Corruption has been Africa's greatest enemy and not the slave trade

There was significant public commentary and reaction following Ghana's President, John Dramani Mahama's, address to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA 80) on September 25, 2025. In his speech, he declared, "The future is African," and also announced Ghana's intention to table a motion to officially recognize the transatlantic slave trade as a crime against humanity and demand reparations.

The statement he made—that “the future is African”—was, in my opinion, meant as a "shot" or "dig" at our former colonial masters and America. My interpretation is that he intended to convey that without Africa’s rich resources, the world would not function, and that the economic and political powerhouse of the world is, or sooner than later will be, African.

A friend of mine, Dr. (Pharm) Kofi Boakye Apraku, sought my opinion on a write-up by one of his peers, an aspiring lawyer he affectionately calls ‘Fada Larbi’, about how Africa is on the road to greatness again - while also criticising many of President Trump’s pro-American policies. I deferred my comment on the subject and asked him a simple question: "Has Africa been great before?" I got him on that point, so he laughed. Although this is subjective, I would probably agree that most parts of Africa were more peaceful before modernity and colonialism were introduced; but on the point of precolonial African greatness, I beg to differ.

Charlie Kirk (October 14, 1993 – September 10, 2025) in one of his college outreaches, in describing the greatness of his beloved country, America, said “America is the only country that even those who hate it refuse to leave”. And yeah, I guess this could be good metrics to measure greatness of a region, country or continent?

And that is it! Because immigrants consistently use whatever means available to them, whether legal or illegal, to remain within the borders of America. One may argue that by Kirk’s definition of greatness, then we may conclude that Africa, at the time when the whites arrived at her shores, was a great region.

This is because during the slave trade, Africans felt reluctant to leave their countries and were only forced out through the vehicle of trade and slavery. And so probably, their reluctance to leave the shores of Africa attests to how peaceful, comfortable and great the region was before the Europeans intruded.

One may argue that if this analogy indeed holds, then what about now? Why are millions of African youths leaving the African continent on their own volition - without being coerced?

Do Africans really care when they leave the shores of their motherland? I guess not! - when they are fleeing from lack of opportunity, economic hardship, or poor governance! Most of these African immigrants use lies and dishonesty to remain in the diaspora.

It is an open secret that a lot of visa applicants from Africa forge documents to apply for visas to go to Europe and America; also African immigrants in Europe create untruth stories in order to seek for asylum when their visas expire; and each year, hundreds of thousands take the risk to travel on dangerous paths - by road, on the desert and on the sea to sneak into the European borders. And yeah, it is common knowledge on the streets of Africa that - the dream of almost every African youth is to go to the diaspora and seek for greener pastures.

And in my opinion, every reason for which an individual African leave the shores of Africa to the diaspora or reasons for which Africans strive to remain in the diaspora by whatever legal or illegal means, upon expiration of their visas, can be directly or indirectly linked to the effects of the pervasive corruption in their home region.

By careful examination of the politics of the world, it has been so that, every country that wants to control the world - wants to be Africa’s greatest ally. Yeah, obviously because of Africa’s resources.

So by this analogy, if Africa learns how to control Africa, Africa would indeed be the greatest. But you ponder on this, and ask yourself what African leaders have been doing over the years, and are currently doing to position Africa well in the world of politics and influence? Former president Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, of Ghana, in several opportunities he had addressing the international community, touched on the need for there to be reparation for the slave trade that was done in the past.

I wonder why the current president of Ghana, John Dramani Mahama is going on the same trajectory and using his energy to fight slave trade and injustices that happened in the past and the consistent call for reparations - while these leaders ironically are still supervising the modern form of the same thing they are fighting.

The "slave trade" is still very active, operating as immigration fueled by structural vulnerability, that is, 'self-immigration' propelled by poor leadership, corruption, and the resulting hardship.

