A
GNA feature by Major Martin Dziedzorm Dey
Aflao (VR), Jan. 02,
GNA – Africa’s dynamic security environment is characterised by great diversity
from conventional challenges such as insurgencies, resource and identity
conflicts, and post-conflict stabilisation to growing threats from piracy,
narcotics trafficking, violent extremism, and organised crime taking root in
Africa’s urban slums, among others.
Role
of African Union
To ensure Africa’s
security, the Africa Union (AU) since its inception established systems such as
the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) to play a more pro-active
role in ensuring the security of Africa.
Despite this and
other interventions, Africa continues to face several security challenges,
which have retarded its growth.
Africa will remain
turbulent because it is poor and young, but also because it is growing and
dynamic.
Developments come
with political, economic and social disruptions and when not managed properly,
can trigger all forms of crises with the potential to cause instability.
It is therefore
important to discuss the socio-economic and political disruptions that are
fundamental to Africa’s security profile and instability.
Political
challenges
Despite being
different in culture and political orientation, governments in Africa are faced
with the same problems, especially regarding the international system –
globalisation; bad governance; corruption and profligacy just to mention a few.
The international
system-globalisation. Professor Ransford Gyampo during a lecture on Globalisation
at Ghana Armed Forces Command and Staff College in 2018 defined globalisation
as “a multidimensional and multifaceted process that involves different
interdependent processes that seems to transcend the traditional way of
understanding international affairs.” It is in this regards that the
consequences of actions and inactions of one nation affects other nations.
This explains why
nations are susceptible to both positive and negative impacts of happenings
around the globe.
The forces of
globalisation include; international production, marketing and distribution of
goods and services. Even though this may sound positive, its negative effects
are the threats to Africa’s security.
The international
businesses out-compete the local businesses leaving indigenes unemployed, as
local content policy means nothing to transnational corporations who consider
their nationals for top positions in the organisations.
The unemployed youth
then become vulnerable to all forms of crime in the quest for survival hence,
the issue of insecurity in Africa. Technological revolution is another means
through, which unemployed youth are recruited to join hostile groups like Boko
Haram, Al-Shabaab and the likes.
Globalisation seems
to have taken control from nation-states and therefore requires the need to
assert its authority in ensuring that citizens act within the confines of
domestic laws.
Government has the
responsibility to ensure good governance at all times.
Perhaps the most
important driver of violence and conflict in Africa today is weak and
unconsolidated governance.
Bad governance and
corruption do not just undermine development, but also drive violence.
Yet the moral and
financial investment in fighting downstream consequences of corruption
including; terror, drug trafficking and organised crime is much greater than
the investment in stopping graft. Good governance therefore requires
political-will to do things right to ensure peace.
Corruption
It is posited that
Africa’s corruption is a manifestation of its leadership and institutional
failure of post-independence. It should be mentioned that this assertion is not
an exoneration of the level of corruption that existed during the colonial
administrations due to the exploitations and ex-propriations of the continent’s
resources, which we term as international abuse of official power.
However, for the
purpose of this article, the definition of corruption refers to internal
corruption, which Mr A.K. Jain in Corruption Review, Journal of Economic Review
(2001) defined as “an act in which the power of public office is used for
personal gain in a manner that contravenes the rules of the game.”
Most often, such
gains are used extravagantly to the displeasure of the populace. Corruption
does not only destroy the society, but also kills innocent people who without
any fault of theirs suffer the consequence of greedy leaders.
In retaliation,
victims seek justice through crimes by perpetrating acts of violence against
such individuals. These political
upheavals lead to economic cataclysm.
Economic
challenges
Political stability
to some extent in Africa has helped the continent a lot in almost all sectors
of its economy. However, despite the significant improvement in agriculture and
other sectors of the economy, most African countries today continue to face so
many developmental or economic challenges.
