To what extent is political instability responsible for the unemployment crisis in Africa.
Approach: Define political instability and unemployment. Analyse the various ways in which political instability leads to unemployment vis-avis other factors
· Standpoint required. NB: Look at how political instability leads to;
· Agricultural breakdown,
· Collapse of industrial activity,
· Threatens potential investors,,
· Leads to loss of human resources (potential job creators),
· Increases the number of the disabled people,
· Leads to internal displacement and refugee crisis etc.
· This reflects itself in form of civil wars, military coup de tats, urban terrorism etc.
· Dictatorial rule which is mainly manifested in lack of respect for the constitution.
· Failure to remove the existing regime using legal means.
· Tribalism which breeds tribal fears, tensions and suspicions.
· Unabated violation of human rights e.g. killing people, arbitrary imprisonments.
· The unfair sharing of the national cake.
· Military discontent especially when the president tries to divide the army.
· Differences in political philosophy and ideology.
· The interference of Advanced countries /super powers in the affairs of African states (cold war politics).
· Lack of a sense of patriotism e.g. late Savimbi of Angola.
· The desire by one tribe or religion to revenge against the other e.g. in Rwanda.
· Greed for power.
· Religious differences.
· Unbalanced regional development.
· Economic crises like unemployment and inflation due to economic mismanagement.
Effects
· It leads to colossal loss of human lives.
· Destruction of property and yet reconstruction is very expensive.
· Economic underdevelopment and widespread poverty.
· Disruption of agricultural activities and hence famine.
· It contributes to rural urban migration.
· Immoralities and indiscipline acts like raping.
· It leads to an increase of the refugee crisis in Africa-
· Displacement of families and family separations.
· Creation of socially deprived groups of people e. g orphans, widows and street children.
· It worsens the gender inequalities.
· Leads to revolutions, counter-revolutions and change of governments.
· It leads to poor standards of living especially in refugee camps.
· Contributes to the outbreak of diseases.
Political crisis is a situation when there is poor political climate or disaster within a given area. It may be within a country or between different countries.
1. Political crises include civil wars, interstate conflicts, coup (Flats, etc. Countries that have had much political crises, especially from 1960 include, Ghana, Ethiopia, Uganda, Sudan, Eritrea, Chad, Ivory Coast, Rwanda, Burundi, Nigeria, DRC, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Somali, etc. This state of affairs can be explained by the following.
President Yoweri Museveni spent most his time fighting all elements despotism until he came to power in 1986. Regular elections are held periodically in Uganda although the opposition accuses him of being an enlightened depot.
2. Despotism or dictatorial leadership in many of the African countries has been one of the key causes. E.g the Chadian civil war (1965), Ghananian coup against Kwame Nkrumah (1966), the 1974 coup in Ethiopia, 1971 coup in Uganda were all against this dictatorship, Amin's dictatorship led to his overthrow in 1979.
3. Greed for power is one of the causes of political crisis. This has led to formation of rebel movements/groups to fight against the existing government. E g SPLA in Sudan by John Garang. RCD Goma and UPC (both in DRC) to topple the Kabila I and II governments, etc.
4. Neo colonialism has played a role in causing political crises in Africa. In Chad, the French played a double role in supporting the government of Tombalbaye against the rebels and then the rebels against the central government of Tombalbaye. Many rebel activities in Africa have been or are being supported by neo-colonial powers. Eg the 27-year UNITA rebellion in Angola (up to 2002) was heavily supported by USA, in Congo-Belgium (1960-63), Belgium supported the Katanga secessionists.
5. Encroachment on another country's territory also leads to political crisis for example Upper Volta accused Ghana of building a school 2 km inside Burkina Faso in 1964. Amin tried to annex the Northwestern part of Tanzania (Kagera salient) and the western part of Kenya up to the rift valley. All these caused the interstate conflicts between these countries.
6. Accusation of subversion or support by some countries against others must also be blamed.
From 1962-66, Nkrumah was accused by Togo, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Liberia, Nigeria, Chad, and Gabon, even far away in Madagascar of supporting opposition groups against their governments. DRC has accused Uganda and Rwanda of supporting rebels against it from 1998-to date (2004). Uganda and Sudan have been accusing each other on the same grounds (ie Sudan supporting LRA and Uganda giving support to SPLA), Uganda and Rwanda have also been accusing each other of hiding their counterpart's political dissidents who want to declare war on these countries and fears of a possible war are irking between the two sides.
General Sani Abacha (left) looted Nigeria and saved as much as 3 billion dollars on his personal account in Europe. On the right is General Babangida.
7. Corruption by the government officials deserves comment. People become disgruntled due to lack of efficiency and proper accountability; remember corruption denies a particular group of people its services e.g corruption in Haile Selassie's government caused the Ethiopia coup of 1974, the Ghana coup in 1966 was caused by Kwame Nkrumah's corruption, Amin overthrew Obote in the 1971 coup on the basis that Obote's government was corrupt, etc.
8. Accusation of a country for the arrest of another country's officials. e.g in 1966, Ghana's president Joseph Ankrah detained Guinea Bissau's foreign minister and his 18-man delegation. These were on their way to the 7th ordinary session of the Council of Ministers in Addis Ababa. This led to sour relationship between the two. Conflict also arose between Ivory Coast and Guinea; The Guinea government had detained a senior Ivory Coast official for allegedly being involved in a plot to kidnap ex-president Nkrumah (Ghana) who had taken refuge in Conakry following the 1966 coup. In retaliation the Ivory Coast government detained the Guinea Foreign Affairs minister and his delegates on their way to the Council of Ministers session in Kinshasa in 1967.
9. There is also the question of unequal distribution of a country's economic, political and social resources. The Southern part of Nigeria is well off as against the North, this also happens in Sudan where it is the reverse and partly explains the existence of SPLA in the Southern Sudan.
Stunted children greatly suffering from malnutrition and food shortage in Niger. What is the African Union doing to avert the situation?
10. Famine can at times lead to instability. Ethiopia coup of 1974, political crises in Sudan, Rwanda, and Zimbabwe etc are partly attributed to famine.
11. Refugee crisis is another cause to be noted. Conflicts have occurred between the origin and the receiving countries, e.g. Uganda and Rwanda especially after 1959 Rwanda revolution; the Tutsi refugees from Rwanda who were tired of staying in Uganda, a foreign country, formed themselves into RPF/A and invaded the Rwanda government in 1990 in order to go back to their motherland. Uganda was accused by the Rwanda government of giving support to the RPF rebels. Rwanda, after 1994, accused Kenya of harbouring the Hutu who had participated in the 1994 Rwanda genocide. Relations between Rwanda and Burundi became strained in 1966 following the flight of many refugees from Rwanda to Burundi until Mobutu achieved peace between the two countries in 1967.
Presisdent Mwai Kibaki openly rigged elections and was hurriedly sworn in on December 29th 2007
12. Rigging of elections in Africa has been a common feature. Museveni accused Obote of rigging elections in 1980 and the subsequent rebellion from 1981-86 was against this. In Ivory cost in 2000, General Robert Guei attempted to rig elections and General Gbagbo protested this. In 2002 in Madagascar, Ravoramanana was against Ratsiraka for attempted election rigging until the latter fled to France in 2001.
13. Nepotism and sub-nationalism make political crisis inevitable. Some leaders have been accused of favouring only their 'people' against other people; and this has created tension between the two groups .E.g Tombalbaye's favouritism of the Sara tribe, Haile Selassie favoured most his Amhara tribesmen in public service, Amin accused Obote of favouring the people of Akokoro in the army, public service and in his plan to allocate industries. This explains why conflicts arose in these countries. There was also ethnic difference between the Hutu and the Tutsi in Rwanda and this explained the Rwanda genocide of 1994.
14. The weakness of the defunct OAU should be recalled ie the failure of its policy of non-interference/intervention in the internal affairs of member countries by other member states and failure to punish defying members. E.g Libya under Gadaffi intervened in the Chadian civil war of 1965-1980 but because there was no action taken against it, the crisis ensued between the two countries.
Gnassingbe Eyadema shamelessly ruled Togo for thirty eight years using a his tribal army, tribal civil service and all cabinet ministers from his village. On his death bed in 2005, he handed over power to his son Faure Eyadema, the current President (below).
15. Death of influential figures in the government partly destabilizes African states. This creates power vacuum, which culminates into power struggle. E.g the death of Habyarimana-President of Rwanda intensified the rate of conflict that bred into the genocide of 1994, etc.
16. Political crisis is attributed to poor treatment of the army. Threats of arrest e.g under payment and delayed payment. This partly accounted for the Ethiopian coup of 1974, which saw Emperor Haile Selassie's removal. Handling the army ruthlessly e.g Tombalbaye was overthrown by Felix Malloum for this reason.
17. Differences between leaders e.g Lumumba and Moise Tshombe of Belgian- Congo, the differences between Amin and Nyerere; that is why Nyerere supported UNLF to topple Amin.
18. The existence of military rule in some countries is significant to note. Many countries do not recognize the legality of these regimes e.g Uganda's military rule (1971-79) was not recognised by Tanzania. This laid ground for the subsequent political crisis between the two countries, Buyoya's second regime took long to be recognized by the Great Lakes countries.
19. High levels of poverty in many African countries also breed to crisis.
20. Failure by the government in power to organize free and fair democratic elections. This applies to almost all African presidents.
21. Religious intolerance.
22. Redundancy in the army e.g the 1999 coup in Ivory Coast
23. Overloading the army with wars e.g the Uganda army was tied of unending wars and overthrew Obote II from power in 1985.
ROBERT MUGABE has ruled Zimbabwe for 28 years with little social and economics development. At the age of 84 (June 1, 2008) why not hand over power?
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