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University of Bayreuth
African Studies
WORKING PAPERS
Media Transnationalism and the
Politics of ‘Feminised Corruption’
Sharon Adetutu Omotoso, 2023
academy reflects 8
34
University of Bayreuth
African Studies
WORKING PAPERS
Media Transnationalism and the
Politics of ‘Feminised Corruption’
Omotoso, Sharon Adetutu, 2023
CC BY 4.0
Media Transnationalism and the Politics of ‘Feminised Corruption’
iii
University of Bayreuth African Studies Working Papers (XXXIV)
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Introduction
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Media Transnationalism and the Politics of ‘Feminised Corruption’
v
University of Bayreuth African Studies Working Papers (XXXIV)
About the Author
Sharon Adetutu Omotoso, a feminist philosopher, is currently a Senior Research Fellow
(Gender/Media Studies) at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ibadan, where she heads
the Institute’s Women’s Research and Documentation Centre (WORDOC).
Sharon is Director at the Centre for Applied Ethics and Political Communication in Africa
(CAEPOCOM AFRICA), an alumnus of the COADY Institute, St. Francis Xavier University Canada, a
Chartered Mediator and Conciliator, a recipient of the prestigious CODESRIA Meaning-Making
Research Competition 2018-2019, and Fellow, African Multiple Cluster, University of Bayreuth,
Germany. Previously, Omotoso worked as Acting Head of Department, Politics and International
Relations, Lead City University, Ibadan, Nigeria. She is significantly published in areas of Applied
Ethics, Media and Gender Studies, Political Communications, Philosophy of Education, Socio-
Political Philosophy, and African Philosophy. She produces indigenous radio education
programmes on women in politics, development, and media literacy. Her most recent edited book
is Women's Political Communication in Africa, published by Springer (2020).
vi
Introduction
Acknowledgements
This study is part of a proposed book project which is to examine recent and emerging trends of
corruption pertaining to women in politics within Africa’s growing democracy. I thank Ronald
Badru for finding time to discuss the ideas at the conception stage of the work.
I am grateful to the African Multiple Cluster of Excellence (funded by the German Research
Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG) under Germany‘s Excellence Strategy
– EXC 2052/1 – 390713894), University of Bayreuth, Germany, for providing the fellowship that
commenced the project. I also sincerely appreciate members of the Moralities Research Section
under the leadership of Eva Spies, the Bayreuth Academy Lunch Team, and the Knowledge Lab for
their contributions and suggestions which have broadened the horizon of the project.
Media Transnationalism and the Politics of ‘Feminised Corruption’
vii
University of Bayreuth African Studies Working Papers (XXXIV)
Contents
Institute of African Studies (IAS)
iii
Academy reflects
iv
About the Author
v
Acknowledgements
vi
Media Transnationalism and the Politics of ‘Feminised Corruption’
1 Introduction
1
2 Nigeria’s Diezani Alison-Madueke: a case study on feminised corruption
3
2.1 The Corruption Charges
4
2.2 The Personal versus the Political
4
2.3 Of the ‘Spoken and the Unspoken
5
3 Media as Agents of Transnationalism
7
4 On Corruption and Feminised Corruption
9
4.1 Feminised Corruption and Media Transnationalism
11
5 Doing Ethics of Care and Risk, to a Feminist Ethics of Vigour
13
6 Conclusion
17
7 References
18
8 Latest Publications in the Academy reflects Working Paper Series
25
Media Transnationalism and the
Politics of ‘Feminised Corruption’
Dr Sharon Adetutu Omotoso
1 Introduction
Over time across the states in Africa, besides cheering male politicians, women are gaining
political awareness and visibility through active participation in and contributions to political
issues. Such awareness and political awakening have fostered actual and imagined place-making
in political spheres for women as group leaders, political office aspirants or holders, supporters
of political parties, spouses, mothers, and sisters of political office holders and so on. This
development is accompanied by public scrutiny of women’s moral commitment to leadership and
good governance. Recent reports covering countries including Finland, Germany, New Zealand,
and Taiwan, countries led by women during the heat of Covid-19 pandemic, attest to how women
are under global watch, and have expanded the areas of concern within which women’s
competencies in public life may be determined. This suggests that women were seen as ‘higher
moral agents’ during the Covid pandemic because women-led countries, specifically Taiwan &
New Zealand, had (at first) significantly less cases of Covid. While scholarship is rife with
feminised poverty, I introduce in this work the concept of ‘feminised corruption’ by specifically
calling attention to how media transnationalism essentialises women as higher moral agents yet
turns its back on them by weaponising corruption against women in public office.
Since the medialisation of a concept, ideology, or issue rests on mobility, spaces, and networks of
people as facilitated through the media (Quayson & Daswani 2013), to argue that corruption is
feminised through media is to reveal the mediality of corruption in one of multifarious
performative constructions. Consequently, this study emphasises how corruption involving
women or charged against women is performed, constructed, distorted, and reported across
global and local media and how these activities impact on the pursuit of the goal of gender parity
in politics.
My arguments further underscore how medialised corruption translates into feminised
corruption drawing on recently observed trends of medialising corruption against women in
public office, so much so that men often receive a soft landing and women, a crash landing.
2
Introduction
Nigeria’s political landscape has been observed and found to typify feminised corruption
depicting the bias of corruption against women, with the media as key player. Nigerian female
public office holders including Patricia Etteh, first female speaker of the National House of
Representatives; Stella Oduah, former Minister of Aviation; Winifred Oyo-Ita, former Head of
Service of the Federation; Diezani Alison-Madueke, former Minister of Petroleum Resources; Kemi
Adeosun, former Minister of Finance; Adenike Grange, former Minister of Health; and so on, have
all been caught in the web of corruption since 1999 when the Fourth Republic commenced.
Interestingly, none of the cases has been brought to a legal conclusion. As corruption threatens
state sovereignty and undermines the achievement of gender parity in politics, the media have
been pivotal in feminising corruption within socio-political spaces, and by extension, on a
transnational scale.
