Recently some African presidents have featured in media headlines not for their heroic accomplishments as leaders but for robbing their nations and siphoning their ill-gotten gains to safe havens.
Since 2010, French judges have been investigating illicit wealth accumulation by the presidents of the Republic of Congo, Gabon, and Equatorial Guinea, all of whom are accused of embezzlement of public funds, money laundering, and plundering national wealth (Gurrey 2012).2 In July 2012, Judge Roger Le Loire issued an arrest warrant against Teodoro Ngema Obiang, nicknamed Teodorin, the son of the president of Equatorial Guinea, on the basis of evidence of illicit wealth accumulation through embezzlement of public resources. The stylish president’s son has amassed a portfolio that includes multi-million-dollar real estate in France, luxury cars, designer watches, and art objects. His personal financial transactions are handled through his forestry company, Somagui Forestal, and bank accounts in offshore centers.
Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of Congo are among the richest countries in Africa with per capita incomes of $8,649 (second), $4,176 (5th), and $1,253 (15th), respectively. They have massive oil reserves, ranking 7th (Gabon), 8th (Congo), and 10th (Equatorial Guinea) in the continent. While their presidents and other members of the political elite are amassing fortunes abroad, the majority of their fellow citizens live in abject poverty, lacking access to basic social services such as decent sanitation, clean drinking water, elementary school, and health care. Despite Equatorial Guinea’s large oil revenues, a baby born there has less chance of living to his or her fifth birthday than the average sub-Saharan African infant. Gabon and Equatorial Guinea rank second and third to last in their rate of immunization against measles, at 55% and 51%, respectively.
The stories of opulence and extravagant lifestyles of leaders of resource-rich African countries illustrate critical leadership failures, where national leaders rob their nations instead of helping to develop them. These pathologies are perpetuated by complicit foreign special interests and a shadow international financial system that enables the perpetrators of financial crime to walk free thanks to banking secrecy. They are also facilitated by the willful blindness of Western financial institutions and governments that have tolerated this illicit accumulation of wealth over the years.
This article tells a story of poverty in the midst of plenty, a story of elite capture of resources and expropriation of the people by those entrusted to advance national interests. It is a story of endemic grand corruption, well beyond mere bribe taking and opaque management of natural resources. It reflects systematic dysfunction of the judicial system and the regulatory framework, which have been hijacked by the political elite and powerful special economic interests.
The story features both domestic and foreign actors who collude in the capture of rents from natural resources and in the transfer of the proceeds to safe havens. This means that finding a solution to the problem requires looking beyond the natural resource sector and addressing dysfunctions in the entire economic and political system. It requires looking beyond the individual African countries and addressing the complicity of foreign parties, especially resource-exploitation companies that connive with corrupt leaders to embezzle wealth, banks that facilitate the illicit transfer of illicitly acquired funds, and regulators in advanced countries who turn a blind eye on illicit transactions involving African political and economic elites.
Read more: Association of Concerned Africa Scholars
