'' 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
