Relationship between Corruption and Terrorism in African Countries

Background: There has been a global outcry and collective effort to tackle social ills through the implementation of anti-graft laws, anti-corruption policies, and various counterterrorism strategies across the world. As the fight against corruption and terrorism continues, other nations have been successful in their quest to limit the level of corrupt practices and terrorist attacks while other countries are still highly penetrated by corruption and terrorism. This study examines the relationship between corruption and terrorism in four African countries (Nigeria, Niger Republic, Cameroon, and Chad) using data between 2010 and 2017 on the corruption perception index and global peace index. The year 2010 was chosen as the base year because of the availability of data for all the four countries. Global peace rank was used to determine the rank of terrorism. Spearman rank correlation was employed to establish the relationship between corruption and terrorism. The reason for employing the Spearman correlation was justified in the study.

Results and Conclusion: The study finds that there is a very weak negative causal relationship between corruption and terrorism in Nigeria and Chad with Spearman correlation coefficients (Rs) of -0.012 and - 0.212 respectively, also a strong positive causal relationship between the corruption and terrorism in Niger with Spearman correlation coefficients (Rs) of 0.530, and a very weak positive causal relationship between the corruption and terrorism in Cameroon with Spearman correlation coefficients (Rs) of 0.177. Regarding the hypothetical statement, the null hypotheses which state that there is no relationship between corruption and terrorism in all the four African countries were rejected. The implication of this study is that the fight against corruption may not be a good means to tackle terrorism in Africa, especially in Nigeria, Cameroon, and Chad. Hence, anti-corruption strategies and counterterrorism strategies should be developed and applied independently.

Keywords: corruption, terrorism, Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, and Chad