The struggle against corruption, election fraud, and the dominance of entrenched "leadership dinosaurs" in Africa is being met with a multi-layered set of concrete steps proposed and executed by continental institutions, regional blocs, national governments, and a robust civil society.

These efforts are codified in numerous legal instruments and driven by institutional reforms aimed at fostering a culture of accountability, transparency, and constitutionalism.

The strategy involves strengthening horizontal accountability (checks and balances among state branches) and diagonal accountability (citizen and civil society oversight) to effectively dismantle the structural foundation of malgovernance.

I. Combating Corruption: The Legal and Institutional Blueprint

The most significant concrete step against corruption is the establishment of comprehensive legal and institutional frameworks, primarily led by the African Union.

1. The African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption (AUCPCC, 2003)

The AUCPCC serves as the continent's shared roadmap for anti-corruption and good governance. Its provisions translate into direct, concrete obligations for member states:

• Criminalization and Harmonization: Requires member states to criminalize a comprehensive list of corrupt practices in both the public and private sectors, including illicit enrichment, diversion of property, and bribery. This pushes for the harmonization of national anti-corruption laws.

• Asset Recovery and International Cooperation: Makes a major breakthrough by explicitly requiring member states to cooperate in returning assets obtained through corruption to the country from which they were stolen. The Common African Position on Asset Recovery (2020) further strengthens this commitment, addressing the transnational nature of illicit financial flows.

• Preventive Measures: Mandates the creation of national anti-corruption agencies (ACAs), the establishment of codes of conduct for public officials, and the promotion of transparent public procurement.

2. Strengthening Independent Oversight Institutions

Concrete proposals focus on empowering the institutions designed to prosecute and check executive power:

• Empowering ACAs and Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs): There are calls for increasing the prosecution capacity of national ACAs by providing them with adequate legal expertise and ensuring their operational independence from the executive branch. This bridges the gap between public perception of corruption and successful court convictions.

• Fiscal Institutions and Transparency: Measures include improving budgetary processes, enhancing the transparency of public finance, and rebuilding the capacity of key institutions like revenue authorities to combat smuggling and illicit flows.

• Enhancing Corporate Governance: Improving the governance structure of State-Owned Enterprises (SOEs) is a key anti-corruption step, as SOEs are often breeding grounds for graft and patronage.

3. Harnessing Digitalization for Accountability

Technology is proposed as a direct tool to reduce corruption opportunities and enhance transparency:

• Digital Government Services: The transition to electronic processing of tax submissions, customs declarations, and service payments (like school fees) reduces the need for citizens to interact directly with public officials, thereby bypassing bureaucratic inefficiencies and cutting down on opportunities for petty corruption and fraud.

• Data Analytics and Auditing: Using data analytics enables risk-based auditing in tax and customs, allowing authorities to flag suspicious claims and combat illicit trade more efficiently.

• Biometric Systems: Employing biometric technologies and electronic payment systems for public benefit delivery (e.g., social grants) helps to cut fraud, ensure benefits reach the intended recipients, and produce significant fiscal savings.

II. Addressing Leadership Dinosaurs and Constitutional Coups

The challenge of "leadership dinosaurs"—leaders who manipulate constitutional and electoral processes to remain in power indefinitely—is being tackled through proactive continental norms and civil society vigilance.

1. The African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance (ADC, 2007)

The ADC is the primary legal mechanism proposed to prevent the "constitutional coup," a concrete step that directly targets leaders who attempt to extend their tenure.

• Defining Unconstitutional Change of Government (UCG): The ADC and subsequent AU decisions broadened the definition of UCG beyond military coups to explicitly include refusal of an incumbent to relinquish power after an electoral loss and constitutional manipulations (such as amending the constitution to extend or eliminate term limits).

• Zero-Tolerance Norm and Sanctions: The AU maintains a zero-tolerance norm against UCG. The concrete step here is the automatic suspension of member states where a UCG occurs (as seen consistently with military coups) and the threat of further targeted sanctions.

• Barring Perpetrators: AU decisions also propose to bar perpetrators of unconstitutional change from taking part in any elections organized to restore constitutional order, aiming to delegitimize the leaders who seize or cling to power illegally.

