Constitutionalism in Africa

Many governments of quite different types wish to describe themselves as democratic. Constitutionalism in this richer sense of the term is the idea the government should be limited in its power and that its authority depends on its observing these limitations. In some cases the term has even been incorporated into the official name of the state although it is a noticeable paradox that in most cases where this happened (e.g. the German Democratic Republic, the Peoples’ Democratic Republic of Yemen or the Democratic Republic of Congo) the states concerned appear significantly undemocratic on governmental powers, adherence to the rule of law, and the protection of human rights.

Constitutionalism is the antithesis of arbitrary rule. Its opposite is despotic government, the government of will instead of law. As far as democracy is concerned, its different definitions revolve around what Abraham Lincoln referred to as “government of the people, by the people and for the people”. It is a political system characterised by the participation and government of the people through their freely elected representatives, by the recognition and promotion of human and peoples’ rights, including the rights of the opposition and the minorities.

According to Rosenfeld, constitutionalism is “a three-faceted concept”, as it requires imposing limits. The people are sovereign in any democratic government which is based on the rule of law expressing their will. Modern constitutionalism is democratic constitutionalism and modern democracy is a constitutional one. Britain has been generally cited as a case of democracy without a constitution, in ignorance of the fact that constitutionalism is as much known in Britain as it is in democratic countries with a supreme constitution. Britain also has a constitution, even if this constitution is a customary or unwritten one. Constitutionalism and democracy are so related that “constitutional democracy” may appear to be a tautology.

Nowadays, there is practically no African country without a written constitution and whose leaders do not profess their faith in the ideals of constitutionalism and democracy. The present paper revisits the twin concepts of constitutionalism and democracy briefly. It also reflects on the related concepts of constitution, elections, and multipartyism. Against this theoretical background, it highlights the current state of constitutionalism and democracy in Africa where elections have been placed high on the agenda and stresses some challenges that need to be overcome to ensure the establishment and consolidation of constitutionalism and democracy on the continent. One of the mistakes generally made by some politicians, and even by some intellectuals, has been to indulge in the confusion between constitutionalism and written constitutions. Grey and Olukoshi rightly deplore such confusion between constitutionalism as defined earlier and written constitutions, or between constitutionalism and the constitution-making process. Constitutionalism is embedded in the idea that the government should be limited in its powers and that its authority depends on its observing these limitations. These limitations are in the form of individual or group rights against government, such as rights to free expression, association, equality and due process of law.

The attempt to limit governmental arbitrariness, which is the premise of a constitution, has several times met with failure. This failure has had a negative effect on both human and material development of Africa. By development we mean a “more inclusive concept with its social, political and economic facets. It is the qualitative and quantitative positive transformation of the lives of a people that does not only enhance their material well-being but also ensures their social well-being including the restoration of human dignity” (Osagie 1985). In other words, development should be “a warm, gradual and considerate process in its attempt to alleviate man’s economic and technological standard or conditions without disregarding or disrespecting any aspect of man’s existing social, cultural and political values” (Ifeyinwa 2004).

Development is about human, development cannot be divorced from the peoples. Any reasonable developmental efforts must have roots in the people it is meant for, before it can be successful. The adherence to the dictate of constitutionalism means limiting the arbitrariness of governmental power and failure of it means the enthronement of arbitrariness of governmental power. In that regard, this work set out to examine the reason why enthronement of constitutionalism has remained practically impossible in most African state; despite the fact that many constitutional conferences had been held and many constitutional drafting committees have being set up and completed their jobs, yet the idea of constitutionalism remains a day dream in many African countries.

The advent of colonialism in Africa and the subsequent takeover of African states brought about the introduction of modern forms of governance that necessitate modern form of constitution which is written and documented. The introduction of this constitution into the colony is regarded as an imposed constitutionalism. Schepple (2003) made a distinction between constitutionalism and imposed constitutionalism. According to him; constitutionalism is legitimate, but the imposed constitutionalism is not. Imposed constitutionalism is illegitimate because it is being drafted “in the shadow of the gun”.

