at the Oslo Freedom Forum. Retrieved 5 August, 2016, from https://oslofreedomforum.com/speakers/george_ayittey.html
Bauhr, M., & Nasiritousi, N. (2011). Why pay bribes? Collective action and anticorruption efforts. QOG Institute: Goteborg.
BBC News. (2004, June 18). How deep is corruption in Africa? United Kingdom. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/3819027.stm. Accessed 16 July 2016.
BBC News. (2015, March 4). Kenyan officials charged over Anglo leasing scandal. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-31733052. Accessed 9 Aug 2016.
Booth, D., & Cammack, D. (2013). Governance for development in Africa: Solving collective action problems. New York: Zed Books.
Carnegie Endowments for International Peace. (2014). Corruption: The unrecognized threat to international security. New York: Working Group on Corruption and Security.
Chipkin, I. (2013). Whither the state? Corruption, institutions and state-building in South Africa. Politikon, 40(2), 211–223.
Cobham, A. (2013). Corruption perceptions: Why Transparency International’s flagship, corruption index falls short. Foreign Policy. http://foreignpolicy.com/2013/07/22/corrupting-perceptions/#sthash.ojqUB9aA.dpbs. Accessed 13 July 2016.
Cocks, T., & J. Brock. (2015). Special Report: Anatomy of Nigeria’s $20 billion “leak”. Reuters. http://www.reuters.com/article/us-nigeria-election-banker-specialreport-idUSKBN0LA0X820150206. Accessed 7 Aug 2016.
Combaz, E. (2015). Implementing integrated financial management information systems. Applied Knowledge Services. GSDRC. http://www.gsdrc.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/HDQ1229.pdf. Accessed 8 Aug 2016.
Engjell, P. (2015). The impact of good governance in the economic development of Western Balkan countries. European Journal of Government and Economics, 4(1, June), 50–62.
Escresa, L., & Picci, L. (2015). A new cross-national measure of corruption. The World Bank Review. doi:10.1093/wber/lhv031.
Ezeanya, C. (2012, August 12). Origin of corruption in Africa and the way forward. https://chikaforafrica.com/2012/08/21/origin-of-corruption-in-africa-and-the-way-forward/Accessed. 6 Aug 2016.
Forbes. (2009, January 22). Corruption and poverty. http://www.forbes.com/2009/01/22/corruption-poverty-development-biz-corruption09-cx_mj_0122johnston.html. Accessed 24 July 2016.
Freund, B. (1984). The making of contemporary Africa: The development of African society since 1800. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Gupta, S., Davoodi, H., & Alonso-Terme, R. (1998). Does corruption affect income inequality and poverty? Fiscal Affairs Department. International Monetary Fund. https://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/wp/wp9876.pdf. Accessed 21 July 2016.
Harris, M., & Raviv, A. (1979). Optimal incentive contract with imperfect information. Journal of Economic Theory, 20, 231–259.
Hope, K. (1997). African political economy: Contemporary issues in development. London: M.E. Sharpe.
Human Rights Watch. (2010, August 17). Everyone’s in on the game: Corruption and human rights abuses by the Nigerian Police Force. New York. www.hrw.org/reports/2010/08/17/everyone-s-game-0. Accessed 12 Dec 2015.
Human Rights Watch. (2012). Everyone’s in on the game: Corruption and human rights abuses by the Nigerian police force. New York: Human Rights Watch.
Ijewereme, O. (2015, April–June 1–16). Anatomy of corruption in the Nigerian public sector: Theoretical perspectives and some empirical explanations. Sage Open.
Ijewereme, O., & Dunmade, E. (2014). Leadership crisis and corruption in the Nigerian public sector: Implications for socioeconomic development of Nigeria. International Journal of Public Administration and Management Research, 33(1), 24–38.
Ikejiaku, B. (2009). ‘Crime’, poverty, political corruption and conflict in apartheid and post-apartheid South Africa: The implications on economic development. African Journal of Political Science and International Relations, 3(10), 451–459.
