AN ASSESSMENT OF GOVERNANCE DYNAMICS AND THEIR EFFECTS ON CONFLICT IN AFRICA

Abstract

The study carried out a critical assessment of Governance dynamics and their effect on Conflict in Africa. The paper was informed by the prevalent and unending conflict situations in Africa. The objective of this paper is to examine how governance in Africa contribute to the prevalence of conflict in the continent. The study was carried using basically secondary source of data. The Human Needs theory was adopted as the study theoretical framework. Findings from the study revealed that historical issues such as colonial legacies, colonial fragmentation of African states and lack of social contract between the independent ethnic groups to coexist lead to ethnic chauvinism that resulted in continuous agitation for resources control and political power sharing. The study also discovered that corruption on the part of African leaders lead to their inability to meet human needs. Premise on the findings from the study, it is established that failure of governance to meet human needs has been responsible for the conflict situation in Africa. It is on these findings that the following recommendations are proposed/ All African states should go back to have a round table dialogue on their coexistence, to determine if truly the sub national ethnic groups that made up each country following colonial legacy really want to live together. That social contract on resources control and political power distribution must be signed between sub national ethnic groups to coexist as a country. Also, all African leaders should declare emergence on corruption, there should be capital punishment for corrupt leaders and individuals. And most importantly governance in Africa should be structured in a manner that services the people and not the leaders alone to ensure that human needs are met to ease the tensed African environment.