Abstract

Currently the African continent is bedeviled by continuous strife ranging from, hunger, disease, civil war, frequent coups, territorial wars and disputes, Xenophobia, dilapidated infrastructure, mismanagement of resources, corruption, nepotism, tribalism, crime, and the list could be endless. Initially we blamed the colonial masters, who then gave us our freedom through independence thus enabling us to elect our own leaders among whom at the beginning of their leadership seemed perfect but eventually turned into dictators. This led to the second wave of African leadership, where we embraced democracy. It is sad to say that this has not resulted into any better Africa that we anticipated. This research examines an about turn (360 degree) approach by the populous towards changing the African content for better political, social, civil and economic development. In particular the study investigates dialogue as opposed to war (civil or territorial) as a means of political stability, African tribe as opposed to nepotism or tribalism as a means of social development. Earning ones right as opposed to corruption as a mean of economic development, Obeying the law as opposed to breaking the law as a means of reducing crime, all these being facilitated by embracing one another to enable their achievement the original African way as opposed to working for one or the other’s glory the current trend in our today’s World. The study makes a  comparative survey of the two cases (represented by the pie charts below) to determine the better of the two and analytical data inferences clearly points at the African development case as the favored case so long as the populous work together as opposed to working as individuals or for individuals.

Introduction

Currently the only conflict in Europe is the one in Ukraine and continuous threats by ISIS like the recent Killing in France and Belgium. It is also known that the economic crisis that has continued on after the 2008 Economic clampdown The Palestinian – Israel conflict that is on and off. The advantage that the Middle East has is a lot of these countries are oil rich and their economies are easily funded by oil revenues. The African conflict is bedeviled by numerous conflicts. The most recent include: The Burundi unrest due to the unconstitutional 3^rd mandate seeking of their current president. This is a common occurrence among the African leaders and normally the citizens are powerless and the leaders get a way with it since they manipulate the electoral systems. The Al-Shabab rampages in Kenya that caused unnecessary deaths of innocent victims. We all remember the xenophobia cases in South Africa, The Ebola pandemic that rampaged the Western Africa and brought them to their knees, where most of the normal day to day activities like attending schools, church and work were suspended. It also threatened the whole world and required the World Health Organisation (WHO) together with volunteer countries and health workers to contain the disease. The civil war in South Sudan and Abokaram insurgencies in Nigeria are other strife’s that continue to bedevil our African content. The North African conflict continues especially being persistent in Libya and the list persists. whose resolution is being spear headed by the European Union at the behest of citizens of for example Greece, Portugal, Spain extra, that has seen them hold large demonstrations. There has been a drop of oil prices which caused an economic panic, but its effects have not been felt. In the American Peninsular there has not been much conflicts apart from drug wars which have caused a high rate of crimes and misery to the victims and their families. This is a sharp contrast from what is happening in the Middle East where most countries are in conflict, the rampaging one being that caused by ISIS in Iraq and Syria, we have conflicts in Yemen which currently has no stable political leadership, the Hezbollah war involving Israel. Then we have the relentless strife caused by al-Qaeda in Parkistan, Afganistan and Iraq. The Shihite and Suni conflicts particularly in Iraq,

Problem statement

Data from Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project ACLED (2015) indicate that the trend in years total deaths from political violence in Africa are as follows:

These trends are high and have continued to increase. In particular that from 2013 to 2014 was alarmingly high. The regions of Africa that experienced the highest nominal increases in the number of deaths from political violence from 2013 to 2014 are located in a latitudinal belt extending from the Niger River Delta in the West to South Sudan and the Horn of Africa in the East. There was also a pronounced increase on the southern coast of the Mediterranean Sea in Libya. The regions of Africa that experienced the highest nominal declines in the number of deaths from political violence from 2013 to 2014 are the Nile River Delta and Northern Sudan in the northeast and the Congo River to the south of the belt of increased violence.

The latest reports on Ebola indicate that it has subsided although often we have rises in those infected. The summary of data on Ebola cases by July 2015 as per world Health Organisation was as follows:

African countries rank among the most corrupt where no African country is ranked among the top least corrupt forty countries. Countries at the bottom need to adopt radical anti-corruption measures in favour of their people. Countries at the top of the index should make sure they don’t export corrupt practices to underdeveloped countries.” Poorly equipped schools, counterfeit medicine and elections decided by money are just some of the consequences of public sector corruption. Bribes and backroom deals don’t just steal resources from the most vulnerable – they undermine justice and economic development, and destroy public trust in government and leaders.

