African Dictators bank nearly a trillion dollars

That was the astounding figure given in Monday’s BBC Newsnight. African dictators have squirrelled away eight hundred billion dollars in Swiss bank accounts and other schemes in case they need pensions after they are booted out of office. (Few African leaders voluntarily leave office).

This huge sum, if Newsnight is correct, implies a conspiracy almost as big as the Italian Mafia in sheer money terms. It is enough to double the per capita income of every single man woman and child living in Africa.

Just think how many football clubs you could buy with that money. Forget Roman Abramovich and Malcolm Glazier, $800bn would deliver the entire UK Barclays premier league, and leave enough over to snap up the American NFL as a bonus.

I was aware that former Congo ruler Mobutu Sese Seko had billions stashed away in off shore accounts, but the extent of corruption in Africa is traumatising given the squalor that most Africans live in. One exception is former Mozambique president Joaquim Chissano, who became one of the few African rulers to voluntarily give up power.

Genial President Mugabe of Zimbabwe, terribly slurred by the UK government for having the audacity to treat those who don’t support him as enemies to be crushed, must be wondering what the fuss is about. Robert ‘Conan’ Mugabe evolved into the Schwarzenegger style of ‘crush your enemies and hear the laments of the women’, after being Roman Catholic as a young man got him nowhere except in jail. He is misunderstood, he won his tribal war for ZANU, and people complain?

This article published by www.conspiracyreview.com ©2008.