I adopt a qualitative method of inquiry, using purposive sampling technique, to select Diezani
Alison-Madueke (Nigeria's Minister of Petroleum Resources, 2010-2015) as a case study. Focus
on Nigeria’s Diezani’s corruption saga seeks to understand how the moral conduct of female
political office holders affect women’s political participation, and to proffer a feminist moral
approach that could address the challenges of feminised corruption.
From 2015 to 2021, the period within which the corruption charges retained media attention, was
selected and a content analysis of selected dailies (national and international) that reported the
cases was conducted to tease out different themes around the issues. To address the challenges of
feminised corruption, I propose a feminist ethics of vigour, having noted how the theoretical
framework of care ethics has failed women in this regard. While this study in no way justifies
corruption or seeks to exonerate anyone, it calls attention to the misogynistic use of media to
deprive women of public office and discourage new entrants from venturing into politics. It
emphasises the moral tools necessary for any meaningful involvement of women in political
activities and suggests how women may use these tools to survive and thrive within political
spaces across states.
Following this introduction, the study has five additional sections. Section II presents Nigeria’s
Diezani as a case study to show how corruption is feminised in transnational contexts. Section III
discuses media as vital agents of transnationalism, how media transnationalism is central to
promoting medialised corruption, and the implications for developing nations. In Section IV, the
subjects of corruption and feminised corruption are interrogated and linked with media
transnationalism, evidenced with examples drawn from across Africa to foreground burgeoning
feminised corruption. Section V stems from the idea of ‘doing ethics’ to understand ethics not only
in abstract terms but as judgements, claims, evaluations, and criteria that emerge in everyday
interactions constituted in and by practice, communication, and negotiation. It problematises care
ethics for women in public offices and proposes ethics of vigour as an alternative. Section VI
concludes the discussion.
Media Transnationalism and the Politics of ‘Feminised Corruption’
3
University of Bayreuth African Studies Working Papers (XXXIV)
2 Nigeria’s Diezani Alison-Madueke: a case study on feminised
corruption
Nigeria’s democratic experience has never been more elaborate than now. 1999 marked the end
of protracted military rule, the beginning of a civilian-to-civilian uninterrupted change of power,
the restoration of domestic and international confidence in the Nigerian state, and, most
importantly, previously marginalised populations and segments of the country gained the
confidence to participate in governance. The focus here is one of the results of women’s
participation in politics: the nature and processes of corruption indictments against women
compared with their male counterparts.
Nigeria has maintained a fickle chart of women in elective and appointive offices, yet there is a
trend that drives the few women in the political sphere into oblivion after being heavily indicted
for ‘gross misconduct’ and ‘corruption’. Most corruption cases have taken the forms of Tanzi’s one
– six classifications (discussed in section 4) and questions the morality of female political office
holders across Africa.
Since Nigeria’s return to democracy, the media has pervaded the public sphere with reports of
corrupt practices among politicians. The fact that Diezani Alison-Madueke, (hereafter, Diezani)
has remained on the media radar since 2015 justifies her selection for this study. The study
observes that ethnic leaning, age, class, and educational background are not necessarily
contributory to how corruption is feminised, in Nigeria (which may be different when other
countries are studied); rather, the feminine identity of women in political space is the fundamental
factor predisposing them to feminised corruption. Diezani came into the public eye on her first
appointment as Minister of Transportation in 2007. She was moved to the Ministry for Mines and
Steel Development in 2008 and later became Minister of Petroleum Resources. Her performance
peaked, having risen through the ranks to become the first female Executive Director of Shell
Petroleum in 2006. Aware of the challenges ahead as one operating within male-dominated
systems, Diezani’s conversations with media showed her as prepared for the task ahead. She
started out by reducing foreign domination of the sector through the Nigerian Content Act1 aimed
at the increased involvement of indigenous companies in contract execution. Under her leadership
in 2012, the controversy over the government’s policy to remove subsidies on the fuel price in
Nigeria ensued. Within the crises, Diezani spoke glowingly on how the subsidy “poses a huge
financial burden on the government, disproportionately benefits the wealthy, encourages
inefficiency, corruption, and diversion of scarce public resources away from investment in critical
infrastructure” (Dodondawa 2012). By 2014, she became the first woman elected President of the
Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
1 The Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (Local Content Act) 2010 was enacted to promote indigenous
participation in the Nigeria's oil and gas industry for the purpose of improving the economic and social well-being of
those engaged in operating in the oil and gas industry. Section 2 of the Local Content Act, states that "all regulatory
authorities, operators, contractors, subcontractors, alliance partners and other entities involved in any project,
operation, activity or transaction in the Nigerian oil and gas industry shall consider Nigerian content as an important
element of their overall project development and management philosophy for project execution.".
4
Nigeria’s Diezani Alison-Madueke: a case study on feminised corruption
2.1 The Corruption Charges
Following allusions from political quarters in Nigeria, the news broke from foreign media. PBS
News Hour (December 2, 2015) alleged that Diezani had diverted $6 billion (N1.2 trillion) from
the Nigerian treasury. The popularly known “Diezani oil scandal” began with accusations of illegal
non-remittance of $20 billion of oil revenue by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation
(NNPC) which was raised by Sanusi Lamido Sanusi- former Governor of Nigeria’s Central Bank in
late 2013. In addition to money laundering charges (The Cable 2017), Diezani was also accused of
awarding huge contracts without following due process, diverting public funds for private use,
and wasteful spending (Sahara Reporters 2012). For these, she was indicted, recommended for
prosecution, and charged to court. Although a few other names were mentioned alongside
Diezani’s in the charges, by February 2014, media concentration focused solely on Diezani based
on her performance in office as Minister of Petroleum Resources (2010-2015).
In all these, media transnationalism features within the involvements of foreign media including
Reuters, Pandora Papers, PBS News Hour, CNN, BBC, and Al Jazeera, alongside other foreign
agencies such as the UK Crime Agency and the US Justice Department’s Kleptocracy Team, among
others (Reuters February 27, 2017) to galvanise feminised corruption. This argument becomes
tenable because several corruption cases involving men have existed before that of Diezani’s and
were not given the attention commanded in this case. A flashback at corruption charges involving
men in Nigerian politics, for instance, reveal male politicians such as James Ibori, Rotimi Amaechi,
and Abdullahi Ganduje who have been indicted for corrupt acts with some media attention, yet
most have escaped opprobrium and returned triumphantly into political spaces. Meanwhile the
reverse is the case for female politicians who, once indicted for corruption, withdraw in shame,
literally remain on the run, and mostly never return to the political space. Perhaps the ‘old boys’
alliance’ come to play in matters of this sort since the political space is largely male-dominated.
