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Preface
That corruption not only eats away the moral fabric of society but also deepens the anguish of socio-economic poverty is sufficient cause for the writer to embark on this study. Africa is a continent full of contradictions. Endowed with plenty of natural resources, much of Africa remains plummeted into the abyss of poverty, civil wars and politico-economic degradation. Yet a large faction of the political elite of that continent continues to benefit corruptly from the economic resources plundered from their national treasuries, flying around the world and sipping champagne. This clique of African political elites continues to help itself to the plundered economic resources, using the said resources to finance even their private medical services at state-of-the-art medical institutions in Europe or America and, also, sending their children to expensive schools and universities in the West. Yet the majority of the populace, the poor of Africa, need more than strong prayers to gain access to a decent meal in a day. By the year 2004, for example, the number of people living below the US$1 dollar per day level in sub-Saharan Africa had grown over the 1987–1998 period from less than 220 million to more than 290 million, with more than 70 million additional individuals.