Rwanda has maintained its position as the third least corrupt country on the continent. It is the 48th worldwide. With a score of 55%, it was well above the 43% global average where two thirds of the countries scored below 50%. It is not a score that we should be proud of or feel satisfied with. The least corrupt country, New Zealand, scored 89% so it means that Rwanda went through the pass mark by mere whiskers. The questions we should be asking ourselves are; why should we be satisfied with being the best among poor students? What are the best performing countries doing that we are not? Fighting corruption has been this country’s priority and has seen some resounding success, but what can we do to perform even better… to be up there among the “cleanest” countries? This year, the African Union (AU) is setting its sights on the fight against corruption, a chronic disease in many of our countries and the main catalyst to under development. Once public officials start scrambling for meagre resources, that is the beginning of the end. So it is not a coincidence that the AU has chosen an appropriate theme this year: “Winning the Fight against Corruption: A Sustainable Path to Africa’s Transformation”. The theme could not have come at a more appropriate time, when Rwanda is occupying the Chairmanship of the AU. So let us make an effort to make a statement by not sitting on our third place continental laurels. The efforts put in to root out graft deserve to be paying off by propelling us to among the least corrupt globally.