2. Pro-Constitutional Reform and Dialogue

Concrete proposals for national-level reforms focus on making constitutions more resilient to executive overreach:

• Process-Driven Constitution-Making: Experts advocate for a participatory and inclusive constitution-making process to ensure buy-in from all stakeholders and historically marginalized groups. This enhances the legitimacy and longevity of the final document.

• Robust Amendment Processes: Constitutions must be designed with robust amendment procedures that effectively prevent opportunistic executives from unilaterally manipulating them to remain in power. This means requiring super-majorities, referendums, or other safeguards.

• National Dialogues: Countries with existing progressive constitutions (like Ghana, Kenya, and South Africa) are urged to engage in national dialogues to promote citizen understanding and appreciation of constitutional provisions, effectively turning the constitution into a more potent political tool for the citizenry.

III. Tackling Election Fraud: Enhancing Electoral Integrity

Election fraud is addressed by strengthening electoral processes and bolstering independent oversight.

1. Independent Electoral Management Bodies (EMBs)

The most fundamental proposal is to ensure the autonomy and impartiality of EMBs:

• Legal Frameworks: Laws must clearly define the EMB's roles, responsibilities, and, critically, the composition and procedures for the appointment of its members, ensuring they are shielded from political interference.

• Transparent Procedures: Laws should establish clear, publicly defined rules for voter registration (including public scrutiny of voter registers), ballot counting, and criteria for ballot validity to reduce manipulation opportunities.

2. Technology and Oversight

Technology, when implemented transparently, is a key tool against fraud:

• Biometric Voter Registration (BVR): The increasing adoption of BVR systems across Africa is a concrete anti-corruption step that helps to clean up voter registers and prevent multiple voting.

• External Oversight: The use of international and domestic election monitoring by CSOs and neutral bodies is paramount. Their role is not just to observe, but to document and publicize specific cases of electoral malpractice (e.g., abuse of state resources, vote-buying) and demand accountability.

3. Regulating Political Finance

Corruption and election fraud are inextricably linked to illicit political funding. Concrete steps include:

• Transparency and Disclosure: Establishing robust legal frameworks to regulate political party financing, including requiring the public disclosure of funding sources to prevent illicit sources or individuals with ulterior motives from corrupting the political process.

IV. The Role of Civil Society: Diagonal Accountability

The bedrock of these reforms is an active and empowered civil society, which provides diagonal accountability—the use of non-state actors to check the power of the state.

1. Watchdog and Advocacy

CSOs are tasked with direct action and sustained pressure:

• Monitoring and Whistleblowing: Organizations like Transparency International chapters develop tactics to monitor the implementation of AU anti-corruption commitments and serve as essential watchdogs and whistleblowers.

• Protests and Mobilization: CSOs use public protests, research, and advocacy to pressure the executive and legislative branches. Recent examples include successful mobilizations against third-term bids (e.g., in Senegal) and against unpopular fiscal bills (e.g., the 2024 protests in Kenya).

• Holding Governments Accountable to the Law: The concrete step here is CSOs using litigation to challenge corrupt or unconstitutional actions by the state, supporting judicial institutions, and using the media to ensure public awareness.

2. Judicial and Legislative Oversight

Civil society and international partners advocate for strengthening the judicial and legislative arms to enforce horizontal accountability:

• Judicial Independence: The annulment of presidential election results in Kenya in 2017 due to irregularities—a major landmark for judicial independence in Africa—showcases the potential of an empowered judiciary. Proposals focus on protecting judicial independence and ensuring respect for the rule of law.

• Legislative Capacity: Boosting the legislative and auditing agencies' capacity in oversight, particularly over public finance and security budgets, is a key area of focus to ensure financial malfeasance has consequences.

In summary, the concrete steps being proposed are not isolated measures but form a coherent strategy centered on strengthening constitutional integrity (to limit "dinosaur" leaders), legal enforcement (to combat corruption), electoral transparency (to counter fraud), and the empowerment of citizens and civil society as the ultimate guardians of democracy. These efforts are part of a long-term, evolutionary trend that, despite high-profile setbacks, shows a clear, positive trajectory in the continent's commitment to good governance.