None of the African countries under the colonial rule had the opportunity of substantial local participation in the constitutional process. Rather, they saw a substantial intervention and pressure imposed from outside to produce a constitutional outcome preferred by the colonizer. Even after independence, it has been discovered that almost all the constitutions drafted by African states still follow the same pattern of not allowing a substantial local participation. A noticeable negativity of this imposition is the crisis of legitimacy of the constitutional outcome. Immediately after the independence, the post-colonial African leaders visibly and notoriously adjusted to the structure of oppression and exploitation which they inherited. This trend has taken a new dimension today, according to Ade Ajayi (1992) “the urban political elite has alienated itself from its own people such that in those states which purport to maintain a measure of representative government, the political leaders only go to their supporters during election when they need votes” e.g. Zimbabwe because leaders make promises prior to the elections and it becomes the last they are heard of until the next election.

The situation has become worse to the extent that, many people have lost confidence in the democratic process, because, the elite, like the colonial state, which they inherited, have grown apart from the society. Increasingly, the state and the elite who control the state, have become predicators of the society (Ade-Ajayi 1992) The emphasis here is that, these leaders do not see themselves as statesmen who are expected to develop “a keen awareness of collective responsibility in the long term” (Joseph 2000), but “are like colonial administrators, overseers who are in power to ensure that the people adjust to the structure of oppression and exploitation which they manage” (Oladipo 1998). Chinua Achebe (1985) opines that most Africa leaders are not morally upright. They characteristically coerce all personnel and other arms of government to work in their interest. The consequence of this is that, the post colonial state and institutions were as oppressive as their colonial precursors. They were exploitative to the extent that they serve as avenues for capital accumulation and status attainment by the leaders. Thus, post-colonial African states could not guarantee freedom and justice for ordinary Africans. This being the case because it could not provide “the essential foundation for the pursuit of public benefits- peace, welfare and the opportunity for individuals to pursue their own happiness” (Christopher 1991). In an ideal society, leaders are expected to be role models. But the problem with African leaders has been the issue of bad leadership as they lack discipline and the citizens are following suit. African leaders have always been known for not obeying the constitution, since the constitution itself lacks merit. The colonialists have already set in place a bad example of governance, but Africa lacks good leadership that will confront this dilemma and thus take Africa out of its oppressive state.

They acquired absolute power, which made it possible for them to ensure that the debilitating condition (Afolayan 2009) Leadership is observed to be the most critical, such that many depict the continent as “a faraway place where good people go hungry, bad people run government, and chaos and anarchy are the norm.” (Alex Thomson 2002). More so, it has been rightly observed that under “the various oppressive authoritarian regimes which African countries have had the misfortune to chafe under for the greater part of its postcolonial history, Africans have been treated to a bastardization of constitutionalism and growing impotence of the judiciary in the face of countless acts of impunity, executive lawlessness and economic brigandage by praetorian guards that had imposed themselves on the political landscape of the nation” (Oyebode 2005).

One of the features of Constitutionalism is that it requires political order governed by the laws and regulations. It describes the system of government regulated by the supreme law of the land which is the constitution. To start with, a constitution is a body of rules and regulations written as well as unwritten where the government is organized and its functions (Johari 2009). It can also be defined as the basic or foundation laws of a political society. The constitution is the supreme law of the political society, it is higher than and takes precedence over other laws of a society. According to Hans (2012) “constitutional government is a regime type that is characterized by the fact that ‘government’ operates within a set of legal and institutional constraints that both limit its powers and protect the individual liberty of the citizens of a polity”. Constraint elements are the set of rules or basic laws that establishes the duties, powers and functions of the government and there are enshrined in a constitutional state. In this vein, a constitutional state is a state in which the powers of the government is based on the constitution and democracy and provides the guideline on which the government should operate.

Constitutionalism is therefore, a government conducted in accidence with and within the limits set by the fundamental law of the land (Almon, 2011). It desires to have political institutions and order in which the powers of the government are limited; it also tells us how political affairs are ruined in any given country. In its critical sense includes the ideal of nationalism, democracy and limited government and embraces the supremacy of the law and not individual or organizations.

