According to the 2009 Transparency International Corruption Perceptions index table, Angola is ranked number 162, one of the most brazenly corrupt countries in the world, tied with Venezuela and countries that media often neglect in global news cycles like Kyrgystan, Congo Brazzaville, Guinea Bissau, and the Democratic Republic of Congo and ranked one or two points better above Somalia, and Sudan at the bottom of the table. Interestingly, Nigeria, a country where corruption is the order of the day, ranked better this time around than Angola at number 130.
During Angola's twenty seven years of ravaging civil war, about six hundred thousands people died. The abnormal level of corruption in the country was downplayed despite the fact that government controlled MPLA used oil revenues to pay all sorts of frivolous bills, while UNITA led by warmonger Jonas Savimbi got a boost from Washington super lobbyist Jack Abramoff's Heritage Foundation, and Reagan's White House, smuggling diamonds to prosecute the war. However, after the killing of Jonas Savimbi by the government troops in 2002, there was a relative calm in Angola with the signing of what was called the Luena Protocol: a memorandum of understanding between the Angolan Armed Forces (FAA) and military officers from the Unita rebels, that moved the country one step away from officially ending the war.
The war became a thing of the past. As peace and tranquility reigns in Angola, President Eduardo Dos Santos is not a charismatic or flamboyant President but he is a brutal and ruthless political survivor who lives in a bubble in his magnificent presidential palace. He is detached from reality and is out of touch with ordinary people in Angola. He has managed to destroy whatever is left of Angola's comatose democracy with the unparallel help he has received from China's Communist Republic and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Both China and the IMF have managed to play key roles in Angola's political dispensation. Mr. Eduardo Dos Santos, has been at the helm of affairs in Angola since 1979, and following the death of Gabonese leader Omar Bongo, he became the second longest serving African head of state after Colonel Muammar Ghadaffi of Libya a 'repentant' sponsor of State terrorism acts.
Recently, Angola's Parliament approved a new constitution which abolishes direct presidential elections. The head of State will now automatically be the leader of the party with the parliamentary majority. But there is more to those changes, because the president has managed to weaken the separation of powers he is an all powerful 'oligarch' head of the executive branch that has a firm grip on all aspects of power in his country including the legislative, judiciary, army and police force. And what this new change means is that Mr. Eduardo Dos Santos through his thwarting of political process could choose to remain in office until 2022 because under the new constitution a president can only serve two five year terms but he would start afresh in 2012.
It is clear that Mr. Eduardo Dos Santos has helped satisfy China's demand for oil, and it was not surprising that Beijing's policy of business as usual has further entrenched corruption, mismanagement, and non execution of projects as we have never seen before in Angola. Angola is China's leading source of crude oil having overtaken Saudi Arabia and Iran as the Communist nation biggest supplier. The United States gets seven percent of its oil from Angola. The problem with China's growing influence in Angola is that it has turned the Southern African nation into China's fifth column and this is evident in oil rich Cabinda pronvince, where ethnic Chinese are the largest immigrant group. Angola's opposition party and civil society have been rattled and disorganized by State machinery thanks partly to the two way trade between the country and China that has helped the country to secure $13billion in oil backed loans from Beijing.
China's vision for Africa is simply relentless economic interest driven by the search for oil, raw materials and big construction deals, which is why Beijing continues to have long standing relationships with Sudan and Zimbabwe despite evidences of genocide in the Darfur region and human rights abuses being perpetrated by Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe. The Chinese government guided by the principle of "One China policy" must prove to Africa that sweet talking Beijing is committed to other critical issues affecting the continent like political corruption, environmental, humanitarian, health care and education.
If the International Monetary Fund investigators are to be believed $1 billion that came from oil sales vanished from Angola's State coffers in 2001 alone. And according to the British Broadcasting Corporation, the IMF report leaked in October 2002 pointed to a total of $4billion which had gone missing over five years, and was scathing about what it saw as pervasive corruption and mismanagement at the top of Angolan society. But it is very bizarre that the same IMF that accused Angola's government of theft and mismanagement of money that should be used to fund the country's development approved a $1.4 billion loan to Angola on November 23 2009. What am I missing here? The loan as the IMF puts it is to help Sub-Saharan Africa's third largest economy combat the adverse effects of the global economic crisis. They stated further that the loan is the largest IMF financing package to date for a Sub-Saharan African country during the current global crisis. The money is meant to support orderly policy adjustments that aim to restore macroeconomic balances and rebuild international reserves.
The IMF and Chinas's policies in Angola are bad decisions. They have emboldened Eduardo Dos Santos. He is the king! He is the State! He is also corrupt and brutal! But China and the IMF are saying who isn't? They have just crowned him by giving him billion of dollars in loans. Of course, he is going to share the money between himself and his cronies as gifts. Angola's dream is lost! The poor people in the country live on less than two dollars a day. Angola has a ballooning budget deficit of more than eight percent of the country's gross domestic product (GDP), high spending that rose in line with oil revenue, the lack of fiscal responsibility coupled with sharp drop in oil prices, corruption and nepotism that further sunk Angola from large surpluses to deficits.
Angola needs new leadership that believes in good governance, democratic institutions, and human rights. Sadly, it is not going to happen soon because King Eduardo Dos Santos, has the backing of China and the IMF: Africa's "Lord Of The Flies."
Ademola Bello is the author of the play "The Black Cockerel" set in Cold war Era Angola.