Based on expert opinion from around the world, the Corruption Perceptions Index measures the perceived levels of public sector corruption worldwide, and it paints an alarming picture Transparency International (2014). Not one single country gets a perfect score and more than two-thirds score below 50, on a scale from 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean). Corruption is a problem for all countries. A poor score is likely a sign of widespread bribery, lack of punishment for corruption and public institutions that don’t respond to citizens’ needs. Countries at the top of the index also need to act. Leading financial centres in the EU and US need to join with fast-growing economies to stop the corrupt from getting away with it. The G20 needs to prove its global leadership role and prevent money laundering and stop secret companies from masking corruption.

The content has also witnessed a lot of Africans migrating to developed countries due to the strives in the continent a lot of whom undergo a lot harsh conditions as they migrate quite a number eventually dyeing along the way. The reception they receive in their hosting countries is also quite hostile.

The continent as a whole experienced one of the more turbulent years in its recent history with widespread protests, unrest, civil wars, and insurgencies. The most recent flare-up of this new wave of violence resulted in Boko Haram’s deadliest attack ever, the massacre of an estimated 2,000 people in the northeastern village of Doron Baga Nositer, (2014).

Figure 1 : A figure of Captured Boko Haram Weaponry, Via Heather Murdoch/VOA

Figure 1.

Due to these reasons there is urgent need for Africans to reflect on the situation facing them and determine mitigates to these situations.

Purpose of the study

In order to counter or mitigate the many problems facing the African context above this research has examined an about turn (360 degree) approach by the populous towards changing the African content for better political, social, civil and economic development. Particularly the study investigated dialogue as opposed to war (civil or territorial) as a means of political stability and the African tribe as opposed to nepotism as well as tribalism as a means of social development. Earning ones right as opposed to corruption as a means of economic development, Obeying the law as opposed to breaking the law as a means of reducing crime, all these being facilitated by embracing one another to enable their achievement the original African way as opposed to working for one or the other’s glory the current trend in our today’s World. The study compares relates the occurrences of a sample of 19 African countries to the occurrences of ten European countries ranked among the top 15 out of 175 countries to enable it determine the solution to its strife stricken territories.

Specific Objectives

In determining the effect of strife’s on its citizens the following objectives are pursued:

• To assess the effect of civil or territorial war on socio economic development
• To determine the effect of crime on socio economics development
• To examine the effect of corruption on socio economic development
• To assess the effect of partiality on Socio economic development

Literature review

2.1 The Scramble for Africa

Between the 1870s and 1900, Africa faced European imperialist aggression, diplomatic pressures, military invasions, and eventual conquest and colonization. At the same time, African societies put up various forms of resistance against the attempt to colonize their countries and impose foreign domination. By the early twentieth century, however, much of Africa, except Ethiopia and Liberia, had been colonized by European powers Pakenham, (1992).

Figure 2: A map of t he colonized African content just before world war I

Figure 2.

The European imperialist push into Africa was motivated by three main factors, economic, political, and social. It developed in the nineteenth century following the collapse of the profitability of the slave trade, its abolition and suppression, as well as the expansion of the European capitalist Industrial Revolution. The imperatives of capitalist industrialization including the demand for assured sources of raw materials, the search for guaranteed markets and profitable investment outlets spurred the European scramble and the partition and eventual conquest of Africa. Thus the primary motivation for European intrusion was economic.

Figure 3: A map of t he colonized African content just before World War I I

Figure 3.

2.2 Colonial Domination

In general, indirect rule worked fairly well in areas that had long-established centralized state systems such as chiefdoms, city-states, kingdoms, and empires, with their functional administrative and judicial systems of government. But even here the fact that the ultimate authority was the British officials meant that the African leaders had been vitalized and exercised "authority" at the mercy of European colonial officials. Thus the political and social umbilical cords that tied them to their people in the old system had been broken. Some astute African leaders maneuvered and ruled as best as they could, while others used the new colonial setting to become tyrants and oppressors, as they were responsible to British officials ultimately.

In the decentralized societies, the system of indirect rule worked less well, as they did not have single rulers. The British colonizers, unfamiliar with these novel and unique political systems and insisting that African "natives" must have chiefs, often appointed licensed leaders called warrant chiefs, as in Igboland, for example.

The French, for their part, established a highly centralized administrative system that was influenced by their ideology of colonialism and their national tradition of extreme administrative centralism. Their colonial ideology explicitly claimed that they were on a "civilizing mission" to lift the benighted "natives" out of backwardness to the new status of civilized French Africans. To achieve this, the French used the policy of assimilation, whereby through acculturation and education and the fulfillment of some formal conditions, some "natives" would become evolved and civilized French Africans. In practice, the stringent conditions set for citizenship made it virtually impossible for most colonial subjects to become French citizens. It is evident that the colonial periods were difficult for Africans and their independence were always moments of joy.