2.2 The Personal versus the Political
Interactions between the personal and the political abound whenever feminised corruption
ensues. This has taken unnoticed forms as follows:
Naming and shaming: In its original construction, naming and shaming, which was
developed for the protection of women against all forms of violence, is now being deployed
in political spaces to attack women’s personalities.2 Feminised corruption is characterised
by a habitual pattern of media smuggling names of family members who have no direct
involvement with the scandal and weaving stories around them in a sensational manner,
thereby not only naming the female politician in question, but also shaming her family
members alongside her (elombah.com January 18, 2012).
Making news of women’s private lives: With the exposition of Diezani’s health status
(Vanguard October 10, 2015) and the making of sensational headlines about her battle
2 This sense of naming and shaming also reflects in Dennis Muller’s article of July 31 2020.
https://theconversation.com/naming-and-shaming-two-young-women-shows-the-only-enemies-of-the-state-are-the-
media-143685.
Media Transnationalism and the Politics of ‘Feminised Corruption’
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University of Bayreuth African Studies Working Papers (XXXIV)
with breast cancer, feminised corruption is seen to expose the possibly unrelated private
matters of women in public offices.
Objectifying and disciplining of women’s bodies: Feminised corruption hypes feminine
objects (make-up, headgear, underwear, and so on) and uses them to reinforce sexism in
politics. Headlines reporting that the Federal Government listed Diezani’s bras for sale
(Punch October 27, 2021) reflect how objects are engendered as modes of spectacle to
discipline women’s bodies.
Playing the ‘stoop to conquer’ role: feminised corruption considers women’s self-assertion
as abominable, particularly when/if they fail to play along with their male counterparts on
matters. Among other whistleblowers, the then-Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria,
Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, alleged that $20 billion cannot be accounted for at the Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation under Diezani's leadership. There are insinuations that
the Governor was fired from the Central Bank of Nigeria for making this public and, in an
interview with a British journalist, Sanusi spoke bitterly about Diezani, stating that “If she
goes to court and if she's jailed, for example, it sends a signal, … that there is a day of
reckoning.” Responding to this allegation, Diezani accused Sanusi of attempting to strike
back because she did not support his bid to become President of the African Development
Bank (AfDB) (Pulse Nigeria April 6, 2016).
2.3 Of the ‘Spoken and the Unspoken
For the obvious reason that women have not sufficiently taken root in the top echelons of Nigerian
politics, more men have been whistleblowers of corruption charges against women. While factors
including fear of retaliation and punishment, risk versus rewards, pervade whistleblowing
research (Near & Miceli 2008; Fatoki 2013; Fapohunda 2016), male counterparts may not
consider these factors in instances of whistleblowing for feminised corruption as they are almost
certain that the women are too timid to retaliate.
Evidence from the dailies consulted show that there is always a side of feminised corruption that
is rarely pursued with vigour, and that is usually the side of the woman/women in question. When
women respond to corruption allegations, what do they say and how do they say it? In the Nigerian
situation, responses from such women include “Others are involved” as in the case of Patricia
Etteh (The Nation April 26, 2016), “I was misadvised” (This Day March 3, 2008)- as in the case of
Adenike Grange, and “I did not steal” (The Cable January 22, 2017)- as in the case of Diezani Alison
Madueke.
Diezani’s voice has not been as loud, the most reported was her stating that:
If there is one issue I must pursue in this world it is the biggest lie of this money. How can
$20 billion disappear just like that? Where did it disappear to? Is it possible that such an
amount would not be traceable? This is more painful coming from someone I considered
a good friend who should appreciate the gravity of such allegation. I challenge anyone to
come forward with facts showing that I stole government or public money. I’ve never
stolen Nigeria’s money.” (Vanguard November14, 2015).
6
Nigeria’s Diezani Alison-Madueke: a case study on feminised corruption
Affirming the culture of silence to which women in politics are also prone, Diezani hoped that her
silence would help matters, hence The Cable reports her stating that:
I have up till now chosen to maintain my silence and not to respond to inaccurate press
reporting. However, given the level of deliberate inaccuracies, I am now forced to respond
because it is clear that the EFCC is taking advantage of my silence to try me by media and
to convict me in the eyes of the public (The Cable January 22, 2017).
In another 2017 report, she says:
First and foremost, whilst the reasons for my being out of the country are public
knowledge, the principle of fair hearing demands that I should have been notified of formal
charges if truly there was a prima facie evidence or indictment against my person linking
me with the said issue, so as to ensure that I had adequate legal representation. This was
never done. I wish to state that I cannot forfeit what was never mine. I do not know the
basis on which the EFCC has chosen to say that I am the owner of these funds as no
evidence was provided to me before the order was obtained and they have not, in fact,
served me with the order or any evidence since they obtained it. I do not, therefore,
understand how the EFCC can in the same breath say that the monies in question are mine.