African leaders ought to pump the brakes on the advocacy for reparations for the slave trade! They are currently supervising conditions that are arguably more inhumane to their own people now than the injustices of the past they are fighting against. Africa’s greatest enemy has been corruption, not the slave trade.

Corruption in Africa takes various forms, all supervised by the leaders, which negatively affects the fortunes of the people. The effect of this bad leadership and mismanagement is severe economic hardship. Although slave trade has been formally abolished, many Africans, driven by frustration and desperation, willingly use the currency of lies, forgery, dishonesty, and deceit to trade themselves into what amounts to modern slavery - to become slaves to the economies of Europe, America, and even parts of Asia. So what reparations do you think you deserve when you are supervising a worse form of the very thing you are preaching to remedy?

Corruption in Africa takes some of the forms discussed below: and the measures pointed out below ought to be the prime focus of Africa in order to save Africa.

De-monetisation of politics & Servant Leadership:

Every man naturally feels a sense of fulfilment when he exercises influence, control, authority over others, and are able to command a group. As a Jesus practitioner, I believe this is because of the nature of God in men. Throughout history, men have fought among themselves for the right to rule or control others. In doing so, they use all their resources to gain this power. In democracy, the numbers that would turn out to vote for you depend on how well one pulls voters onto their side, and this is achieved with money.

This is why monetisation of democratic politics is difficult to control. The effect of monetisation is that politicians would not want to gamble on the money they spent on the previous election on the next election.

During their term of office, they try to recoup all the money they invested in the previous election by whatever means. At worst, they try to save an estimated amount that can help them hold on to power, or save an amount that could take care of an entire generation of their family should they miss out in the next election.

The easiest way to achieve this is through abuse of office, embezzlement, and corruption. Over the years, the practice has been that these embezzled funds are used to buy properties abroad and saved in foreign accounts—Sani Abacha of Nigeria is a quintessential example.

Recognising the challenge involved in trying to solve this 'monetisation' problem—because man’s desire for power is innate—Africans and their leaders ought to rethink and be intentional about instilling a sense of discipline and patriotism in themselves through civic education.

Discipline and patriotism should also be introduced into our educational curriculum—as a way to directly have a positive impact on a whole generation who can be loyal to our motherland and be greatly reliable to push the African agenda.

It is high time African leaders see their position as an opportunity to serve and intentionally make it a priority to work towards delivering good amenities, good infrastructure, and creating an environment for strong institutions. By this, we would all accept that, in our service to our motherland, every penny that is embezzled has a role to play in contributing to building a prosperous, great, and peaceful society for all.

Accountability & Law Enforcement:

Once we start seeing the call to lead as a service to our motherland, we will realise the need to be accountable to the people we serve. Unfortunately, accountability is missing in African governance; it has been the Achilles heel of our institutions.

A troubling trend has emerged: when legal action is taken against politicians for corruption, the parties involved frequently characterize it as political persecution, despite evidence to the contrary. Contemporary African politicians use the same approach they use in pursuing careers in medicine, law, and business to pursue politics and leadership. Servant leadership has been sidelined; regrettably, contemporary political leadership is viewed primarily through a transactional lens of profit and loss.

An emerging trend involves highly coordinated, multi-party conspiracies that focus exclusively on systemic corruption and mutual protection. It is increasingly common for young adults with political ambitions to begin forming strategic alliances during their university years.

These networks often transcend party lines, uniting supposed political opponents in a shared pursuit of career longevity and mutual protection. Their collective aim is to exploit political power for personal gain. They pursue this objective by securing membership in the leading opposition parties.

So that, at any point in time, some members of the group would be in government to protect the interests of the others in opposition - by resourcing them and also shielding the rots they did while they were in government. This has made it difficult for political actors to be checked.

They hesitate to bring down the gavel today, knowing that one day they will need the same favor in return.. They collude to deplete national resources; the expansion of this predatory system signifies a total collapse of institutional oversight.

For discipline and service to take root, the judiciary and law enforcement must be entirely independent. Only then can they prosecute corruption and enforce laws impartially.

