Africans Against the Rich and Politically Powerful

A survey finds that sub-Saharan Africans are more likely than most to say the wealthy are too powerful politically. 68%, sub-Saharan Africans felt the clout held by the rich was skewed, with Senegalese (78%) and Ugandans (75%) having the highest discontent of the countries surveyed.

Countries where people say the economy is doing poorly are more likely to be unhappy with the current political system, with a correlation of 0.8, where 1 is  a perfect score. Correspondingly, Ghana, which has had a turbulent year economically, had the most dissatisfied respondents, with 65% unhappy with how the political system was working. Nigerians, who hold a vote in five weeks, were also grumpy, with 60% of those polled responding in the negative. The country has among other factors seen its currency slide, while the plunge in oil prices has made matters worse given the commodity accounts for the majority of its foreign exchange earnings.