Stop these thieves from looting and ruling African states
Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid and Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta at State House, Nairobi, on September 9, 2021. Ms Kaljulaid said that one of the things Estonia did in order to double their GDP between 1987 and 2020 was relentlessly fight against thievery. PHOTO | PSCU
Revelations that former president of Zambia Edgar Lungu, his family members, and associates were involved in massive corruption confirms a dangerous trend in Africa. His predecessor, the first democratically-elected president of the southern African country, Frederick Chiluba, was also alleged to have stolen millions while in office.
When Omar al-Bashir of Sudan was overthrown, he was found with boxes of cash in his house. Before fleeing The Gambia after his electoral defeat in 2017, Yahya Jammeh fled with millions of his country’s money. Even presidents who preached socialism like Robert Mugabe were not above amassing great wealth. This list is not exhaustive, because almost every African president since independence has ended up with fabulous wealth. As a percentage of GDP of their impoverished countries, the wealth of African presidents must be the greatest in the world.