If they had evidence that the monies were mine, then they would not /should not, have
used the procedure which applies only to funds of unknown ownership. If indeed they
used this particular legal procedure because they did not know who owned the monies,
then how can they now be falsely attributing the ownership to me. Let me restate
categorically as I have always maintained, for the record, I have not and will never steal
money from or defraud the Federal Government of Nigeria. I am willing to respond to any
charges brought against me that follow duly laid down procedures.” (Sahara Reporters
February 27, 2017)
The Cable of January 22, 2017 published a full response from Diezani on these allegations, which
prompts the question whether the corruption she sought to fight (when she introduced the
Nigerian Content Act) is fighting back. With new discoveries in the case, perhaps there are grey
areas left unexplored as more recent reports present counter-narratives around how the missing
funds went into President Goodluck Jonathan’s 2015 election (Sahara Reporters September 27,
2021). What about other persons connected with the allegations? Why is the system frustrating
taking the case forward and bringing it to a legal conclusion? A 2019 Anti-Corruption Evidence
Working Paper (Komolafe et al. 2019) reveals medial-feminised corruption exemplified in how
“most of the newspapers reported on the story in such a way that they simply restated official
press releases and statements by officials from the EFCC,” with the exception of ThisDay
newspaper “which published two pieces in November 2018 – one feature article and the other a
column – that criticised the EFCC and accused it of using Diezani as a “propaganda tool” (Akinloye
2018) and of “fighting elections, not corruption” (Momodu 2018). By and large, Diezani’s case of
medial-feminised corruption is considered transnational based on the roles played by foreign
media; first in breaking the news and also in sustaining international coverage of the corruption
saga. Furthermore, availability of the newspapers for her to speak back depended on the structure
of Nigeria’s media landscape which features “media politicisation” (Omotoso 2018, p. 560)
wrapped around recent media proprietorship by political elites. The whole gamut of feminising
Media Transnationalism and the Politics of ‘Feminised Corruption’
7
University of Bayreuth African Studies Working Papers (XXXIV)
corruption rests on what is said or silenced to protect certain political actors, to promote male
chauvinist tendencies in politics, or to utilise female politicians for comic relief.’
3 Media as Agents of Transnationalism
Media within material conceptions are suspect for altering (or even inventing) the messages they
communicate (Voss et al. 2020), such that form can be conferred on an immature and self-
dependent idea or concept (Fohrmann 2014); “as it reaches masses, it also can form masses and
can address masses” (Bauer 2021, p. 10). It is on this basis that Krymer (2015, p. 29) examines
the question of what lies ‘behind appearances’ to discuss media and mediality from a metaphysical
perspective. Krymer highlights how “at the same time that media bring something forth, they
themselves recede into the background; [thereby enabling visualisation], while simultaneously
remaining invisible” (p. 30). Using examples of how “we hear not a CD, but rather music; and the
cinema screen ‘disappears’ as soon as the film grips us,” Krymer argues that “the smoother media
work, the more they remain below the threshold of our perception, only to become noticeable
when caught up with noise, dysfunction, and disturbance”.
The transition from ‘media’ (as an object) to ‘mediation’ (as an intermediary) within which
‘mediatisation’ is popularised, and now to ‘medialities’ take media beyond being the message
(McLuhan 1964) into becoming the force that influences the source, the message, and the receiver.
This showcases media materiality as “‘matters’ for the type of meanings that can be encoded”
(Ryan 2004 pp. 1–2).
‘Transnationalism’ as a theoretical and analytic tool has attracted a wide range of discourses from
varying fields. Among other understandings, the concept of transnationalism has been
interchanged with inter-state relations (Hunger & Kissau 2009; Mazzucatto 2010); to rebrand
what used to be called multinational business transactions (Bonin 2002); as a structure that
shapes nation-state identities despite recognised bound networks (Clavin 2005); as “contracts,
coalitions and interactions across state boundaries” that were not directly controlled by the
central policy organs of government (Keohane & Nye 1981), and as a prevalent discourse which
presupposes non-confinement of activities (be it social, political, economic, and so on) within a
single nation or state, but rather, an extension of operations within more than one state (Omotoso
2016). By these, transnationalism explains how bodies of knowledge or technologies are
developed despite their not being bound by nation-states. It emphasises a shift from
internationalism as nations are ignoring differences and closing divides. It thus affirms Pence’s
and Zimmerman’s (2012, p. 495) assertion that “scientific inquiry, pop-culture, consumerism, art,
media all emerge through transnational networks.”
Going forward, social, political, and cultural derivatives from transnationalism, such as
‘transnational democracy’ and ‘transnational feminism’ among others, have emerged to examine
issue-based interconnectivities amidst individualities. For instance, transnational feminism
highlights the interrelationships of players situated in different contexts across the globe by
seeking camaraderie irrespective of divergences and boundaries (Campt 2011; Omotoso 2016)
and accounting for multiplicity and connections between nationhood, race, gender, sexuality, and
8
Media as Agents of Transnationalism
economic exploitation in the context of capitalism’s worldwide spread. Nnaemeka (2022) affirms
this when she notes that “transnational feminist works unfold at the borders” studying the
patterns, comparing notes, and expanding contexts. Without ignoring contradictions surrounding
transnationalism and how it transforms socio-cultural and political relations, the term continues
to attract scholarly attention in analysing themes, specifically within gender research (Mohanty
1994; Salih 2003; Mahler & Pesser 2006). Towards this end, transnationalism speaks significantly
to how corruption is feminised.
The emergence of new communication technologies which reach out to people across boundaries
has produced transnational media which, in turn, have fostered media transnationalism. Media
transnationalism denotes boundless reach, mixed audiences (Bardoel & Deuze 2001), increased
access to information, and unrestricted cultural interactions (Morley & Robins 1995), to an extent
that there would be no transnationalism without media. This is an expansion of the operations of
media in Africa as compared with that of African media3 wherein multiplicities of content and
ideologies may be shared. Media transnationalism brings a mixed bag of the good, the bad, and
the ugly embedded in news, entertainment, politics, religion, and culture. It brings to bear media
power to construct and/or distort reality (Omotoso & Razak, 2015).
Vincent (2005) affirms the downside of media transnationalism as profit maximisation under the
free-market economy that deprives the consumer of benefits due to problems of monopolistic
behaviour, promotion of consumer values at all costs, and denigration of journalistic values. In
addition, just as it has promoted values, major social and political vices have gained their spread
by virtue of media transnationalism. To this end, “global media [can] be more harmful than
helpful … in shaping African media tenets, whims and caprices” (Omotoso 2018, p. 558). With
recent events which have called attention to an infodemic propelled by how disinformation and
misinformation are drawn from local media’s reliance on foreign reporters who “tell stories
through their own lenses” (Kalu 2021), to argue that corruption is feminised through media is to
reveal the mediality of corruption in multifarious performative constructions. This leads to
medial-feminised corruption, a concept introduced to capture how corruption involving women
or charged against women is performed, constructed/distorted, and reported across global and
local media, and how these activities impact the pursuit of gender parity.