2.3 Post Colonial Africa

By the end of the seventh decade of the twentieth century most Africans had gained their independence and were hopeful of making great strides in the development of their countries. By the end of the ninth decade it became apparent that this would not be so with many African leaders turning into dictators and others ruling their citizens in worst manner than the colonist did. This led to the clamor for the second African liberation, where many countries embraced democratic rule. This has still witnessed no better results since the clamorers for this democratic space once enthroned end up reneging on their promises as evidenced by most of these leaders seeking third terms as leaders even though their constitutions indicate two terms. They eventually propagate the change of constitutions to allow for the third term and manipulate the election processes to win the third terms often to the detriment of the citizens who resort to violence as a way of opposing the leaders who use the system to silence them. These research critically addresses these issues of bad African leadership to enable the generation of discussions and debates that will lead to participatory policy determination and benchmarking with other countries in other continent with a view to developing workable, achievable and acceptable mitigates to the African problems by Africans themselves.

Methodology

Quantitative research methods are used in this study to sample secondary data, and analyse it in order to make inferences on the current situations and future solutions to these situations Shuttleworth. (2008). A comparative analysis is also done for different scenarios in order to develop clear way forwards that will lead to required results.

Data Analysis and Results

Secondary data is sort mainly from World Bank, Transparency International and Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project that forms measurable indicator of the objectives of the study. In this case objectives one to four are measured using independent variable; deaths from political violence, Global Homicides/Murders per 100000 persons, corruption index out of 100, Global inequality index, respectively and the dependent variable social economic development is measured using the indicator Global human development index. Table I and II below contains the tabulated indicators data for a sample of twenty African countries and 10 top ranked anti corrupt European countries

The data in these table show very highly positively correlated values among the indicators, for example we have no person dead due to political violence in one year, the decreased corruption index is high, with a very low rate of Murders and homicides and inequality index related to the dependent variable Human resource development, thus a data analysis was not done, but measures put in place by these countries are used as bench marks.

The R square indicates that the indicators predict Human development by 63 % and there are other factors which predict it by 37%. The results are not significant thus cannot be generalized to other continents.

From the table human resource development and corruption indices are highly positively correlated and significant.

Conclusion and Recommendations

The data tables give us a clear picture of the situation in the African continent in comparison with the European continent, since the continent comprises of about 50 countries out of which the 20 picked indicate high corruption rates, low human development and inequality levels and a lot of deaths due to political violence. The data analysis results singles out these problems as being in Africa only and no other place. They also indicate that the studied objectives affect human development to a large extent and should be addressed to mitigate the low levels of it. In particular corruption has a large and significant role to place in human development and as earlier seen causes of it should be addressed with a view to reducing its levels in Africa. The top ten have results which are opposite of what Africa has thus to achieve a turnaround from its indicators to those of the top ten well world ranked countries they should work towards achieving equality among its citizens, allow participation of individuals in decision making and implementation monitoring as these other countries do to achieve corrupt and crime free societies. Create room for free and fair politics which is transparent. As Africans we need a change of attitude from a colonization mind where we still depend on donations since we meant to believe we cannot do it on our own to self reliance. W e thus need to work together, engage in dialogue, obey the laws and unite as one the way we have a strong Euro everything including their currency as pictured below:

Figure 4: The policy frame work from the research and comparison with Countries with high human development indices.

Figure 4.

1. Empower the African union (AU) to reinforce an African tribe by involving citizens vote to decide membership, and Heads of AU to be elected
2. Every individual declares wealth yearly openly as well as political leaders and law enforcers not to engage in business but remunerated well to avoid corruption
3. Representation in any decision making body since the representation index was very low in Africa. No majority of tribe, gender or wealth status in these bodies
4. Elections automated and made transparent: Au with elected members to be monitoring elections
5. Peaceful solutions to the African conflicts needs Barazas, Kamkunjis and continuous induction of citizens to be Africans

Reference

1. Nositer A (2014) A Jihadist’s Face Taunts Nigeria from the Shadows http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/19/world/africa/a-jihadists-face-taunts-nigeria-from-the-shadows.html?hpw&rref=world&_r=2
2. Pakenham T (1992) The Scramble for Africa: White Man's Conquest of the Dark Continent from 1876 to 1912 . Random House.
3. ACLED (2015) http://www.acleddata.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/ACLED_User-Guide-for-Media_2015.pdf
4. Transparency International. (2014). https://www.transparency.org/cpi2014
5. Shuttleworth M (2008) Quantitative Research Design