Generational shift needed to end African graft, US Official Says

What you need to know:

  • Mr Nagy, a 69-year-old diplomat with wide experience in Africa, said graft is “so endemic in so many countries that it really will require a generational shift to wrench it out of the systems.”
  • Programmes supported by donor nations and carried out by NGOs are not a sufficient antidote to corruption, Mr Nagy added.

NEW YORK,  

Africa’s population explosion can lead to positive change, including an end to systemic corruption, or it can result in radicalisation and upheaval, the Trump administration’s top Africa official said on Tuesday.

The generations coming of age now and in the next few decades offer the potential to make Africa “the most dynamic, economically progressive continent in the history of Earth,” declared Tibor Nagy, the recently appointed assistant secretary of state for African affairs.

But, he warned, if African governments shun democracy and fail to generate economic opportunities, “then we may have a continent of extremely upset, distraught young people that will be very much vulnerable to radicalisation, and the continent will be unstable.”

Asked in a press teleconference how corruption should be addressed in a country such as Kenya, Mr Nagy said graft is “so endemic in so many countries that it really will require a generational shift to wrench it out of the systems.”

Mr Nagy, a 69-year-old diplomat with wide experience in Africa, added that young Africans are “just sick and tired of what the older generation — people my age or even older — have been tolerating."

Africa’s youth, he said, must take the initiative and declare, “’Enough is enough. We will no longer tolerate it.’”

Programmes supported by donor nations and carried out by NGOs are not a sufficient antidote to corruption, Mr Nagy said

“It has to be a total cultural change, from the leadership, to the bureaucrats, to the policemen on the street.” Women’s empowerment will be essential in bringing about that cultural shift, the State Department official said.

CHINESE INVESTMENT

Mr Nagy said at another point in his 45-minute exchange with reporters that African governments should not be blamed for opening their countries to Chinese investment.

The US should instead be encouraging its own businesses to take advantage of opportunities in Africa, as they have already done in Kenya, he suggested.

But African leaders must also do their part to attract US investment, Mr Nagy added.

They have a responsibility to ensure transparency in business dealings and to give all parties an equal chance at winning contracts, he said.

“The way to make Africa prosperous,” Mr Nagy asserted, “is to put in place a kind of environment that will attract the massive amount of foreign investment which is sitting out there around the world looking for a place to invest.”