EDITORIAL: Oil wealth is meaningless without integrity

Namibia has taken an important, and overdue, step in recognising a simple truth that oil does not make a country rich in the absence of good governance.

The requirement that senior officials in the upstream petroleum sector declare their assets and financial interests is not a bureaucratic flourish. It is a line in the sand. It signals an understanding that oil and gas, left to secrecy and discretion, can rot institutions faster than they can build prosperity.

Africa is littered with examples of nations that struck oil yet failed to strike progress. Nigeria, Angola and Equatorial Guinea should have been among the world’s most prosperous societies. Instead, decades of opaque contracts, politically connected middlemen and toothless oversight turned natural wealth into private fortunes and public misery. The oil flowed. Development did not.

Namibia still has a chance to avoid that fate. The introduction of stricter conflict-of-interest rules, mandatory asset declarations and criminal penalties sends a clear message that access to the petroleum sector is not a licence to self-enrich. It acknowledges that corruption in extractive industries is not accidental. It thrives where disclosure is optional and accountability is weak.

But a maximum fine of N$20 000 or a few years in prison is a mild deterrent in a sector where a single corrupt decision can move millions. In countries where oil corruption has been contained, punishment is swift, severe and career-ending. Confiscation of illicit assets, lengthy jail terms and lifetime bans from public office are not extreme. They are necessary.

Oil can either finance schools, hospitals and infrastructure, or it can finance the next generation of untouchable elites. The difference lies not underground, but in the courage of the laws we pass today and the firmness with which we enforce them.