Despite the uproar and criticism which trailed Mr David Cameron’s
description of Nigeria and Afghanistan as fantastically corrupt, the
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is correct (and even the Nigerian
President agrees). Corruption is so embedded into the everyday life in
Nigeria, that the head of the previous government tried to reduce its
influence by declaring that not every act of stealing should be
considered corruption. The present state (or situation, if you like) of
Afghanistan is itself a creation of corruption—of
invading powers (Russia) and interfering powers (the US, Pakistan and
co) as well as via the campaign of terrorism and counter terrorism. So
yes, Mr Cameron is correct with his statement, he only left out some
facts, among which are that his country, the UK, it’s key ally the US,
and several Western nations are just as fantastically corrupt as Nigeria
and Afghanistan. The difference between both category of nations is
only a matter of semantics, not substance.
Corruption in the UK goes right up to the Prime Minister himself. A
simple Google search of “David Cameron” produces “Panama Papers,” and
links to his admittance of profiting from a Panama-based offshore trust
set up by his tax-evading late father. However, Corruption in the UK
goes well beyond the alleged dealings of Mr Cameron and pervades how the
large British corporations do business and influence government
actions. For example, the Financial Times in April, reported
that the 10 biggest misconduct scandals have cost the Britain’s banks
and building societies almost £53bn in fines and other penalties since
2000. Another word for “misconduct scandals” is of course Fantastical
Corruption, and the Lloyds Banking Group, the UK’s biggest bank, has singularly paid £14bn in such charges between 2010 and 2014.
Corruption in the United States of America can be seen through the
country’s many economic antitheses. The US is the richest country in the
history of the world but has over 45 million people in abject poverty,
and despite having the largest number of multinationals, it has an
unemployment rate of 10 percent, thanks to their pervasive attitude of
offshoring jobs for cheap labour. It was also the widespread financial
corruption on Wall street—the financial centre of US and the World—which
led to America’s greatest economic recession in a century and crashed
economies around the world. The influence of corporate money in American
politics is even much worse than in than in (you may want to add
Fantastically Corrupt) third world countries, thanks to a 2010 US
Supreme Court judgement that among other things, allowed unlimited
financial donations to so-called Political Action Committees. Such overt
influence of money in American politics is one of the reasons 75
percent of the American public see Widespread Government Corruption, more than 60 percent of the citizens do not trust the US Federal Government to handle domestic issues and 7 in 10 Americans disapprove of the US Congress.
Corruption is just as prevalent in Europe, visible in the economic
wreck of Greece and woes of Spain, Italy and Portugal, the recent
resignation of the Prime Minister of Iceland over the Panama Papers
Scandal, the ongoing tax fraud trial of Princess Cristina of Spain, the
elder sister of King Felipe VI and sixth in line to the Spanish throne
and the corruption scandal rocking German Car giant Volkswagen, to name but a few. It is due to such widespread corruption that European citizens are increasingly losing faith in their governments
and turning to far right/left parties (the Front Nationale in France
and Podemos in Spain). Thus, from West Africa to the Western World, the
scourge of corruption is, to borrow David Cameron’s word, Fantastical.
It is only by admitting this, rather than revelling in slurring
developing nations, that any meaningful victory can be achieved in
fighting corruption.
Corruption is not only rife everywhere, it is interconnected and
often has the same principal actors. The African leaders who have
looted, and are still looting, their countries’ wealth would not have
been able to do so without the support of top ranking business and
political leaders in the West. The Swiss system of absolute banking
secrecy was arguably put in place to abet the stashing of secret wealth,
a venture in which the City of London is increasingly the global
leader. According to Rules.Org,
“the City of London is at the centre of the global web of tax havens
that are aiding and abetting the theft of vast sums of money from the
public around the world. More than half of the ‘secrecy jurisdictions’
identified by the Tax Justice Network have supply chain links to the UK.
Crown Dependencies like Jersey and British Overseas Territories like
the Cayman and British Virgin Islands rely on the City of London – on
its permissive legal structures, tax rules and, crucially, its
reputation for stability – for a large part of their business.” In
essence, Panama is a piece of cake when it comes to the City of London.
In light of the above, it is significant then, that the Anti-Corruption Summit
was held in London. This is because the most effective way to tackle
the global wave of corruption will be to start at the root and this is
where we often find the global controllers of capital—the multinational
corporations and banking giants built out of the US, the UK and Europe.
It is not a coincidence that the biggest corruption scandals have
emanated, not from Nigeria or Afghanistan, but from Western
Multinational giants such as the now-defunct Lehman Brothers. Tackling
global corruption would thus require taming the excesses of these
multinationals which often instigates corruption, tightening the
financial sector of developed countries whose looseness aids and abets
corruption everywhere and trimming down the corporate influence in the
politics of the Western World. These measures, not calling countries
like Nigeria and Afghanistan names, would be much more effective in
battling global corruption.
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