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• 1 2020-03-05T07:27:02-08:00 Political Issues in West Africa 8 A look at the political issues in west Africa, specifically in Senegal, Nigeria, and Ghana. plain published 2020-05-06T07:49:23-07:00
  

  Colonization of Africa was beneficial to the continent in many ways like the advancements of technology and better medicine. However, with those benefits these foreign countries also brought and implemented their government systems and their religions. And since colonization has ended, there are problems that those countries left for Africa to figure out for themselves. For example, Africans have almost completely converted to Christianity or Islam due to influence of colonization and Arab expansion. Very few countries have been able to keep traditional African religion as the main following. This has led to an increase of religious discrimination between the two. Also, while independence from colonization seems like a success from the outside, Africa is suffering from internal problems due to clashing cultures and new borders. For example, since the countries in the region of west Africa gained their independence there have been 5 civil wars due to intrastate conflicts. Countries like Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea-Bissau, and Ivory Coast have all been involved in civil wars over the last century. Despite the introduction of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on May 28, 1975, which was made to help these countries thrive in unison and create a single, large trading block through economic cooperation, there is now an increase in election related violence and ethno-national related conflict. The reason for this increase is due to a long history of these western African countries not having good relations between the government and its people. It is a continuous cycle of having a country with an economy that is underdeveloped, the political institutions are weak and not respected allowing more acts of violence, further creating more distrust between the people and the state. The interesting point of this problem is that these government bodies were put into place by the colonial powers of the past, so it is no shock that after the colonial rule, it left the people of these countries in somewhat of a free for all as what to do with the government. This type of situation enables the bigger families of power in these countries to gain more power and maintain rule in all of the actions of the country. This power is kept often through violence, in order to strive for private gain rather than the well-being of their people. Combining powerful elites with a weak state causes more hate and violence in the country and can potentially lead to mismanagement of resources and distribution of goods. And mismanaging these already struggling markets leads to even more poverty and leaves many people unable to find work. In the article “Democracy and Armed conflict” the author Havard Hagre states, “The majority of the people suffer without having the chance to raise demands peacefully. That drives them easily into the arms of forces, which seek to violently oppose the ruling elite (Hegre et al.: 2009: 602). These groups attempt to take matters into their own hands forcefully and it becomes a vicious cycle of changes in power. But even though there have been dark times, there is hope as many of these countries have adapted to presidential republic governments, where the people elect who is in power. And there are also a few countries that are under a semi-presidential system where a president exists alongside a prime minister and a cabinet, with the cabinet being responsible to the legislature of the state. 
  
  A way to change the route of some of the struggling smaller countries is to reach out to the countries like Ghana and Nigeria. Ghana, though one of the smaller countries, politically it is the strongest in the continent. In 1957 Ghana gained independence from British colonization and became the first African colony to declare independence. And in 1992 the country established a new constitution and a multi-party system was created. A multi-party system is a system where multiple political parties take part in national elections. Each party has its own views. A lot of countries that use this system have a coalitions government, meaning many parties are in control, and they all work together to make laws. This allows more people to have a say and more requests to be met with this alliance type government. A problem that smaller countries like Senegal and Sierra Leone may have if they were to transition to a multi-party system is that they simply do not have the population size or proper institutions to run such government. I believe it all starts with an emphasis on education for the youth and availability for higher learning. Allowing more education opportunities not only creates new jobs but also makes it possible for home grown citizens to eventually earn a degree and hold a government position and these countries would not have to fear the threat of overthrown government and powerful family ruling. 

   

  
  Then there is Nigeria, the powerhouse country within the continent. Nigeria was also colonized by Great Britain and gained its independence in 1960. Surprisingly the national language is English. With that being said Nigeria is blessed by being rich in resources like crude oil and gold. Nigeria is first in Africa for oil production capacity and sixth in the entire world. A large reason for their success is also the location of the country. Nigeria is located on the Niger river which connects Nigeria to the other western countries and also the Atlantic Ocean which is why it has become a powerful seaport country.
  
  
  This has allowed great economic gain for the country allowing Nigeria to invest their profits in important areas like education and infrastructure. Without the success of natural resources and trade it is hard to imagine that Nigeria would be able to habituate as many people as it does, Nigeria being the most populous country within the continent. It is obvious that Nigeria’s success is largely due to the oil industry but in a broader view of the entire western region, west Africa is the poorest region out of the other 3 regions despite the profitable economy of Nigeria. Many of the countries on the actual coast remain small fishing ports where there are not many other opportunities. Because of the economic hardship the drug trade along the coastal countries has been a problem for decades, specifically with cocaine and marijuana. The western coast has been used as a means to get cocaine and other drugs from South America to Europe with West Africa being the middleman. As drug enforcement has increased, the problem has mostly abated, however it still lingers as an opportunity for stable income for many people living in poverty. 

   

  The solution in my opinion resides with the basic principle of education as stated previously. Better education creates more opportunities across the board. It creates more jobs and the competition of enrolling children would make the cost of schooling cheaper so families can send all their children instead of only one of them. It is also on the industrialized countries like the United States, China, Germany and other European countries to ensure that we are not creating more disparity between our advancements and the obstacles that African countries face.
  
  The different conditions these nations face clearly shape their politics, between being coastal or not, having rich natural resources, or dealing with rebellion, under-education, and other economic hardship relating to human intellectual productivity. And if they shape how the country behaves, as they shape her politics, they most certainly will shape how the nation interacts with her neighbors and other nations. In the next section, we will explore the international relationships of our nations and the converse of the above statement: how the international relationships of West Africa affects her growth and politics.
  
  Study Questions

  1. What year did Nigeria gain its independence from colonial rule?
  2. What are some reasons Nigeria has been able to be such a powerful country economically?
  3. What type of government does Ghana have?