The Poverty of Corrupt Nations

By contrast, Africa is also a continent rich in natural resources, owning 50 per cent of the world’s gold, 98 per cent of its chromium, 90 per cent of its cobalt, 64 per cent of its manganese and 33 per cent of its uranium.
Something is wrong with this picture! We know that there is a high degree of correlation between poverty and corruption. A country that is poor is likely to be corrupt also; and likewise, a country that is corrupt is also likely to be poor. What we don’t know is which is

the cause and which is the effect. Did the country become poor because it was corrupt or did corruption take hold because of abject poverty? We may never know the answers to these questions, but it seems obvious that if we could eliminate, or at least reduce, corruption, we could make a positive impact on poverty

Nigeria is one of the poorest countries in the world, ranked 199th out of 208 countries according to the 2003 World Bank Atlas report. In addition, according to Transparency International, an independent think-tank, Nigeria was ranked as one of the most corrupt nations in the world in 2005—154th out of 159 countries on the Corruption Perceptions Index (where country 159 is the most corrupt). Canada ranked fourteenth on this same list (i.e., Canada was the fourteenth least-corrupt country).

Corruption, they point out, is endemic and woven into the socio-economic fabric of so many nations that we are wasting our time. This is a tempting notion that must be rejected for a number of reasons: