Victoria Hammah, a former Deputy Minister of Communication in Ghana, said on tape that she went into government to make money.

Her goal was to have $1 million in her bank account when she left office. She was sacked in November 2013.

 A Ghanaian minister must have a government bungalow, a 4x4 SUV, a saloon car, drivers, a cook, a gardener, a day watchman, a night watchman, a security guard – all at taxpayers’ expense. Then insist that at the end of their service, the bungalow must be sold to them at firesale price with a loan from the same government.

A Nigerian Senator takes home a cool $2 million in salary and emoluments – from furniture to even latrine allowance.

Tanzanian MPs, who already make $119,200, voted for themselves a $98,000 end of service gratuity. TZ’s budget is 40 percent aid financed.

 Kenya’s MPs get an annual salary of $120,000. Add emoluments and allowances and it exceeds $200,000 – Obama’s salary.

 Kenya’s MPs claim that Nairobi’s roads are so bad that when they travel on them, their bottoms shake small. So they want a “rough road allowance.”

In the so-called “primitive and backward” Africa, there are rich merchants, market women, farmers, transport owners who got rich the old-fashioned way: Through their own hard work, ingenuity and entrepreneurship.

It is not the backwardness of its people but the intellectual backwardness of the ruling elites that keeps Africa in economic backwater.

The problem, however, has been the ENABLERS: Naïve and foolish Western donors, who, burdened with guilt over the iniquities of colonialism and slave trade, don’t realize they are being DUPED. They regard Africa’s unrepentant kleptocrats as “development partners” and give them aid money.

The aid money is then looted. Ivory Coast (2003), Uganda (2013), Malawi (2013).

 Coconut anti-corruption commissions are set that are instantly shut down when they sniff too close to the fat cats: Kenya (2005), Nigeria (2006), South Africa (2007), Zambia (2009).

Promises are made to get tough. Then aid is resumed and the cycle begins anew: Another round of Looting – Suspension – Investigation – Promises — Resumption.

 Lunacy is defined as doing the same foolish thing over and over again and expecting the same results.