Imhonopi, D., & Ugochukwu, M. (2013). Leadership crisis and corruption in the Nigeria public sector: An albatross of national development. The African Symposium: An Online Journal of the African Educational Research Network, 3(1), 78–87.
Ittner, S. (2009). Fighting corruption in Africa: A comparative study of Uganda and Botswana. PhD thesis, Deutschen Hochschule für Verwaltungswissenschaften.
Ivanov, K. (2007). The limits of a global campaign against corruption. In S. Bracking (Ed.), Corruption and development: The anticorruption campaigns (pp. 28–45). Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Johnson, S. (2010). The history of the Yorubas: From the earliest times to the beginning of the British protectorate. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Johnston, M. (2005). Syndromes of corruption: Wealth, power, and democracy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Kararach, G. (2014). Development policy in Africa: Mastering the future? Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Kimenyi, I., Mwangi, S., & Mbaku, J. (2011). Africa’s war on corruption in foresight Africa: The Continent’s greatest challenges and opportunities for 2011. Washington, DC: Brookings Institution.
Kpundeh, S. (2014). Building state capacity in Africa. Washington, DC: World Bank Publications.
Lambsdorff, J. (2006). What is bad about corruption? The contribution of the new institutional economics. In H. R. Hemmer (Ed.), Good governance (pp. 11–55). Frankfurt: Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau.
Lawson, L. (2009). The politics of anticorruption reform. Journal of Modern African Studies, 47(1), 73–100.
Luminita, I. (2013). The role of technology in combating corruption. Journal of Economics, Management and Financial Markets, 8(3), 101–106.
Lumumba, P. (2011). Corruption: The bane of Africa. SAPICS 33rd Annual Conference and Exhibition 26 to 28. Sun City, South Africa. http://www.eacc.go.ke/docs/Corruption%20the%20bane%20of%20Africa.pdf. Accessed 12 July 2016.
Makumbe, J. (1994). Bureaucratic corruption in Zimbabwe: Causes and magnitude of the problem. Africa Development, 19(3), 45–60.
Mazrui, A., & Tidy, M. (1984). Nationalism and new states in Africa from about 1935 to the present. New Hampshire: Heinemann.
Merton, R. (1938). Social structure and anomie. American Sociological Review, 3, 672–682.
Mohammed, U. (2013). Corruption in Nigeria: A challenge to sustainable development in the Forth Republic. European Scientific Journal, 9, 118–137.
Mulinge, M., & Lesetedi, G. (1998). Interrogating our past: Colonialism and corruption in Africa. African Journal of Political Science, 3(2), 15–28.
Mungiu-Pippidi, A. (2015). Corruption: Diagnosis and treatment. Journal of Democracy, 17(3), 86–99.
Nigerian Bulletin. (2015, February 6). Politics NNPC Audit: No Missing $20 Billion – Bloomberg. https://www.nigerianbulletin.com/threads/nnpc-audit-no-missing-20-billion-%E2%80%93-bloomberg.107644/. Accessed 7 Aug 2016.
Nwabughiogu, L. (2015, August 20). Over 100m Nigerians living below poverty line: Osinbajo. Vanguard Newspapers, pp. 22–23.
Ocheni, S., & Nwankwo, B. (2012). Analysis of colonialism and its impact in Africa. Cross Cultural Communication, 8(3), 46–54.
Okekeocha, C. (2013). A case study of corruption and public accountability in Nigeria. Dissertation, Kennesaw State University, Department of Political Science and International Affairs, Kennesaw.
Otusanya, O., Lauwo, S., Adeyeye, G. (2012). A critical examination of the multinational companies’ anticorruption policy in Nigeria. Accountancy Business and the Public Interest. http://visar.csustan.edu/aaba/Otusanya2012.pdf
Persson, A., Rothstein, B., & Teorell, J. (2010). The failure of anticorruption policies: A theoretical mischaracterization of the problem. Gothenburg: University of Gothenburg, Department of Political ScienceThe Quality of Government Institute.
