Selected Issues of Africa: Governance, Conflict and Peace-Building

This work takes a cursory look at some important dynamics and trends on Africa’s political development. It underscores three important issues of governance, conflict and peace-building. The work constitutes three main chapters. Chapter one analyses the democratic dispensation of the Fourth Republic of Ghana. It takes a look at some of the challenges of Ghana’s democracy and concludes that Ghana which has won the accolade of being “the gateway” of democratic governance in Sub-Saharan Africa is at best a democratizing state rather than being democratic. The findings of the work clearly give the evidence of fear, acrimony and incumbency abuse of elections as a constant threat to Ghana’s democratization process. It has also been revealed that ethnicity has become a major determinant of electoral politics in Ghana which has been couched in the Akan-Ewe electoral card played by the two front-horses of Ghana’s politics, the NPP and the NDC whose electoral successes have been influenced by the Akans and Ewes respectively since the inception of the Fourth Republic in 1992. Other challenges include the low participation of women in politics and public life, the frequent boycotts of parliamentary sessions by the NPP and the NDC and the lack of respect for the rule of law. Chapter two examines the impact of conflict on poverty and food security in Africa. It concludes that all the effects of conflict are poverty and food insecurity related. The work establishes the fact that poverty and food insecurity on the African continent has been exacerbated by the conflict prone nature of African states from the loss of lives and physical suffering to the effects of conflict on the natural environment. The work draws practical examples from intractable civil war countries like Angola, Sudan, DR Congo and Sierra Leone among many others for concrete evidence upon which the lessons of the study are much appreciated for the progress of the continent. The final chapter underscores the challenges of post-conflict peace-building in Africa. It takes a deep analysis of the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission (SLTRC) inaugurated in 2002. The analysis of the SLTRC offers a good lesson for the viability of truth commissions as effective transitional justice mechanism for addressing the legacy of past human rights abuse. The SLTRC remains one of the effective of its kinds in Africa due to its massive international involvement, the greater participation of civil society organisations throughout the activities and processes of the commission, the public hearing and high publicity of the proceeding of the commission and the special attention given to women and children. However, the commission was plagued with a number of challenges, inter alia; the simultaneous operation of the Sierra Leone Special Court (SLSC); obstacles of making the wider public aware of and knowledgeable of the commission such as illiteracy, lack of single The final chapter underscores the challenges of post-conflict peace-building in Africa. It takes a deep analysis of the Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission (SLTRC) inaugurated in 2002. The analysis of the SLTRC offers a good lesson for the viability of truth commissions as effective transitional justice mechanism for addressing the legacy of past human rights abuse. The SLTRC remains one of the effective of its kinds in Africa due to its massive international involvement, the greater participation of civil society organisations throughout the activities and processes of the commission, the public hearing and high publicity of the proceeding of the commission and the special attention given to women and children. However, the commission was plagued with a number of challenges, inter alia; the simultaneous operation of the Sierra Leone Special Court (SLSC); obstacles of making the wider public aware of and knowledgeable of the commission such as illiteracy, lack of single lingua franca and security concerns etc.; serious mismanagement and staff recruitment problems; and time, resource and funding constraints. and security concerns etc.; serious mismanagement and staff recruitment problems; and time, resource and funding constraints.

Source: UG