CISA: Archbishop says Western greed to blame for African corruption

Once you get past the misleading headline, His Excellency has a point...

From the Catholic Information Service for Africa:

ROME (CISA) – Widespread corruption in Africa would not be possible without the cooperation of Western countries, said Catholic Archbishop John Olorunfemi Onaiyekan of Abuja, Nigeria.

The high level of corruption that has crippled economies in Africa and impoverished the people was never there in traditional societies, said the president of the Nigerian bishops' conference and the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM).

“It simply couldn't happen that a king could steal the money of his tribe and send it thousands of miles away to keep it for his family. African corruption would not have been possible without the cooperation of the very people who are now complaining about it!” Archbishop Onaiyekan told National Catholic Reporter. The interview appeared in the U.S.-based newspaper’s June 9, 2006, issue.

The West, he said, held the key to ending official corruption in Africa. “It's not possible that a young man from Nigeria can transfer a half-million dollars to deposit in a bank in any European country, and the regulatory authorities in that country aren't aware of it. They must know where this money came from. They track suspect transactions all the time, so why do they make an exception for stolen money from Africa?”

Yes, technology does make large scale sinning across borders easier, but His Excellency surely knows Electronic Funds Transfers are not the root of all evil.

Let me present a Western example for your edification, kiddies:
Sure, Hugh Hefner (CEO of Big Masturbation) is going to Hell if he does not repent, but the same is true of his readers.

The war on graft is hindered by Western leaders and businessmen who find it more profitable to do business in a climate of bad governance in the developing world. “If the West stops doing business with corrupt governments, they will fall. Africans try to bring these governments down, but often they fail because the governments are sustained and upheld by foreign businesses who believe they can do better business with the corrupt leaders,” Archbishop Onaiyekan said.

“The fight against corruption is hindered from the outside. The reality is we are not free. It's a myth to say that a poor, weak country is completely free to do whatever it likes. There are potentates who do whatever they like to their own people, and who follow instructions from the rich forces who sustain them. These powers from the outside world could have been deployed to help us get better governments, but it's not happening.”

The bottom line? Africa, like the rest of the world needs more Catholicism. Luckily, men like Archbishop Onaiyekan can do something about that.

He gave an example of the Nigerian election in 2003, which was well done in some places, but a sham in others. Less than a week after it, the European Union declared the elections free and fair, he said.

“That was very disappointing. If the EU or the United States had insisted that ‘we can't accept this election,’ we probably would have gotten something better. But the outside powers calculated that they were doing good business with these people. Often this sort of thing doesn't depend on just the ambassador. The major corporations, such as the oil companies, play a big role.”