3 I have in an earlier work distinguished between media in Africa and African media; the former being all media
organisations both local and foreign operating within Africa, and the latter being media organisations based in Africa,
owned by Africans, and operated to serve Africa. My definition of African media here is post-colonially oriented and
does not follow literal descriptions of African media as the traditional means of communication p. 1290. See Omotoso
S.A. (2018a) Media, Society, and the Postcolonial State. In: The Palgrave Handbook of African Colonial and Postcolonial
History. (pp.1285-1303) eds. Shanguhyia M., Falola T. Palgrave, Macmillan, New York.
Media Transnationalism and the Politics of ‘Feminised Corruption’
9
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4 On Corruption and Feminised Corruption
‘Corruption’ as a phenomenon could manifest and be understood in various, yet related contexts,
relating to an abuse of public power for private benefits (Rose-Ackerman 1997); an intentional
noncompliance with an arm’s length relationship aimed at deriving some advantage from this
behaviour for oneself or for related individuals (Tanzi 1997). Continuing debates over the
othering of corruption as the exclusive reserve of the Global South remains problematic, with
Rose-Ackerman’s description of some countries having poor growth records and low per capita
incomes despite being well endowed with natural resources; and “others, especially in the former
Soviet bloc, [having] weak economic records in spite of a well-educated labour force” (Rose-
Ackerman 1999). It may therefore be uncritical to discountenance the “complicity of the West”
(Rønning 2009, p. 155) and “suspected stigmatisation (real or imagined difference) in order to
negate identity” within global corruption discourses (Staszak 2008).
Thelen and Alber (2017) in their sociological and anthropological research describe a hitherto
downplayed connection between kinship and politics, and how within such connections, new
meanings develop, thereby giving room for “such concepts from kinship studies as descent or
incest that have made inroads into concrete politics as well as those that are privileged mainly in
the realm of politics that have travelled into the realm of kinship, such as transparency and
corruption.” Also on concepts, Herzfeld’s (2017:41) likening of corruption with incest explains
“what the state treats as the malfunctioning of institutional structures”. Just as “incest is a sexual
relationship between individuals whose relationship normatively precludes it,” (p.42) corruption
becomes the political synonym of incest, as "both represent ways of damaging the collective
interest in favour of more selfish concerns, moreover, that are never purely individual but
inevitably also involve suborning others” (p. 41). It is also noteworthy to include on a corruption
list “incidences of unfair allocation of a country’s wealth; intentional distortion in a country’s
social and political decision-making, cases of ‘stolen elections’, lopsided political appointments,
ethnic and religious influences in a political system, and other forms of nepotism” (Albert 2018,
p.3).
A further dimension speaks to ongoing debates around gendered corruption (Dollar 2001) which
remain largely subjective, based on findings (Solnik 2001; Michailova & Melynkovska 2009) that
women are not necessarily or automatically prone to be less corrupt than men (Bauhr et al. 2018),
and the relationship between gender and corruption may be highly dependent on the social
conditions in which opportunities for corruption arise (Esarey & Schwindt-Bayer 2018). Be that
as it may, a nuanced spatio-temporal explanation of ‘us’ and ‘them’ play out in corruption
discourses both locally and globally.
In foregrounding corruption, one must manifestly capture its ontology, and properly distinguish
it from its empirical manifestations. This is important for, at least, two reasons: (i) a person that
abuses entrusted power for personal gain or facilitates economic transactions for some personal
benefit may already be corrupt (say, personal corruption) before the occurrence of either power
abuse (say, institutional corruption) or self-serving facilitation of economic transaction (economic
corruption), and (ii) there is a difference between a phenomenon and its public manifestation(s):
to be in a state of corruption is one thing; the various public and contextual manifestations of the
state of corruption are quite another: without the existential reality of a phenomenon, to begin
10
On Corruption and Feminised Corruption
with, its public manifestation is inconceivable. Thus, among other classifications according to
Tanzi, corruption could be: (1) Bureaucratic (or petty) or political, i.e., corruption by the
bureaucracy or by the political leadership (2) cost-reducing (to the briber) or benefit-enhancing
(3) briber-initiated or bribee-initiated (4) coercive or collusive (5) centralised or decentralised
(6) predictable or arbitrary (Tanzi 1998).
Studies have shown that the poor, in their powerlessness against corrupt public officials and their
lack of resources to seek private services, are the most affected by corruption across Africa
(Transparency International 2019). Further to this is an avowal that women are the world’s
proletariat, linking feminised poverty with feminised corruption. Many corrupt practices do not
have direct victims. “The harm arises from their negative externalities… However, when corrupt
payments or favours are extorted, someone is hurt directly” (Sierra & Boehm 2015). Feminised
corruption infers that woman carry more moral responsibility, a greater burden, of culpability
and experience more of the impact of corruption than men. Ultimately, women are also victims of
corruption directly or indirectly ranging from “enrolling children in schools, seeking healthcare,
speaking up about physical abuse by family members, experiencing sexual exploitation in schools
and places of work, partaking in government subsidised programs and when participating in
electoral processes” (Andisi 2018). This is based on a deficit standpoint captured within the
argument that women’s exclusion in leadership or their absence at decision-making tables
explains why they are affected by corruption. To address this gap, studies in feminist politics have
proffered increased participation of women in politics and policy making.
With a growing increase in women’s political participation, and the opening up of leadership
positions for female politicians, the idealisation of cultural roles of community nurturing and
national development by women justifies transnational feminism as fostered by globalised media
forms, although, from another standpoint, transnationally mediated femininity complicates the
construction of identities and how women negotiate transnational influence (Darling-Wolfe
2015). That media transnationalism essentialises women as higher moral agents is
comprehensible; what is worrisome is how media transnationalism turns back to weaponise
corruption against women in public office. The feminisation of corruption depicts the bias of
corruption against women. With the media as key players, feminised corruption harps on an
increased difference in the level of corruption among women and men, placing emphasis on how
feminine traits correspond with corruption across spaces. By feminised corruption, I refer to
recent trends of transvesting,4 that is, making corruption into an act that is typical of women and
making more women visible among the corrupt across political spaces. Consequently, feminised
corruption is characterised by media trial, politicising the personal, and shaming women to
silence, often traceable to political victimisation which Albert (2018) describes as a careful
handpicking of political rivals or errant former allies. Noting that the concept of corruption is
essentially a moral issue often emerging from an environment of moral diminution or depravity,
“...corruption… typically involves the despoiling of the moral character of persons...” (Millers 2017,
p. 55), “and/or to the undermining of a morally legitimate institutional process, role, or condition”
(Millers 2005, p.5). By implication, the condition of persons could be made worse or more
complicated by their personal moral disposition and/or corrupt actions domiciled within