Examples of the
challenges include; weak state syndrome and their inability to create a viable
society; unsustainable debt profile; mono-culturalism/economic non-diversification
and unfair international political economy.
Several reasons have
been pointed at, as being responsible for the low rate of economic development
and growth in African countries, including; colonisation, neo-liberalisation,
dependency, political instability and foreign interests among others.
Some economists have
considered structural deficiencies and institutional weaknesses as mainly
responsible for low levels of economic development in African countries.
Africa’s total trade
has grown rapidly in value since around 2002 and according to The African
Export Import Bank, intra-African trade was expected to be worth some US$180bn
in 2018. (African ExportImport Bank, 2018).
However, this figure
is still only 19 per cent of the continent’s US$930bn total trade; and they
attributed this to low industrialisation, restricted movement of labour, poor
infrastructure and high dependence on the export of unprocessed commodities in
many African countries.
It is therefore
imperative for African leaders to increase efforts in exporting Africa’s
resources in export forms than in their raw states. When African states begin
to do more exports of manufactured goods than importation as the status quo is
now, then the African continent can begin to experience stability and boost in
social developments.
Social
challenges
When political and
economic fundamentals of states are balanced, the societies therein enjoy
acceptable basic amenities like access to education, health, housing and food.
Poverty then becomes non-existent and basic human needs are met.
However, Africa
having been bedeviled with political and economic challenges makes
above-mentioned social amenities absent. The struggle therefore by the growing
Africa’s population over the little that is available is overwhelming.
This has resulted
into class relations and tribal/ethnic identity-based sharing of the national
cake amongst a few fortunate ones.
The vast majority of
the populace now wallows in abject poverty and destitution.
In this sense, the
active age that feels marginalised in the society resort to acts of violence
for survival. Such youths are easily influenced negatively to perpetrate
crimes.
Child soldiers
during the civil wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone cannot be over emphasised.
It is therefore
necessary for African political leaders to provide basic social amenities for
their citizens.
Africa’s
security profile
The political,
economic and social challenges engender Africa’s security profile. The security
profile in this context means security requiring measures, management and
containment to prevent their exacerbations.
These issues that
constitute Africa’s security profile which are as a result of the challenges
discussed above include; combating organised crimes; conflict prevention and
management.
Others are regional
and international security cooperation; democratisation; regional governance
institutions and natural resources and conflict.
Combating organised
crimes. This paper posits that bad governance and corruption undermine
development and drive violence through organised crimes.
However, the
financial investment in fighting downstream consequences of corruption
including; terror, drug trafficking and organised crime could hitherto be used
to improve lives.
Mr E.W.
Kruisbergen’s in his 2017 thesis titled:”Combating Organised Crime” presents
empirical evidence on two counter strategies to organised crime in the
Netherlands: the criminal justice approach and the financial approach (‘follow
the money’).
For the criminal
justice approach, it focused on a specific method of criminal investigation:
undercover policing. For the financial approach, it looked into what organised
crime offenders do with their money and the efforts of law enforcement agencies
to confiscate criminal earnings.
Either way or in any
form whatsoever in combating organised crime, it requires commitment and funds
to be channeled into making lives suitable for citizens.
Conflict
prevention and mitigation
Conflict mitigation
and conflict prevention have different sides of the same coin, with both
concepts intertwined. Preventative measures are designed to resolve, contain
and manage, so conflicts do not crystallise.
Thus, conflict
mitigation is required to allow the initiation of preventative measures and can
be costly in loss of human lives if not well managed.
Africa in the past
relied entirely on international organisations like the United Nations (UN) to
intervene in conflict situations until their inability to prevent the genocide
in Rwanda.
Though this was part
of reasons for the existence of African Union (AU) and other regional bodies,
Africa’s dilemma still remains the prevention and management of conflict on the
continent.
Africa’s security
profile can therefore not be listed without the consideration of the conflict
prevention and management.
