THE TRUTH

'' Much of what is going on in some of these (African) countries is fully explained in terms of the normal lust of human beings for power and wealth. The stakes are high. The office carries power, prestige and money. The power is incredible. Most West Ministers consider themselves above the law, and are treated as such by the police.

Decision-making is arbitrary. Decisions which more advanced countries leave to civil servants and technicians are in those countries made by Ministers, after without consulting expert advice. The prestige is also incredible. Men who claim to be democrats in fact behave like emperors. Personifying the state, they dress themselves up in uniforms, build themselves palaces, and bring all other traffic to a standstill when they drive, hold fancy parades and generally demand to be treated like Egyptian Pharaohs. And the money is also incredible.

Successful politicians receive, even if only elected to Parliament, salaries two to four times more than they previously earned, plus per diem allowances, traveling expenses and other fringe benefits.  There are also vast pickings in bribes, state contracts, and diversion of public funds to private uses and commissions of various sorts. To be a Minister is to have a lifetime’s chance to make a fortune’’

This was the observation of Sir William Arthur Lewis, a West Indian Scholar (Development Econmist) on the conduct of Politicians in newly independent Africa in 1965. Sir Arthur Lewis, a 1979 winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics