Corruption in Africa

Road Checkpoints

In almost all African countries, there are many road checkpoints. These can range from a moderate one or two per day, as in Senegal, to checkpoints every 1,000 meters, as we experienced on stretches of road in Nigeria. Most checkpoints are conducted by the police, but often the military also carries out checks, especially near borders. There are also frequent checkpoints run by various ministries, such as the Ministry of Forestry, the Ministry of Agriculture, or the Ministry of Health. In some countries, there are even road checkpoints run by the tax authorities. Even individual counties or municipalities check who enters their towns and cities. After the actual check is completed, you are often asked for something to drink. This is a code word for: Please give me some money. In some countries, especially in many West African countries, the approach is more direct: “What have you brought me?”, “Give me something.” Most locals do this as well. On busier roads, there are often short to quite long traffic jams at the checkpoints. There, you can easily observe that almost everyone hands over a banknote without much discussion.

Once, we even saw a car in a great hurry simply drive past the checkpoint. However, not without throwing a banknote out the window.

Anyone who doesn’t pay can expect to be subjected to a particularly thorough inspection. This continues until the officer finds something amiss with the vehicle or the documents. The resulting fine then also ends up in the pocket of one of the officers.

Of course, one can get upset about this practice. However, the fact is that in the countries where this practice is widespread, the officers are extremely poorly paid. So poorly, in fact, that no one could live on it, let alone support a family. Clearly, the state cannot afford to pay its officers a decent salary. Instead, it is perfectly normal for the officers to live primarily on these “tips.”

In many countries, it’s customary to expect particularly generous tips from wealthy tourists. Most travelers, however, initially reject this form of taxation. So, people get creative to try and get a hefty tip anyway. They invent road tolls, make false accusations of traffic violations, or, in extreme cases, become stubborn: “If you don’t pay me, I won’t let you go any further.”

Often, these demands are made while the official is holding the passport or vehicle registration documents. If you refuse to pay, the documents disappear somewhere, and you’re simply blackmailed: “You’ll get your documents back when you pay.”

This pattern is also encountered at many borders when customs officials want a piece of the pie. They often demand fees simply for stamping the entry stamp in the passport, in addition to the legitimate visa fees, of course.

How do you react in such a situation?

If you don’t have the time or patience to play this game, then you pay. Quite a few travelers simply do that.

And us? We don’t want to be blackmailed. Nor do we want to support this system of hidden taxes. We play for time. Fortunately, we have plenty of it. Friendliness is key. We politely inquire about exactly what service they’re charging for. If we’re not 100% sure whether the requested fee might actually be legitimate, then we ask for an invoice or a receipt. Very often, it all ends with a laugh at this point. Pretending that you don’t speak the language and don’t understand what the other person wants sometimes helps, too. Otherwise, you really have to wait it out and make yourself as uncomfortable as possible. For this reason, we avoid pulling over to the side of the road during checks, for example. If you stand in the middle of the road waiting to be stopped, the line of cars grows longer and longer, and the pressure often becomes too great, so you’re allowed to continue.

Many African countries are actively trying to combat corruption, using different methods with varying degrees of success. However, the longer you wait at a checkpoint and cause confusion, the more conspicuous the situation becomes, and often the more agitated the officials become.

So far, we’ve always managed to avoid making such payments.

Embassies and Consulates

The situation is different at embassies and consulates when applying for a visa. Often, the ambassador or consul there also wants an extra processing fee for their services. This is frequently a fixed issuance fee. Some are a bit more sophisticated and offer a more expensive express service. For an extra fee, you can get the visa on the same day. If you decline, issuing the visa can easily take up to a week. The officials hold the upper hand, and you can’t avoid this service fee.

On the other hand, some countries, especially in West Africa, make it really difficult to obtain a visa for their country. The idea behind this is simply retaliation: “Your country makes it difficult for our citizens to get a visa, so we’ll make it difficult for you too.” The official fees can easily range between €150 and €250 per person per visa. Some countries, especially Nigeria, officially require that you apply for your visa in your home country. This is very inconvenient for long-term travelers, as you have to appear in person at the embassy, ​​and the visa’s validity period begins on the day it’s issued. As a result, many Nigerian embassies in Africa simply turn you away.

In such cases, as a traveler, you’re really relieved if you find an embassy with an official willing to issue a visa for an extra service fee. More than once, we were genuinely relieved to be able to pay an additional fee to get our visa.

Economy and Politics

But even on a larger scale, people in Africa are happy to hold out their hands. In Ghana and Angola, we had to take our vehicle to a repair shop. On both occasions, we got into conversation with the shop’s manager. How does a European end up running a truck repair shop in West Africa? What challenges does one face, and what is the market situation like? In short, as a car dealership and repair shop belonging to a European parent company, it’s incredibly difficult to compete. Trucks from China or India are many times cheaper, and they’re bound by European regulations that don’t apply to other companies. So the competition is very aggressive in negotiations and tenders. Besides a good price, they always like to offer the buyer a personal gift. If you decide to buy your 10 trucks from us, we’ll give you a brand-new car from Europe just for yourself. If you buy the truck fleet for road construction from us, then we have this villa for you that we no longer need.

Of course, we have no way of verifying whether these stories are true, but if you hear something like this often enough, there must be some truth to it.

The stories become truly amoral when they involve mining or forestry. Apparently, foreign corporations are readily granted mining and logging licenses. In such stories, the president or other politicians of the country receive very generous, personal donations amounting to millions.

Here, too, we cannot know what is true. What we do know, however, is that Chinese, European, and American companies are operating large-scale mining operations in West Africa, and every day, shiploads of felled rainforest giants leave the country. Despite this, the people in these countries live in poverty and with crumbling infrastructure. We have also seen how magnificent and luxurious the villas and government buildings of the politicians are.

But here, too, we must put things into perspective: Most countries in Africa have a high demand for goods and services from industrialized nations: grain, medicine, building materials, and vehicles. All of this has to be paid for with foreign currency, which most African countries simply cannot raise. The fact that the goods are delivered to these countries anyway comes at a price…

The attitude of the locals

When you talk to people about this topic, everyone initially agrees that corruption is a terrible thing. They recount stories, especially those about foreign companies being given licenses to plunder resources and politicians seemingly living in luxury, in great detail and with strong emotions. They also like to complain about the corrupt police.

We’re sitting in the car of the person who just told us terrible stories about corruption, and we come to a roadside checkpoint. Despite this, the same person who was just complaining about it pays a “road toll” without a word. Yes, he knows the officer personally and he could use the money. Then there’s another police checkpoint, and he pays there too; it’s just much quicker that way. It’s clearly become far too normal for people to give it much thought and refuse to participate in the system.

The Fight Against Corruption

There are 52 countries in Africa, and in many of the countries we visited, the corruption as described above is rare and inconspicuous. However, there are significantly more countries where nothing seems to happen without asking for extra money. It’s striking that the countries where the most blatant exploitation takes place and where a corrupt government is to be suspected, are also the countries where we were most often and openly asked for money.

Regardless, many countries have large posters at their borders and in government offices urging people not to support corruption. These often include a phone number to report incidents or suspected cases.

We passed through countries with such posters where we were never once asked for extra money. But we also passed through countries where a border official greeted us with the question, “What nice things have you brought me?” After we silently pointed to the poster next to him, he shrugged and grinned at us.

But it was our journey through Nigeria that showed us most clearly that change is possible if you demand it consistently enough:

During all the months we spent in West Africa before reaching Nigeria, this country was a source of worry for us. Where and how would we get our visas? What was the truth behind these stories about tourists having to fear for their safety? And according to other travelers’ accounts, the corrupt police checkpoints in Nigeria are supposed to be in a league of their own.

We can confirm: We’ve never encountered so many checkpoints in any other country. On our very direct route from Benin through Nigeria to Cameroon, halfway through the country, we stopped counting after 270 checkpoints. At times, we could see the next one from the one we were currently driving through. As far as we could tell, every vehicle with Nigerian license plates handed something to the officers at each of these checkpoints. But surprisingly, after a bit of small talk, we were simply waved through most of them. Sometimes we were asked for our documents. But only very rarely did they ask for something to drink or for money. In those cases, our favorite answer was that we had just given our last Coke to his colleague at the last checkpoint. Or we would ask if he had any idea how many police checkpoints we had already passed through that day and if he really thought we still had any money left. (Loud laughter)

Despite the high number of roadblocks in Nigeria, we made it through without any problems or much arguing. We naturally wondered why our experience differed so drastically from those of other travelers before us. But then we stumbled across a news acticle from Nigeria:

There’s a YouTube channel run by a Dutch woman who travels the world solo on a motorcycle, almost constantly filming. Very likely you know her. ItchyBoots.

She traveled through Nigeria just a few weeks before us and reported on it on YouTube. (Video) In this video, you can see police officers very insistently demanding money. But she’s experienced enough to simply deflect their demands. But this video has been viewed more than 10 million times…

The news we’ve just stumbled upon is that the officers from this video have been identified and dishonorably discharged from the police force without any fanfare.

We assume that, as a result of this incident, all travelers in Nigeria are being treated with extreme caution.

We would, of course, be very interested to know how long this caution towards travelers lasted.

Corruption Corrupts

If you spend enough time in Africa, you get used to it. To the questions about money, and the appropriate answers. But it also corrupts you. A little bit every day. Until you reach the point where you’ve actually committed an offense. Speeding? Missing a stop sign? In our case, it was a 10-ton weight limit we ignored. In most regions, traffic signs are ignored or are purely informational. But it doesn’t matter when all the 40-ton trucks roll right past the 10-ton sign through the city center. The tourist gets pulled over and a fine is due. Then, yes, then you’re actually glad that everything in Africa is negotiable. 10 tons? We’re only just over the limit? €80 fine? How about €10 in the coffee fund? Deal! Everyone’s happy.

Another example concerns the customs documents we need for our vehicle in many countries: a Carnet de Passage. This document is only valid for 12 months and then needs to be renewed. Normally, this only works if you cross a national border. However, in Namibia, the capital city of Windhoek has become a hub for long-term travelers in Africa. Many leave their vehicles in Windhoek, fly back to Europe, and return on their next vacation to explore southern Africa from Windhoek. All these vehicles require a Carnet de Passage to be allowed to stay in Namibia for that long. All these Carnets must be renewed every 12 months. It’s not convenient for most people to fly to Namibia, drive 500 km to the Angolan border, have the new Carnet stamped, and then return to Windhoek. For a long time, everyone was happy that there was an official at the customs office in Windhoek who, for a service fee, stamped the new Carnets. – That is, until this practice was discovered, and now everyone has to go to the border again.

What we’re trying to say is: It’s very easy to condemn corruption. It’s easy to judge people who support corruption or are themselves corrupt. But it’s harder than you think to remain consistently clean in a corrupt system and not exploit any advantages you might have within it.

Conclusion

We don’t want to pass judgment. In Europe, things tend to work more efficiently. In Africa, the human factor takes precedence. Who really knows where our money is better off? In the pocket of the police officer who wants to support his family with it, with whom we’ve also had a pleasant conversation, or in the president’s coffers, who is struggling with the temptation to use the money to expand his personal swimming pool?