“What is “moral excellence”? I know that philosophers and other intellectuals have long argued over the precise definition of “moral excellence” or what is “right” and what is “wrong.” The Free Dictionary for its part defines “moral excellence” as the quality of doing what is right and avoiding what is wrong. Some synonyms that have been proffered for moral excellence include “virtue,” “virtuousness,” good,” and “goodness. “

The various religions and faiths delve very deeply into these issues, causing some individuals to think that only persons with deep religious beliefs care or should care about moral excellence. While there may be arguments as to what exactly moral excellence is, there is little disagreement over what it is not. Examination fraud is not moral excellence; corruption in the private and public sectors is not moral excellence; the cold-blooded beheading perpetrated by the young fighter in the Liberian or Sierra Leonean Civil War or by the notorious Jihadi John of ISIS is not moral excellence; the kidnapping of over 200 innocent girls in Chibok, Nigeria is not moral excellence; the stashing of billions of dollars of a country’s resources in dubious Swiss bank accounts by African bigwigs is not moral excellence. And certainly, doing unto others what we would not want them to do unto us is not moral excellence.

Illicit Financial Flows (IFF) from Africa

In January of this year, the High Level Panel set up by the UN Economic Commission of Africa (UNECA) to investigate and report on the sensitive issue of Illicit Financial Flows from Africa issued its final report titled, “Illicit Financial Flows: Track It! Stop It! Get It! The High Level Panel was headed by former South African President Thabo Mbeki. The Panel’s report makes for very interesting reading and is a must-read for everyone interested in the development of our continent. The Report defines Illicit Financial Flows (IFF) as “money illegally earned, transferred or used.”

Excerpts of the Report read thus: “Over the last 50 years, Africa is estimated to have lost in excess of $1trillion in illicit financial flows (IFFs). This sum is roughly equivalent to all of the official development assistance received by Africa during the same timeframe. Currently, Africa is estimated to be losing more than $50 billion annually in IFFs. But these estimates may well fall short of reality because accurate data do not exist for all African countries, and these estimates often exclude some forms of IFFs that by nature are secret and cannot be properly estimated, such as proceeds of bribery and trafficking of drugs, people and firearms. The amount lost annually by Africa through IFFs is therefore likely to exceed $50 billion by a significant amount.

These outflows are of serious concern, given inadequate growth, high levels of poverty, resource needs and the changing global landscape of official development assistance. …. Poverty remains of serious concern in Africa in absolute and relative terms. The number of people living on less than $1.25 a day in Africa is estimated to have increased from 290 million in 1990 to 414 million in 2010 (United Nations 2013). This is because population growth outweighs the number of people rising out of poverty. Moreover, GDP per African was around $2,000 in 2013, which is around one-fifth of the level worldwide (IMF, 2014). Poverty in Africa is also multidimensional, in the sense of limited access to education, healthcare, housing, potable water and sanitation. This situation puts the loss of more than $50 billion a year in IFFs in better perspective.”

The Panel found that that IFFs take place through 1) commercial activities such as abusive transfer pricing, trade mispricing, evading or aggressively avoiding tax, and dodging custom duties and domestic levies; 2) criminal activities including money laundering; and 3) corruption and abuse of entrusted authorities. The Report identifies the following as drivers and enablers of illicit financial flows: poor governance, weak regulatory structures, double taxation agreements, tax incentives, and the existence of financial secrecy jurisdictions and/or tax havens.

These figures are indeed alarming and mind-boggling, for at a time when more than 400 million Africans are living in absolute poverty, it is indeed scandalous that the self-same continent will be losing more than $50 billion dollars annually in IFF. Every illicit outflow from Africa is, or to be more precise, should be an illicit inflow for some other continent and some other country. Therefore, it goes without saying that others have profited immensely from the poverty of Africa. However, it is often said that it takes two to tango.

Who are the individuals on our continent operating hands in gloves with vampires from other continents to suck the life-blood of our beloved continent? The very sons and daughters of Africa – most of them are leaders in business or in government. Many of them are academically and intellectually excellent and it should surprise none of us if some of them might have earned “certificates of academic excellence” before. No doubt, this only implies that the script of moral excellence might not have been written on their slates during their impressionable years or might have been written so faintly that it evaporates very quickly in the face of temptation.

Lest I be misunderstood, more holistic preparation of the youth is not the exclusive obligation of the school system in general. All players including the family, the peer group, the government, and faith-based institutions must play their part. What happened in the Indian city of Bihar where parents aided their children in perpetrating examination malpractice only buttress the point that ensuring moral excellence is not the sole responsibility of teachers or public examination bodies. The Bihar exam fraud was so widespread and brazen that it earned a space in the BBC World Service news bulletin. Excerpts of the BBC news story as culled from the BBC news website read thus:

“Many students smuggled in textbooks and notes into the examination centres despite tight security - and parents and friends were photographed scaling the walls of test centres to pass on answers to students during the current secondary school examinations… Local newspapers have been full of photos of parents and relatives trying to help their children cheat even at considerable risk to their own lives…Some photos even show policemen posted outside the centres accepting bribes to look the other way, our correspondent adds. During a raid at just one school on Wednesday, the authorities seized sheets containing answers which filled up nine sacks. "What can the government do to stop cheating if parents and relatives are not ready to cooperate? Should the government give orders to shoot them?" the Times of India quoted Bihar Education Minister PK Shahi as saying.”

In no circumstance should a parent knowingly give his or her child money to bribe an instructor or shamelessly aid and abet the child to cheat as was the case in the Indian City of Bihar; if a parent proceeds on such a wrong path, he or she will only be succeeding in writing big and thick negative scripts on the child’s slate.

Qualities such as self-discipline, self-esteem, humility, the ability to cope and bounce back from failure or setbacks are among a long list of qualities that must be written on the slate of a holistically prepared youth.  Governments, religious leaders, the peer group, the family, and society at large all need to play their respective parts very well so that we can achieve our goal of producing youth that are excellent not only academically but excellent in a more holistic way.

By H. E. Augustine KpeheNgafuan,
Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Liberia. (Excerpts).