It is thus,
necessary for African leaders to continue with the effort to strengthen the
organisation to ensure continuous peace and tranquility on the entire African
continent.
Regional
organisation and international security cooperation. After years of talking about
it, African regional organisations are beginning to provide solutions to
African problems.
These institutions
must further improve their ability to influence national politics, monitor
internal behaviours of member states and prevent human right violations.
Over time, robust
regional and national conflict resolution structures and mechanisms were
developed, but still struggle to raise funds and mobilise sufficient political
support to become operational.
The needs are given
space and support by non-African actors/International security cooperation,
accustomed to intervening in African affairs.
There is a need to
go beyond existing mechanisms to create regional and sub-regional forces
equipped to deal with security issues, including; the spread of transnational
organised crime, terrorism and election-related violence.
However, this must
be done to avoid adding more problems with increasing militarisation that only
topple democratic processes of African states.
Democratisation
Democratisation is
key to ensuring stability in Africa. The (growing) imbalance between levels of
human development and economic growth and political and social inclusion are
threats to stability.
In settings, where
democracy is not entrenched, there is lack of transparency and trust in the
process, or where the government is factional in benefiting one ethnic group
above others, election-related violence occurs.
The role of social
media as an “amplifier” is still not contended with by regional leaders.
Leaders are
sometimes unwilling to step down when ousted with votes and use various
methods, both legal and otherwise, to prolong their stay in power such as in
Burundi and political situations observed in the DR Congo.
The increasing
connectedness of the population should also be viewed as an opportunity to
address the deficit, including; better civil education programmes and election
monitoring and the quality of civic processes. These only become possible with
a good governance systems and structures to enact policies that would ensure
effective and efficient implementations of the programmes.
Regional
governance institutions
Good governance
requires political-will, and business to be an activist partner in Africa’s
development. Africa is progressing in this regard. Indeed, the African Union
(AU) recognises that national and regional governance institutions need to be
strengthened.
The African Peer
Review Mechanism (APRM) is seeing somewhat of a revitalisation, and the AU’s
African Governance Architecture (AGA) is part of mainstream discussions on the
need for more integrated responses to Africa’s security and development
challenges.
But the task of
building and consolidating institutions requires long-term persistence.
There is a growing
need to tackle corruption, improve transparency and secure the democratic
space.
State presence needs
to be strengthened in “grey zones” or ungoverned spaces, where problematic
non-state actors such as extremist groups, terrorist organisations and
criminals have flourished in the absence of government control and even
established their own administrations.
Grey zones in West
Africa and the Sahel, in particular, are becoming global hubs for criminal
activity, including; illicit fishing, piracy, and trafficking of drugs, arms
and people.
Countering
extremism using technology as game changer
Technological
changes are raising the security stakes and enabling self-organisation of individuals
for both negative (terrorism/extremism) and positive (social change /transparency).
The potential for
technology to do good in Africa is however staggering as was demonstrated in
areas from improving education quality and quantity, to mobile money reaching
the unbanked, data being used to improve public health, and connectivity
improving transparency.
However, protecting
millions of newly connected Africans from cyber security threats is a major
concern, as is the usefulness of the internet as a recruitment tool for
extremist groups operating in the region.
Natural
resources and conflict
Africa is blessed
with abundant natural resources and land, but they have been exploited
irresponsibly. This has damaged the environment, widened wealth inequality and
fueled resentment and conflict.
Increasingly,
serious problems with water distribution and population growth put greater
pressure on the need to modernise subsistence agriculture, while climate change
effects aggravate the problems: drought, floods or poor harvests may create new
refugee populations and increase strains over shared resources.
Will Africa manage
its water, mineral, and agricultural resources sustainably, so as to avoid the
resources curse or future resource conflicts? Will Africa get ahead of climate
change impacts, so as to reduce their negative impacts on security?
These questions and
many remain the dilemma in considering Africa’s security profile aimed at
preventing reemergence of violence.
GNA