On the other hand, Constitutionalism desires a political order in which the powers of the government are limited; it stands for a government regulated by the supreme law of the land (Johari, 2009). It embraces the government which operates within stipulated framework. According to Moller (2012) to be genuinely constitutional in character, a government must comply with fundamental requirement; the government must operate in accordance with the provision of the constitution, the government must also not exceed the authority granted to it by the constitution. However, the essential features of constitutionalism are the government’s compliance with the basic legal requirement. In this scenario, the central purpose of constitutionalism is limited governmental powers, to check and restrain the person who holds public office and exercises political authority.

In theory and practice, therefore, constitutionalism and the democratic process are closely intertwined. However, democracy and constitutionalism in our present context must thus be seen as mutually reinforcing notions (Mbondenyi and Ojienda, 2013). In this scenario, it recognizes the principle of separation of powers and it is identified with the system of divided powers. Constitutionalism is the concept of having a limited and civilized government that stand on the principle function of the constitution. In order for the government to be effective and operates within the vicinity stipulated by the law, there must be separation of powers. In simplest rendition, constitutionalism denotes a form of government based on a prescribed division of powers and among public officials (Mbondenyi and Ojienda, 2013). Constitutionalism in Zambia stipulates the existence of political institutions that is the Executive, Legislature and Judiciary. According to Uwensuyi (2006) “it must be observed that true insight of the concept of constitutionalism must involve an understanding of power distribution”. Separation of powers indicate that different arms of the Zambian  government to wit, Executive, Legislature and Judiciary should be separate and distinct and must not be exercised by the same person or authority. This however, helps to provide checks and balances without any interference from any one or authority.

According to Johari (2009) constitutionalism by dividing powers provide a system of effective restraints upon governmental action. It is very cardinal in Zambia because the three organs of government are kept apart from each other in the interest of individual liberty. However, in most cases, separation of power is just on paper, this is because top judicial officials are appointed by the president. Part 6, article 93 clause 1 of the constitution of Zambia articulates that the chief and deputy chief justice, supreme and high courts judges to be appointed by the president (Zambian constitution, 1996). With this in place makes the judiciary not purely independent as the judges may operate under the instruction of the president or executive branch of government. For example the acquittal of former Zambian president Fredrick Chiluba was as the result of interference by the former president Banda.

Elections are also cardinal to constitutionalism and this shows clearly that elections are indicators of constitutionalism. Constitutionalism embraces free and fair elections frequent held elections which also is a central feature of democracy (Mbondenyi and Ojienda, 2013). Free and fair elections postulate that people are at liberty to participate in elections either as a voter or candidate. Part 4, article 35 of the Zambian constitution stipulates that a person shall hold the office of the president for 5years and thereafter elections shall be conducted (Zambian constitution, 1996). In this scenario the constitutional and legal order allows people to freely associate by forming political parties as promulgated by the constitutional that Zambia is a multi-party democratic state, to advance their interest. In addition, the point must be clearly stated that elections alone do not confer constitutionality; the important aspect is whether such elected government is limited by predetermined rules and are the elections free and fair (Mbondenyi and Ojienda, 2013). In many instance election are regular although no free and fair as many at times they are characterised by rigging.

The rule of law requires that the government operates within its vicinity; it embraces the government that does not undermine the supremacy of the constitution. It requires that the organs of the government and people holding public offices operate through the law (Harst, 2002). According to Dicey (1959) the rule of law has three concepts; the supremacy of the law as opposed to arbitrariness by government, equality of all people before the law and establishment of rights of individuals. However, the law must be enforced by an independent judiciary separate from lawmakers and it must treat all people equally. The law must respect and preserve the dignity, equality and human rights of all persons. In this scenario, the law must establish and safeguard the constitutional structure necessary to build free society in which citizens have meaningful voices in shaping and enacting the law governing them.

