Almost everyone would agree that corruption is the biggest evil that has befallen the second largest continent of the world. While the continent is regarded as earth’s finest with abundant natural resources and wealth that would extensively hand Africans a better life, the people of Africa are increasingly abandoning their countries in search for a meaningful living.

It isn’t outrageous to assert that nothing is right in the continent. Corruption has ruined everything.

The mess gets messier each day with countries like South Africa and Nigeria regarded as the leading nations of the continent being reduced to nothing by greed and the enduring quest to attain leadership position for the sole purpose of milking the common-wealth of the people and siphoning it to foreign lands.

Ultimately, a larger bulk of the citizens of African countries have no option but to suffer preventable hopelessness and cope with severe poverty. While other continents are also troubled by corruption, Africa’s case is surely the most brazen and despicable. For this reason, it has always been expected that nations from the continent would occupy the top slots anytime a corruption ranking is done. Well, Africa has, so far, been living up to that expectation.

The continent ranks higher when it comes to corruption and a recent study has offered a list of the corrupt countries and their ranks. As one would expect, the study revealed that there are many corrupt countries in Africa. With the countries making the list of the most corrupt countries in the world, the study stressed that corruption has deprived many people of their basic needs. And, that many go to bed every night without food across African countries.

Meanwhile, there has been a growth in the number of populist leaders in the world and studies have shown that corruption and social inequality triggers off populism – where the leaders who govern the people lead with an out-of-reach approach, thereby neglecting a greater part of the population and allowing the rich get richer as the poor get more screwed.

In the context of Corruption Perception Index, the lower-ranked countries, which are termed as the most corrupt countries in the world, are plagued by untrustworthy and badly functioning public institutions like the police and judiciary.

Even where anti-corruption laws are on the books, in practice they’re often skirted or ignored. People frequently face situations of bribery and extortion, rely on basic services that have been undermined by the misappropriation of funds, and confront official indifference when seeking redress from authorities that are on the take.

This kind of systemic grand corruption violates human rights, prevents sustainable development and fuels social exclusion.

Higher-ranked countries tend to have higher degrees of press freedom, access to information about public expenditure, stronger standards of integrity for public officials, and independent judicial systems. But high-scoring countries can’t afford to be complacent, either.

While the most obvious forms of corruption may not scar citizens’ daily lives in all these places, the higher-ranked countries are not immune to closed-door deals, conflicts of interest, illicit finance, and patchy law enforcement that can distort public policy and exacerbate corruption at home and abroad.

The list of most corrupt African countries was adopted from the list released by Transparency International as done every year and there is no corrupt free country in Africa and the world at large but here is the list of Africa’s Top 15 Most Corrupt countries:

You can view the complete list of corrupt countries in the world: Here

In 2017, Global Corruption Barometer of Transparency International carried out a survey to get the opinion of citizens of nations across the world on the state of corruption in their countries. Some of the interesting findings are as depicted below.

Public Sector Institutions Regarded As Corrupt

Difference In Bribery Between RegionsIf Africa must make any meaningful and sustainable development, it must earnestly wage a serious war against corruption. From top greedy leaders to individuals occupying public and private offices, who have pledged allegiance to bribery, all dishonest and fraudulent conduct must be harshly dealt with.

Above all, Africans must put aside their religious and cultural differences which are often used by the corrupt guys to sow divisions and effectively keep them apart from coming together to fight the common enemy.