CODESRIA Policy Brief No. 3, August 2018 : Balancing the Anti-graft Wars in Africa with the Rule of Law by Isaac Olawale Albert

Summary
Existing studies and discourses on anti-graft wars focus exclusively on the need and strategies to punish accused persons. This, however, does not answer the question of how best to handle this threat to sustainable human development in Africa. This policy brief addresses the question of how an anti-graft war becomes a framework to protect basic constitutional freedoms and liberties for both victims and alleged perpetrators of corruption? It does so by arguing that while anti-graft regimes in Africa must not be too lenient so as to help perpetrators of corruption escape justice, these should also not be too tough to jettison the rights of accused persons. Anti-graft wars should be based on the rule of law. This is an important issue because it constitutes an indispensable component of liberal democracy, and is critical to the promotion of sustainable development in Africa.