A Conscious Effort to Combat Brain Drain and Retain Talent:

Economic hardship and limited opportunities drive many individuals to seek greener pastures and professional fulfillment abroad. Annually, Africa experiences a significant brain drain as a large share of its top three percent of university graduates migrate to Europe and North America via postgraduate scholarship programs. Regrettably, only a small fraction of these highly skilled individuals eventually return to their countries of origin. It is disheartening to note that even those sponsored by their home governments to study abroad—and who are under a legal obligation to return after their studies—often refuse to do so.

It is imperative that African governments adopt strategic policy frameworks designed to retain skilled human capital for sustainable development. Resources should be prioritised for local research and scholarships, limiting foreign study to specialised technical fields where domestic capacity is currently insufficient. Governments should implement rigorous tracking systems for scholarship recipients and guarantee immediate employment opportunities upon their return to facilitate the fulfillment of their service bonds.

Review of the Legal Regime for Natural Resources:

Historically, a deficit in technical expertise compelled African nations to enter into mining agreements that favored foreign investors. Consequently, for decades, the extraction of gold, oil, and critical minerals like lithium resulted in minimal value retention for the host countries.

Driven by globalization and increased investment in research and training, many African nations have successfully closed the knowledge gap in critical sectors such as mineral extraction and petroleum refining. Most African nations now possess the necessary expertise and capacity to operate fully African-owned mining and oil exploration companies, enabling them to take full control of their resources.

Under the 1992 Constitution of Ghana, all natural resources are vested in the President in trust for the Ghanaian people, ensuring they remain national assets. Consequently, prioritizing the extraction and utilization of national resources—including mining and oil—via state-owned enterprises is essential, thereby limiting access by private entities.

For African states currently lacking full extraction capacity, adopting a joint-venture model—similar to Mexico’s state-led energy framework—allows for the integration of foreign capital and expertise while maintaining national ownership through a mandated state enterprise.

Africa’s resources belong to the continent and must be extracted by Africa—for Africa. Their extraction must serve African interests first, ensuring that the continent retains the lion's share of the commercial benefits.

Attitudinal Change of Employees (Private & Public):

To advance the growth of the African economy, there ought to be intentional change of attitude to work of employees in Africa. If we were to go out there working with the same attitude that an African immigrant in Europe seeking for greener pastures, would do at his or her workplace, then the environments of African businesses would grow green and be poised to compete internationally.

Employees ought to be intentional about building the ethos of punctuality, discipline, service, loyalty and honesty - in their commitment to public service or contributing to the growth the businesses of their employers.

In conclusion, by Kirk's proposed metric: America's "greatness" is evidenced by people wanting to stay there, even if they criticise it. Applying the metric to pre-colonial Africa: Africans were forcibly removed during the slave trade, suggesting a prior reluctance to leave that might indicate a peaceful and great region at the time.

Applying the metric to modern Africa: Millions of Africans leave voluntarily now, using desperate measures to stay abroad, which seems to counter the "greatness" metric in the present day. Hence, it becomes accurate that the current migration from Africa is largely driven by "pervasive corruption" within the region.

While acknowledging the perceived different economic scales of aid and reparations - that aid is not a legal or moral substitute for reparation, I am of the opinion that the price and reparations for the slave trade, to some extent, is indirectly being paid through aid and donations to Africa.

African leaders and politicians continuously receive monies for every head that was sold and for every soul and blood that was drained—but the unfortunate thing is that these funds have been and are currently being mismanaged and embezzled through corruption.

Therefore it high time African leaders redirect their energies and focus into: embarking on ruthless fight against corruption, putting sense of patriotism and honesty in their educational curriculum, having attitudinal change towards work, prioritising Africa’s interest in utilisation of Africa’s resources, and strengthening of her institutions to make law and order work perfectly - and this is what would make Africa great.

Corruption was and is the enemy!