The corruption race in Africa: Nigeria versus South Africa, who cleans the mess first?

Résumé 0

The aim and objective of this article is to unpack in a comparative format the fiend of corruption in Africa, using Nigeria and South Africa as the giant in corruption alongside Somalia, South Sudan and Madagascar in the continent of Africa. It is true that corruption has been imported and/or incorporated into the African political space; although, the dimension and effects of corruption differ from country to country in Africa. In Africa, corruption is clearly visible culminating in several high-profile scandals standing out. In Nigeria for instance, former and late military head of State, Sani Abacha and South Africa's Jackie Selebi were some among many public office bearers indicted in corruption mess. Kofele-Kale noted that corruption is punishable in all African countries, prohibited in their Constitutions and in various regional and pan-African anti-corruption instruments. In fact, Africa's leaders are concerned about the problem of corruption that hardly a day goes by without some government entity criticising corruption and its cancerous effects on African society, yet, Africa has made little or no progress on this front. The article examines corruption in Nigeria and South Africa and tries to find out which of these two countries will be first in the complete eradication of corruption.