Poor governance contributes to insecurity in Africa

The African continent has always been afflicted by violent conflict, which has caused a lot of untold suffering to millions of people through internal displacement. There are debates as to what exactly contributes to the instability in Africa. Even though there are some arguments that many states in Africa are afflicted by conflict due to foreign intervention especially from former colonial masters, of recent there is a consensus that poor governance from many leaders in the continent is a contributing factor to violent conflict and insecurity in the continent. The continent has suffered five military coups within a space of three years in Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea and Sudan.

The Sahel region where these coups have taken place is a politically unstable region in the continent characterised by a contagious disease of rampant corruption. This sub region as well as other regions, scores very poorly in Corruption Perception and Governance. No African country appears in the top 10 of those countries with sound governance and the majority of those countries in the bottom 20 of the Corruption Perception Indices are from Africa. In fact many Sub-Saharan African countries are in situations which can be described as ‘fragile’ due to poor governance, weak institutions and lack of social cohesion. This is a result of inept attitude as well as political rascality displayed by many African leaders. A corrupt state has weak capacity to carry out basic governance functions and lacks the ability to develop mutually constructive relations with society. It is important to note that poorly governed states are also more vulnerable to internal and external shocks such as economic crisis and conflict related issues within the region such as ISIS and al Qaeda insurgencies in the Sahel region and Mozambique, as well as ethnic rivalries that have destabilised the Democratic Republic of Congo. Contrary to strong states that are in most cases resilient and exhibit the capacity and legitimacy of governing a population and its territory, a corrupt state which is poorly governed is continually characterised by weak state capacity or weak state legitimacy leaving citizens vulnerable to a range of shocks including the eruption of violent conflict.

Fragile states which are characterised by rampant corruption such as Mali, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Somalia, South Sudan, DRC and others score very poorly when it comes to tackling chronic poverty and persistent inequality remains a key challenge. There are very few better jobs or income opportunities for a vast majority of the poor, particularly women and youth. In these countries, informal enterprise and informal employment have become a norm. Clearly in fragile states, economic growth (if there is any) does not guarantee that the poor and marginalised will participate and benefit from such a growth. The blatant failure to have economic growth that is inclusive with an equitable distribution of income then poses a danger to social and political stability. In short the rampant poverty, skyrocketing youth unemployment, socio-economic marginalisation of certain sections of the population, endemic corruption, shrinking space in political participation, patron clientalism, inequitable wealth distribution, poor service delivery and lack of provision of security to other parts of the state, kleptocracy by political elites, undue meddling with constitutions to extend underserved shelf life in power, authoritarian leadership style that are common in fragile states, are toxic for socio-political cohesion and stability within a state.

These kinds of socio-economic and political environments then create local grievances, which then become a key variable driving resentment, anger, frustrations and anti-state attitudes. In other words, with economic stagnation or decline and worsening state services, the social contract then breaks down and violent conflict results. In addition violent extremist groups such al Qaeda, al Shabaab, Boko Haram, ISIS and a host of others have successfully manipulated such local grievances to entrench themselves within such marginalised populations and in the process recruit and radicalise the youth to unleash a reign of terror on local populations. In some instances the violent extremist groups provide some socio-economic services to the people in those areas that they control thus gaining legitimacy from some populations who have long been marginalised by the state.

The results of violent conflict have led to the death of hundreds of thousands of people and internal displacement of millions across the continent. Many states in the continent are caught in a vicious circle in which political instability prevents people from undertaking normal economic activities and prevents the state from functioning as it should. It is within such sad state of affairs that in some cases the military would step in and overthrow the government and after a military takeover promises of return to civilian rule, provision of security, law and order, fighting corruption, etc. will be made to the long suffering frustrated citizens who in most cases would welcome the military coups. However, it has proved in many instances that these military takeovers are no panacea to the deep seated problems of weak institutions that results in the lack of political will by governments to address and provide socio-economic needs to the people. Guinea is a very good example, where Mamady Doumbouya, the head of the special forces that deposed President Alpha Condé on September 5, 2021 denounced the Condé administration’s bad governance, corruption and disregard for democratic principles.

But in the months that followed, Doumbouya failed to live up to his promises, making no serious attempts to reform government or investigate allegations of corruption, much less commit to elections and a civilian transition within a quick time frame. In fact he has become a ruthless tyrant hell-bent on squelching on any dissent. Weak or lack of strong institutions that promote good governance, accountability, transparency, rule of law and equitable resource distributions create an explosive cocktail of problems that trap many African states in constant fragility. In other words, lack of strong democratic institutions, inept attitude and political rascality of many African leaders undermine development and governance. This, in turn, creates poverty and state weakness, which provide fertile ground for more conflict. As a way of addressing these problems of state fragility, it is imperative that African leaders or governments transform governance systems, rewire their attitude towards public service and encourage community participation in governance to promote accountability. Most importantly, the separation of economic decision-making and the justice system from self-indulgent political powers could do a lot of good. Convicting and shaming corrupt government officials in courts of law and public opinion would remind the stewards of these nations that with every action, there is a repercussion.