While it doesn't help, this isn't the real problem.
Let's say corrupt leader A steals $10B over 10 years, and that his country has a population of 20M people.
That's $50 per person per year. While such an amount, if evenly distributed, would make a difference in a very poor country, it would not raise the poor to a decent standard of living, much less to affluence.
Given the culture of these countries, it is highly unlikely the money would be invested in projects that would increase the production of wealth over time. Instead, it would probably almost all be spent on consumer products, leaving the people just about as poor at the end of the 10 years as if the money had been stolen.
I also like the way the author places responsibility for the corruption of democratic African leaders on the West. The leaders are African, and they are elected and re-elected by Africans, but somehow it's whitey's fault they steal everything in sight.
Well, the liberal view is that Africa is such a disaster is due to the legacy of colonialism. That view is that when the countries in Africa became independent, that somehow they were rendered impotent to run their own countries, manage industry, etc. in order to develop prosperity.
Liberals have an answer for everything, and that’s their answer for Africa. It doesn’t matter that they elect corrupt leaders. It doesn’t matter than many of these countries have had revolutions and upheavals well after independence, well after the colonial era. It all comes back to colonialism in the liberal mindset.