The latest news that the USA will deny entry to Isabel dos Santos, one-time Africa’s richest woman, for corruption is a welcome development, which will ring an alarming bell for other corrupt individuals in Africa and the rest of the world. But that same measure taken by the US equally exposes the other side of the coin – the double standard of the US and the rest of the West.

Ms Dos Santos, 48, the daughter of Angola’s former President, José Eduardo dos Santos, was accused by the US of “involvement in significant corruption” and “misappropriating public funds for her personal benefit.” The accusation from the USA came after the Angolan government placed her under investigation and confiscated her assets for alleged corruption. As severe as the corruption accusation and entry ban might sound, it will be interesting to ascertain when the US knew about Ms Dos Santos illicit businesses in the USA and why it took the West so long to respond to the alleged corruption.

Furthermore, it would not be wrong to ask where Ms Dos Santos managed to hide much of the billions she allegedly stole. Is the corrupt money banked and invested only in Africa or the West? During her father almost 40-years presidency, Isabel dos Santos became the richest woman in Africa with an estimated net worth of $ 3.5 billion. After being indicted and her assets frozen in Angola and Portugal, the net worth dropped to an estimated $2bn – still a significant amount in a country where an average family struggles to put a meal on the table despite the country’s enormous mineral resources. Isabel dos Santos made her billions during her father’s reign as the chairperson of the state oil company (Sonangol ) and from other lucrative business ventures in diamonds, land, oil and telecoms. She and her husband have owned a stake in more than 450 companies, a significant number of them based in the western countries, such as the USA, UK, Switzerland, Portugal, the Netherlands, France, Spain, Austria, Cyprus, Malta, Luxemburg, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Singapore, Romania, Austria, Czech Republic, Hong Kong, Japan, British Virgin Islands, as well as United Arab Emirates (Dubai), India, Brazil, Chile and Argentina.

The US visa restrictions for Ms Dos Santos would bar her and her immediate family members from entering the US. Isabel dos Santos has always denied the allegations against her and termed them a politically motivated witch-hunt by the Angolan government. Blind Eye and Holier than holy The West has been boisterously vociferous in criticising corruption in Africa but turned a deaf ear to the illicit billions of dollars being laundered and deposited in their various countries by corrupt parties it demonises. Western leaders and their media often label Africa as corrupt and chasten African leaders for aiding corruption. However, they remain silent on the role of the Western financial institutions and government agencies in facilitating money laundering and the flow of illicit money to the Western countries, including their banks. The West uses the ill-gotten funds to develop their countries. That holier than holy approach aims to exonerate the West from corruption and present Western countries as incorrigible while dehumanising their African counterparts. But the West is an aider and abettor to the same corrupt practices it criticises. According to the UN, around $148 billion is stolen from Africa yearly by political leaders, the business class and government employees, with the conspiracy and intrigue of banking enterprises in Europe and North America. When you interact with the Western media, Africa is constantly portrayed as desperately poor and African leaders liable for the continent’s terrible circumstances. However, you won’t ever watch, read or hear anything in these news sources about the role of Western governments, financial institutions, land and property advancement agencies and influential organisations in the West in advancing defilement in Africa.

There are many reasons for the intentional silence on the role of the West in aiming corruption in Africa. Apart from interwoven interest and links between the media and the affected organisations, fear of losing advert money keeps media organisations silent on the role of the governments, corporate entities and agencies. What matters most to the West is the monetary gains. The best way for the West to demonstrate their incorrigibility and zero tolerance for corruption is by refusing to accept corrupt money deposited in their banks or invested in their countries. You cannot openly criticise a practice and at the same time benefit secretly – and wholeheartedly – from the same acts you have openly demonised. The former British Prime Minister David Cameron did not have to tag himself the moral apostle to shamelessly call Nigeria and Afghanistan “fantastically corrupt” in the presence of the Queen of England and camera. Yet the same British prime minister did not bother to condemn or return billions of pounds that corrupt politicians from Nigeria, Afghanistan, and other countries hide in his country, while Britain protects the culprits. Call it a double standard, but would the West and their media see it that way? We probably have a problem with the definition of morality or honesty. Or both.

If the West or their media told the world why Africa is poor and exposed who benefit from the poverty, that would go a long way in fighting corruption and money laundering. But the West and its media would instead choose lip service, watery and boggy journalism over the truth. Presenting the West as a model of transparency, honesty and decency, would maintain the status quo and its dominance over Africa. Lip Service Britain is not alone; France, Switzerland, the USA, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Ireland, and so many other Western countries actively provide the means, tools and even the legal and institutional framework to aid corruption in the developing world, with the billions from the third world countries finding their ways to the West.

It is hardly a secret that billions of dollars from African leaders are laundered and securely kept in various Western countries. Nigeria’s former leader General Sani Abacha stole and hid an estimated 5 billion dollars in most western countries, yet those States neither reported the stolen monies in their midst until the loots were made public by African investigators. Eventually, the UK, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, the USA etc reluctantly decided to return the illegal monies, albeit after so many years of litigations. Yes, a legal battle over what didn’t belong to the West. But the greed and lip service of the West did not end with the legal struggle; Nigeria was forced to forfeit part of the stolen money as legal costs for remitting what belonged to Nigeria.

According to Transparency International and the whistleblowing site WikiLeaks, ex-Kenyan President Daniel Arap Moi and his family banked more than 1 billion dollars in 28 Western nations, including England; neither those affected Western countries nor their media outlets found it necessary to disclose the illegal wealth to the world. Who is more fantastically corrupt here? When corruption fights corruption, one is left with lip services: The West and its media are all parts of the lip service.