Obama criticizes leaders in Africa, but stops short of issuing an indictment

President Barack Obama, hailed as a son of Africa during his five-day visit to the economically and politically troubled continent, took advantage of the good will he enjoyed by blasting the leaders of various countries for refusing to give up the reins of power when their terms end. However, he stopped short of articulating the reason.

“Nobody should be president for life,” Obama told a meeting of the 54-member African Union in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. “I don’t understand why people want to stay so long, especially when they have got a lot of money.”

But had the U.S. president not been governed by the constraints of diplomacy, he would have detailed why so many African leaders are so rich. The reason can be summed up in one word that, unfortunately, has come to define Africa: corruption.

Numerous independent studies of the billions of dollars in foreign aid sent to almost all the countries since they gained independence have found that a large portion of the funds have been misspent, misappropriated or squandered. To be sure, there has been mismanagement and waste, but a lot of the money has ended up in the pockets – and ultimately Swiss bank accounts – of the presidents and prime ministers and their cronies. The result of this corruption is mass poverty and starvation, the absence of legitimate political structures and the collapse of civil societies.

Mass migration

The future is especially bleak for young Africans, which explains the mass migration to more-stable countries in the continent and to Europe. The problem of illegal immigration in Europe has become such a major problem that many nations are attempting to slam the door shut on Africans seeking a better life.

President Obama would have delivered a stronger message to the members of the African Union had he said that the United States and Western Europe, which have been the main sources of foreign aid to Africa, are reassessing their policies given how little progress is being made to stop the misspending of money.

We have long called for criminal investigations of current and former African government officials, seeing as how their lifestyles belie the widespread poverty, the lack of jobs and the high rate of life-threatening diseases that plague their countries.

The American people are questioning the concept of foreign assistance, given the economic challenges many of them face at home. We aren’t willing to join the end-all-aid crowd, but we do believe there are legitimate concerns about the widespread government corruption that has undermined development in Africa.

President Obama warned the African Union members that their countries will not see real progress on the economic and social fronts if rulers refuse to give up power.

“Sometimes you will hear leaders say, ‘I’m the only person who can hold this nation together.’ If that’s true, then that leader has failed to truly build their nation,” the president said.

There is another problem the U.S. and other Western countries must deal with, if they are to change the culture of corruption in Africa: China.

The Chinese are investing billions of dollars in the continent to gain control of the vast mineral reserves. China imports more than 80 percent of the minerals it uses in its manufacturing industries and in the development of its population centers, and the government in Beijing is not shy about doing whatever is necessary to curry favor with the political leaders.

Enormous wealth

As has been clearly demonstrated in its trade relationship with the U.S., China has no qualms about violating international rules of behavior in the marketplace. Thus, major Chinese corporations and government entities use their enormous wealth to buy politicians and other government functionaries to ensure they can operate in Africa without unnecessary hindrance.

But the Chinese also are finding out that the greed of the leaders knows no bounds, which makes for a tenuous relationship at best.

The U.S. and its allies must find a way of neutralizing China’s influence – short of participating in the sort of corrupt activities undermining Africa.