Persson, A., Rothstein, B., & Teorell, J. (2013). Why anticorruption reforms fail: Systemic corruption as a collection action problem. Governance, 26(4), 449–471.
Premium Times. (2016, July 18). How lawyers, judges are slowing down Nigeria’s anticorruption war: Buhari, p. 21. http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/207102-lawyers-judges-slowing-nigerias-anticorruption-war-buhari.html. Accessed 10 Aug 2016.
Ravallion, M. (1997). Can high-inequality developing countries escape absolute poverty? Economics Letters, 56, 51–57.
Rose, S. (1973). The economic theory of agency: The principal’s problem. The American Economic Review, 63(2), 134–139.
Rothstein, B. (2011). Anticorruption the indirect ‘big bang’ approach. Review of International Political Economy, 11(2), 228–250.
Samura, B. (2009). The negative effects of corruption on developing nations. http://www.carl-sl.org/home/articles/125-the-negative-effects-of-corruption-on-developing-nations-a-perspective-on-sierra-leones-effort-to. Accessed 12 July 2016.
Seabright, P. (1993). Managing local commons: Theoretical issues in incentive design. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 7(4), 113–134.
Sutherland, E. (1940). White collar criminality. American Sociological Review, 5, 1–12.
The Economist. (2014, December 6). Mining and Corruption: Crying Foul in Guinea. The Economist. http://www.economist.com/news/business/21635522-africas-largest-iron-ore-mining-project-has-been-bedevilled-dust-ups-and-delays-crying-foul. Accessed 10 Aug 2016.
The Economist. (2015, December 3). The scale of corruption in Africa. http://www.economist.com/news/middle-east-and-africa/21679473-gloomy-news-transparency-international-scale-corruption-africa. Accessed 15 July 2016.
The Guardian. (2013, October 25). Mobutu Sese Seko’s body to be returned to Democratic Republic of the Congo. New York. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/25/mobutu-sese-seko-remains-repatriated-congo-zaire. Accessed 22 July 2016.
The Monitor. (2014, April 20). Will Gen Aronda finally deliver ID cards for Ugandans? http://www.monitor.co.ug/Magazines/PeoplePower/The-search-for-identity-/689844-2285514-11i2m90z/index.html. Accessed 8 Aug 2016.
The Punch. (2016, August 7). Budget padding is corruption, SERAP tells Dogara. The Punch Newspapers. http://punchng.com/budget-padding-corruption-serap-tells-dogara/. Accessed 7 Aug 2016.
Transparency International. (2000). TI sourcebook. Confronting corruption: The elements of a national integrity system. Berlin: Transparency International.
Transparency International. (2015, November 30). Corruption in Africa: 75 million people pay bribes. http://www.transparency.org/news/feature/corruption_in_africa_75_million_people_pay_bribes. Accessed 15 July 2016.
United Nations. (2004). Anti-corruption toolkit. New York: UN.
United Nations Development Programme. (2014). Anticorruption practice note. New York: UNDP.
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. (2016). Measuring corruption in Africa: The international dimension matters. African Governance Report IV, Addis Ababa. http://www.uneca.org/sites/default/files/PublicationFiles/agr4_eng_fin_web.pdf. Accessed 14 July 2016.
UNODC. (2011). Impaect of corruption on development and how states can better tackle corruption under the spotlight at UN Anticorruption Conference in Morocco. The Fourth Session of the Conference of the States Parties to the United Nations Convention against Corruption. Marrakech.
World Bank. (2000). Anticorruption in transition: A contribution to the policy debate. Washington, DC: World Bank.
Young, P. (1998). Individual strategy and social structure: An evolutionary theory of institutions. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Aborisade, R.A., Aliyyu, N.B. (2018). Corruption and Africa. In: Akanle, O., Adésìnà, J. (eds) The Development of Africa . Social Indicators Research Series, vol 71. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66242-8_13
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-66242-8_13
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-66241-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-66242-8
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)