Corruption and State Instability in West Africa: An Examination of Policy Options Atuobi, S. M. Corruption, Poverty This is a paper about the existence of widespread corruption, especially in societies beset by mass poverty and very high levels of unemployment, has a deeply corrosive effect on trust in government and contributes to crime and political disorder. Since their inception, West African states have been facing corruption as a major problem. In some cases, it has attained levels of gross and egregious theft, for which no possible moral or historical justification can be advanced, and which has played a major role, both in the impoverishment of the region as a whole and specifically in the alienation of its people from their rulers. Ghana Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre 2007 2007 Text 24p. iffoadatabase.trustafrica.org/iff/9BD8A1F729CEB5B8C125746C0049D740-kaiptc-dec2007.pdf