4 This is drawn from Pence and Zimermman’s (2012) reference to Judith Butler’s idea of transvesting.
Media Transnationalism and the Politics of ‘Feminised Corruption’
11
University of Bayreuth African Studies Working Papers (XXXIV)
institutions to which they belong. This presents a structure-like relationship: first, of personal
corruption, coupled with consequential institutional corruption. Within the discourse of political
participation and representation, it is also important to consider how access to political spaces
and public offices contribute to determining how corruption is gendered. This will form part of
the discussion in the following section.
4.1 Feminised Corruption and Media Transnationalism
The focus on feminised corruption in this work is not about whether women are more corrupt
than men or whether more women have been found guilty or not. Rather, it is about how more
women are found or drawn into corruption discourses to the detriment of the sustainable
development goals of ‘gender equality’, ‘reduced inequalities’, and ‘partnership for the goals’. As
transnationalism denotes “a connection between actors in a field (whether they are institutions
or cultural objects) that takes place across multiple, but not all nation-states” (Marieke, 2018, p.
190-191), it also focuses on mobility, ideologies, spaces, and networks of people (Quayson &
Daswani 2013). The idea of feminised corruption in transnational contexts shows how corruption
charges levelled against women across national borders,5 thereby emphasising spatial
characteristics that gives prominence to media coverage of certain stories that may not directly
impact on local recipients yet claiming salience so as to reinforce certain stereotypes. While media
transnationalism in the context of this work resonates with Haraldsson and Wängnerud’s (2019)
idea of ‘media sexism’, feminised corruption is seen by transnational media as a theme that
possesses immediacy, justifying its coverage across countries. Thus, feminised corruption may be
transnationalised by media in four possible ways as follows:
First, showcasing how global controversial matters ensue across local spaces; for instance, how
issues of feminist leadership come into question across numerous countries. Second, spotlighting
states’ commitment to foreign relations; as media reveal certain states’ disposition towards
assisting others to achieve accountability and good governance. This is evidenced in media
reportage of formerly colonised countries by their colonisers. The third is to map a comparative
scale of corruption among women across countries. Fourth is a ploy by the government of the day,
using media to assert itself to the world by discrediting predecessors specifically through women
who served in their administration. This is found in President Muhammadu Buhari’s statement
that “the prosecution of those suspected of misappropriating the NNPC’s revenue under past
administrations would begin soon.”6
On media transnationalism of feminised corruption, Joyce Banda,7 former President of Malawi,
affirms from her experience that media treat women differently when it comes to corruption.
5 This context of transnationalism is drawn from Lobato’s literal description of trans-national. Lobato, Ramon. Netflix
Nations: The geography of digital distribution. New York: New York University Press, 2019.
6 This is exemplified in media reports from Reuters which asserts that “getting tough on corruption would deflect
criticism of Buhari for failing to appoint a cabinet or an economic team four months after taking office as Nigeria’s
economy
is
going
through
a
severe
crisis
due
to
the
plunge
in
global
oil
prices.”
See
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nigeria-oil-arrest-idUSKCN0RW21020151002.
7 See The Weight of Corruption on Women Leaders in Africa https://www.cipe.org/events/weight-corruption-women-
leaders-africa/.
12
On Corruption and Feminised Corruption
Examples across Africa reveal similar trends of media reportage of feminised corruption. A report
on Angola’s Isabel dos Santos traces her wealth to her politician father, stating “how insider deals,
political connections and an army of Western enablers helped dos Santos amass a fortune… using
her position as daughter of the Angolan President … to reap an extraordinary financial gain to the
detriment of … Angola” (Fittzgibbon 2021). Here, emphasis is not on her being innocent or guilty,
but on her connection with a political figure to assume a corrupt status.
BBC News reports on Tunisian Member of Parliament Abir Moussi as widely “criticised as a
corrupt supporter of the old regime who wants to thwart Tunisia's transition to democracy”. The
report notes how she attends sessions wearing a helmet and a flak jacket because, she says, she
has received death threats from Islamists, and concludes that “in free and fair elections, deeply
conservative forces may win the vote and set the liberalisation of society back, and women are
often the first losers” (BBC July 18 2021).
In 2018, CNN reported how Diane Rwigara lost Rwanda’s presidential race and ended up in jail.
The report states that “electoral authorities disqualified her, claiming she doctored the number of
signatures needed to qualify and accusing her of submitting the names of dead people, which she
denied.” On this, an interviewee in the report asserted that “Rwanda is often described as the best
place in the world for women in politics, with more female lawmakers in parliament than any
other country, but it's not the case if you challenge President Kagame” (CNN August 28 2018).
Recent developments in Ethiopia may also be of interest in media transnationalism as scholars
have argued that the “heavy media emphasis on the fact that half of Ethiopia’s ministers were
women obscured other criteria that also influenced their selection” (Breuning & Okundaye 2021
p.1071).
These examples from across the continent attest to how gender inequality as a global issue
commands attention in the news, and how media organisations consequently ride on gender
controversies to make news across transnational spaces. The examples equally provide multiple
dimensions for future research areas on feminised corruption including how corruption may be
skewed against women, whether it would still be tagged feminised corruption when the woman
in question is found guilty, and an inquiry into what kinds of corrupt practices are mostly
feminised. This leads to the need to explore feminist moral approach(es) that address the
challenges of feminised corruption.