The rule of law serves as a buttress for the democratic principles (Almon, 2011). Since powers of government affect individual liberty may only be conferred by parliament. In line with this doctrine of government according to the law, a person directly affected by government actions may be able, if necessary to challenge the legality of that action before the courts of law. Further the rule of law requires that public authorities and officials are made subject to effective sanctions if they breech the law. In addition, this has been applied to all former presidents for abuse of authorities. India is a democratic country with a written constitution. Rule of law is a basis for governance of the country and all structures are expected to follow it in letter and spirit. Over the past six (6) decades excessive bureaucratization and alienation of the rulers from the ruled has been the order of the day.

In nutshell, constitutionalism embraces the government limited by the supreme law of the land and compliance to the guidelines of the constitution. In this scenario, constitutionalism supports the existence of frequent held elections, limited government, adherence to the law, checks and balances, separation of powers, protection of human rights and equality before the law or no one is above the law. In Africa, countries like Zambia, constitutionalism is being observed even though not completely achieved as certain qualities have been scored such as frequent elections, separation of powers, protection and promotion of human rights and limited government. While these qualities are scored some of them are not fully achieved and they stand explained on paper but not carried out in our day to day lives.

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"Democracy in intensive care" by Mabanda Mayibongwe

Democracy in the African Continents can be said to be in the intensive care.  Various reasons such as that there is abuse of power, rule by law instead of rule of law, amendment of constitutions to suit personal interests, existence of constitutions but without constitutionalism, no freedom of expression and one party states point to this view point. This paper will demonstrate how democracy is in the intensive care unit by looking at the systems and methods of governance of African states. However, it will be naive to generalise that democracy is in the intensive care unit in Africa as a whole because in other countries within Africa, democracy is thriving. Therefore this essay seeks to show how some parts of Africa are in the intensive care unit. This paper will give a working definition of democracy and scrutinise the tenets of democracy and use these parameters as a yardstick to measure the extent African states comply with it.

Democracy has been defined by different scholars throughout history and among the many definitions some of them are these, Dahl, (2000) has outlined several procedural minimal conditions that enable modern representative democratic government. These are the following “elected officials, free, fair, and frequent elections, freedom of expression, alternative sources of information, associational autonomy and inclusive citizenship” (Dahl, 2000:85, Schmitter and Karl, 1996:55). Sorensen (1993) defined democracy as rule by the people through periodic elections of their highest leaders in which nearly all adults can participate for which offices they are eligible and under the rule of law. He also posits that for democracy to exist newspapers and other communication media are free to criticise government policies and leaders and also open competition is allowed for political office. ‘The government of the people, by the people and for the people by Lincoln (nd.) thus democracy in simpler terms is inclusivity, participation, respect of human rights and putting people’s interest first. The working definition for this essay will be democracy is a form of government in which all people have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal (and more or less direct) participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law (William, 2011).

Lack of constitutionalism in Africa is another reason why democracy has been said to be in the intensive care unit. One of the mistakes generally made by some politicians, and even by some intellectuals, has been to indulge in the confusion between constitutionalism and written constitutions. Many African leaders were eager to adopt new “constitutions”, to amend, abrogate or replace the old ones with the new ones in order to consolidate their personal powers, with countries such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) beating the world-record of one “constitution per year” in its 46 years of independence, the actual situation has been painted by Okoth-Ogendo (1996) as one of “constitutions without constitutionalism”. Instead of limiting the powers of the government, establishing the rule of law, protecting human and people’s rights and fostering democracy, most constitutions were enacted to rather remove any checks on governmental power, to limit the power of the sovereign people, to subject them to the will of the president and adopted in such a way. Thus democracy is said to be in the intensive care unit.

