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“Many African leaders are thieves” – Prof Lumumba

A Pan-Africanist and law Professor, Professor P.L.O Lumumba, has said without any shed of doubt that many African leaders are thieves.

 

A Pan-Africanist and law Professor, Professor P.L.O Lumumba, has said without any shed of doubt that many African leaders are thieves.

Prof Lumumba while speaking at the PAV Ansah Memorial Lecture in Accra on the theme: "Good governance, whither Africa?” stated that many African leaders are in power only to make wealth.

“Many African leaders, without being diplomatic about it, are thieves. Many African leaders, systems are simply kakistocracy regimes – the government of the least qualified. Many African countries are kleptocracies. A government where thieves have come together and have conspired to do only one thing: to rob the countries dry,” he said.

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He however indicated that the electorate is partly to blame for continually voting for candidates based on several wrong reasons than competence.

“And if the leaders of Africa are guilty, and I want to submit to you that they are guilty, we the population are also in equal guilt because whenever we are given the opportunity to engage in elections, we elect individuals on the basis of the ethnic extraction and on the basis of the depth of their pockets,” Prof Lumumba said.

He expressed disgust about how the continent celebrates ‘big’ thieves and punish people who engage in ‘minor’ crimes.

“Today in Africa, we hang the goat thieves and elect the big thieves into public office. That is the African problem. We call them by different names - ‘Economic crime’.They are thieves. We vilify little thieves in our villages and defy the big thieves ,"  the Director at the Kenya School of Law noted.

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Prof Lumumba advised that Africans liberate themselves from the chains of hardship through diligence and voting for people based on competence.

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