Media Transnationalism and the Politics of ‘Feminised Corruption’
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University of Bayreuth African Studies Working Papers (XXXIV)
5 Doing Ethics of Care and Risk, to a Feminist Ethics of Vigour
Studies have proffered feminist ethics of care to address a variety of social problems and moral
dilemmas. Arguing that rather than applying reason to issues of rights, rules, and justice, a
different voice of emotions, relationship, and responsibility contribute in no less manner to being
ethical, Gilligan (1982) provided an alternative way to address moral issues. That Gilligan’s ethics
of care emphasises voice, relationship, and responsiveness make it laudable across spaces;
however, many more different voices seeking to address further complex issues are emerging to
transcend Gilligan’s ‘different voice’. The complexities of caring, empathy, and mutual
understanding in feminist ethics of care become evident when it transforms into a human ethic
within democratic frameworks. This informs Imafidon’s (2018, p. 170) position that “when a
Western feminist examines African women’s understanding of care from her epistemic lenses, she
is bound to experience difficulties and misjudge matters.” It is on this note that Olojede (2020, p.
3) has reiterated the yearnings of several scholars on the “need to develop our own contextualised
African feminist ethics that is grounded in endogenous African realities, experiences, and
contexts”.
Within the framings of feminised corruption, care ethics over-moralises women by morally
judging them against a background of idealised cultural roles. Caring in politics is multi-facetted,
ranging from (1) a duty of care which female politicians owe the masses, (2) the loyalty women
owe their political parties and referees, and (3) the moral duty to serve the nation as stipulated in
the constitution. When these three greedy political regimens are imposed on women, they often
result in victimcy.8
For instance,
1. On the one hand, if Diezani has assumed the silent mode so as to protect certain
powers connected with her political career, her deployment of care ethics, within
the context of relationship and empathy, has put her person and ambition in
disrepute. She will therefore remain silent to protect her sponsors, party interest,
and perhaps by extension the chances of other women who would be offered
political appointments and forced to keep mute as she has presumably done.
8 The concept of ‘victimcy’ is as used by Utas, 2015:408, being a collapse of agency and victimhood, where women
exercise agency under trying, uncertain, and disempowering circumstances, within their social navigation as victims of
war.
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Doing Ethics of Care and Risk, to a Feminist Ethics of Vigour
2. On the other hand, if Diezani is guilty of these corruption charges, she would have
abused the ‘voice’ she obtained through her appointment in office, and
consequently betrays the principles of care ethics vested by her party’s trust in her
which led to her appointment. She will also be betraying the mass populace
wallowing in abject poverty by not empathizing with them while venturing into
corruption. Worse still, she also jeopardises the chances of fellow women
intending to assume political offices as her record extends to discredit women’s
representation in politics.
Either way, care ethics is problematic in Diezani’s case study on corruption, consequently leading
to a search for new ethical principle(s) to cater directly for Africa’s predicaments (Mangena 2009,
Olojede 2020).
The search for new ethical principles that will directly address the challenges of women as they
navigate public and private spaces in Africa call attention to descriptive ethics (Brennan 1999),
normative ethics (Tong 2001; Jaggar 2001), and or a “convergence of both for practically engaging
to give a voice to the experience of women across all cultures and creeds” (Oyeleye 2018,
p. 280). While such descriptions and prescriptions have been attempted, not many of these
have been named as African feminist ethical theory.
Mangena’s (2009) argument faults care ethics for failing African women because it validates
women’s traditional roles as caregivers and subsequently reinforces the patriarchal view that
women should be domiciled mainly in the domestic space. This perception has followed women
who have broken the glass ceiling and are now operating in public, including political spaces.
Perhaps Mangena’s argument would have been invalidated if women expectedly came into the
public spaces with their caring and empathetic nature by committedly embracing care ethics,
using public funds more for the wellbeing of the people, rather than embezzling them, which is
contrary to the ‘spirit’ of care ethics. For instance, Mangena’s argument would be flawed in
Ethiopia’s politics, where women were recently brought into the political space based on the
perception that women are more humane and would bring their caring nature into governance.
This is affirmed by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s position that “women can help fight corruption,
reduce inefficiency, and bring accountability and fairness to government – and that is leadership”
(Al Jazeera 2018, October 19). Correspondingly, this is Wubante’s (2021) finding, revealing that
women political leaders in Ethiopia are more conservative, bureaucratic, and less autocratic than
male political leaders. However, further findings from Ethiopia affirm Mangena’s assertion, noting
that more women in cabinet is not always tantamount to power distribution and gender
transformation. On this, Marijke and Okundaye (2021) argue that the recent dramatic election of
Ethiopia’s 50% female cabinet “can signal responsiveness to external cues [from bilateral and
multilateral donors]… if aid-dependent, developing countries receive explicit or implicit cues that
the appointment of more female ministers will be understood as a commitment to women’s
empowerment and gender equality, they will appoint more of them” (Breuning & Okundaye 2021,
p. 1057).
To follow Mangena’s position then, is to suggest that care ethics in African politics serve primarily
to instrumentalise women. It echoes Imafidon’s (2018, p.174) idea of ‘patriarchal opportunism’
which exploits women’s caring attributes and “proceeds for several reasons to the exploitation of
Media Transnationalism and the Politics of ‘Feminised Corruption’
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University of Bayreuth African Studies Working Papers (XXXIV)
this ontological fact about African women in a manner that is draining, demeaning, and abusive to
African women”. In the same vein I have found feminist ethics of care problematic for Africa, for
“placing more moral burden on women... promoting objectifying and sexploiting perceptions of
women” (Omotoso 2018b, p. 69-70). The difference lies in the outcomes of such
instrumentalisations across countries. Aside from civil society and a sizable part of Nigerian elites,
the grassroots masses still display gross ambivalence towards women in politics. Subsequently,
their expectations of such women still fall largely within care ethics which is laden with hydra-
headed challenges for women in politics (as found in earlier Rwandan and Tunisian cases
discussed) and, like the Ethiopian example, women’s instrumentalisation persists as assigned
cabinet portfolios still reflect sexist undertones (Breuning & Okundaye 2021, p. 1068).
Working in a male-centric environment, and specifically within African politics, requires more
than ethics of care. That the political glass ceiling is shattering calls for scrutiny of the glass cliff
that put women at risk9 in such spaces. This resonates with Welch’s (1990) questioning of what it
means to work for social transformation in the face of seemingly insurmountable suffering and
evil.
In the context of feminised corruption, ethics of care overlooks how the environment of operation
is either toxic or friendly to warrant relationship and empathy. In an environment where the code
of silence plunges women into disrepute, any moral theory that would address the lacunae must
dissect the personalities of interested parties - whistleblowers and the accused. It must also allow
for an equitable presentation of voices. To this end, ‘ethics of vigour’ is proposed.
In response to the increasing need for home-grown ethical theories that is both normative and
descriptive, ethics of vigour is a proposed a moral philosophy of self-efficacy to exemplify strength
and resilience in struggles towards entrenching justice. It stands as an answer to the yearnings of
African feminists in search of theoretical frameworks that speak to the experiences of the entire
community of African women.10 Founded upon African ethico-feminism, which prioritises “dignity
over human debasement, reason over emotions, changes over absolute traditional practices, and
virtues over vicious acts in masculine/feminine interrelationships” (Fayemi 2009, p.205), ethics
of vigour presents a framework that prescribes strength, courage, and resilience as its three-fold
constituent. These three are directly proportional, so that the increase/decrease of one directly
affects the other two. By emphasising strength above empathy, I argue that no amount of empathy
will move a bedridden mother to run and save her child from falling off the stairs; strength is
required. One could be faced with realities where empathy fails to sustain commitment to care;
where the toxicity of relationship raises existential questions. Would empathy for systems suggest
that women’s voices in self-defence be suppressed? Is Diezani guilty of these corruption charges
or is she empathising with her political party to protect their integrity at her own peril? What
would be the outcome of such a situation? To borrow from Olojede’s (2020) prescription of
African feminist ethics as that which showcases a woman of wisdom, whose speeches depict
9Risk, here is in a moral context as discussed by Altham who in 1983 identified a moral gap in how risk and uncertainty
have not been near the centre of discussions by moral philosophers. See Altham, J.E. (1983) Ethics of Risk Proceedings
of the Aristotelian Society New Series, Vol. 84 (1983 - 1984), pp. 15-29
10 In recognition of the complexity in defining African women, it would consist of female members of African
communities who hold such identities by birth, marriage, naturalisation, or association. See Omotoso Sharon, 2021.
16
Doing Ethics of Care and Risk, to a Feminist Ethics of Vigour
strength, and who is rendered in a powerful voice. Feminist ethics of vigour proceeds to delineate
between the woman, “an independent campaigner who walks in the streets and talks with
people, …exhibits clear leadership qualities not only in the public” unlike “many male African
politicians who take advantage of the African people …walk in the streets, make all kinds of
promises, and then after they are elected to office betray everyone” (p. 6).
From this point forward, strength and courage as the first two constituents of ethics of vigour will
chart the path for a lasting solution to feminised corruption, provided the women in question are
guilt-free and can prove it. To imagine Diezani taking on these two constituents (strength and
courage) might be double-edged; first, if she is for instance found guilty, the law will take its course
without stripping her of the power to decide her return to, or retirement from politics after
serving her term. Secondly, if she pleads not guilty with all reasonable proofs, her strength and
courage in the process would rest a case which has lingered as an instrument of media sexism and
save women’s future in politics from the taint of feminised corruption. It then gives room to
resilience; the third constituent which may be tapped first, by the person in question such that she
regains the right for her face to appear in other spaces, having served her term of punishment.
This resilience would equally rub off on other women who may then boldly present themselves
as viable candidates for public office. Ethics of vigour hereby suggests that women in situations of
ethical dilemma should possess the strength to speak up, the courage to push forward, and the
resilience to bounce back.
In its application to issues of feminised corruption, a feminist ethics of vigour takes risk, care,
control, and justice into equal considerations in purely feminist perspectives (Omotoso 2018b, p.
70). It begins with disinterestedness - the will to be bold enough to stay in a bad situation in order
to avert falling into a worse one. It calls for resonating women’s contextualities and optimisms in
repelling oppression. Consequently, ethics of vigour presupposes strength, courage, and resilience
as directly proportional requirements for any form of caring, where caring is situationally
operationalised within virtue and utility contexts. Suffice to say that strength, courage, and
resilience as deployed in this theoretical framework do not subject women to the perils of liberal
feminism which places sole responsibility on women and prescribes vigour in solitude. It must be
noted that a feminist ethics of vigour must be put in motion with society and media as key players.
On the part of society, socio-political issues must be handled with more seriousness. The masses
must insist that matters of corruption be treated with utmost urgency and transparency.
Particularly when women are involved in corruption charges, ethics of vigour will compel society
to bring morality to the table in a more disinterested manner rather than trivialising the case.
As for the media, ethics of vigour imply building moral commitments to the sanity of socio-political
spaces while also faced with the challenges of pushing global, regional, or local agendas of the
political class and international diplomacies. It requires incorporating gender dignity into media
ethics to assure a responsive media space that can nurture equitable governance.
In this exploration of a feminist moral approach to address medial-feminised corruption, feminist
ethics of vigour becomes an idealistic-pragmatic moral approach within which the normative and
the practical intersect to project, protect, and entrench women in matters of justice,
accountability, and good governance.
Media Transnationalism and the Politics of ‘Feminised Corruption’
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University of Bayreuth African Studies Working Papers (XXXIV)
6 Conclusion
Here, an attempt has been made to examine the problem of medialised and feminised corruption;
that is, how the media of communication have wrought the problem of corruption to be more
feminised rather than something common to both male and female in human society. The
recurrence of concepts such as corruption, accountability, inequality, equity, and good governance
on glocal scales spotlights their medially shaped perfomativities. In the same vein, these concepts
gain materiality subject to certain levels of cognition (through media forms) that enables citizens
to understand them based on individual and/or group experience, pointing again at intentions,
cognition, and perception as determinants of how processes may be engaged and explained.
Consequently, the focus has been the Nigerian context of Diezani Alison-Madueke, Nigeria's
Minister of Petroleum Resources from 2010 to 2015. The study argues that Diezani’s corruption
allegation has been (over)medialised, something that is not the case when allegations of
corruption are made against men. It has been noted that Diezani has been largely mute rather than
vocal about the corruption allegations made against her by the Federal Government of Nigeria. To
counter this identified deficit of the mute option, this work has proposed ethics of vigour as well
as attempted to respond to some likely objections to the proposal in the present context.
18
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