The way elections are carried out in other African countries has contributed to democracy being in the intensive care unit. To borrow from Okoth-Ogendo’s (1996) metaphor of “constitutions without constitutionalism”, there have been elections without democracy in many African countries and confusing the two is rather a fallacy, the electoralist one. The anti-thesis of the electoralist fallacy is what Seligson and Booth (1995) have termed the “anti-electoralist fallacy”. The latter assumes that elections never matter for democratisation. There is no democracy in our modern times without elections. Nevertheless, for elections to be democratic, some criteria should be met before, during and after the proclamation of the results. Democracy is a competitive system with free, fair and regular elections and universal suffrage where citizens are guaranteed their main freedom rights (Bobbio, 2008). Thus democracy is in the intensive care unit. In democratic elections, there must be no way of knowing for which political party or for which particular candidate a citizen has voted. They are then secrete, when each citizen can put his ballot in an envelope, without having been either watched over or influenced, in the secrecy of the polling booth. An example of a country without elections which is against the tenets of democracy is Somalia. Elections in Somalia were last held during the tenure of Somalia's socialist administration in the 1980s. Popular elections were planned for the parliament in 2012, but were not held. The provisional constitution of the country however does provides for an electoral system, (CIA Factbook, 2009). The Kingdom of Egypt was granted nominal independence by the United Kingdom on 28 February 1922. Between the Declaration of 1922 and the Revolution of 1952, ten general elections were held in 1924, 1925, 1926, 1929, 1931, 1936, 1938, 1942, 1945 and 1950, (Caldwell, 1966).

The availability of one party states has contributed to Africa’s democracy being in the intensive care unit. Heywood (2002: 259–60) has made the point that ‘one-party system’ is a contradiction in terms, since ‘system’ implies interaction among a number of entities.Some countries became de jure single-party states,that is, they changed their constitutions so that only one political party was allowed in the country. Such parties are subject to strict ideological discipline, in accordance with the tenets of Marxism-Leninism, and they have highly structured internal organizations in line with the principles of democratic centralism’ (Heywood 2002: 258–66). These are cadre parties in the sense that membership is restricted on political and ideological grounds. Examples of de jure one-party states were Ethiopia with the Ethiopian Workers Party (WPE) and Somalia between 1976 to 1991 with Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party (SRSP). Since there is only one party in this system, there is no freedom of expression and democracy is eroded and dictatorship emerges. There is no regard for the views of different classes and interests. Government becomes absolute and the administration becomes irresponsible. The dictators make enormous military preparations for maintaining their honour and position and they adopt the policy of war and victory which is quite harmful for the country.Thus putting democracy in the intensive care unit.

African leaders amend constitutions to suit personal interests thus putting democracy in the intensive care unit. Those in power tend to amend constitutions so they suit their personal interests. In Burundi, President Pierre Nkurunziza announced in April 2015 that he would seek a third term in office, they amended the constitution to allow for a third term and he won the next election which results were announced on the 24 of July 2015 and he went back for a third term, (Reuters, 2015). Rwandan President, Paul Kagame, according to their constitution could only serve two seven year terms but he went to referendum to change the constitution, he will run for president in the 2017 elections. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni had presidential term limits removed in 2005, Reuters, (2005) so he could run for office in 2006. Thus clearly pointing out that democracy is in the intensive care unit.

Africa’s democracy has been said to be in the intensive care unit because ordinary citizens have been denied freedom of expression. Resorting to military force to maintain power by suppressing political opponents and disgruntled civilians impinges on the effective upholding of human rights. Bingu WaMutharika (1995) argues that even in a democracy, “…the masses can still be oppressed by the system or excluded from the decision-making processes by the same system that they will have installed and that human rights abuses can still take place even under plural democracy. Political harassment can be initiated by an elected government so as to protect its interests though at the expense of the masses. According to Makuni (2008) a political leader in power might see the violation of human rights as a necessary evil which enables that leader to stay in power. For example Ken Saro-Wiwa, an activist from Nigeria was executed by a former military regime in Nigeria for fighting for the rights of the Ogoni, (Adiama, nd.). Thus one can argue that greed and hunger for power by African leaders which leads them to violating human rights is a factor impinging the effective upholding of human rights and democracy in Africa. Thus democracy is in the intensive care unit.

The era of the colonial rule contributed to Africa’s democracy being in the intensive care unit. The lingering effects of colonialism undermined efforts to build stable, democratic economies and states and this could be seen throughout Africa during the colonial period and post-colonial years, (Kodyo, 1976). When the Europeans established colonial boundaries, they ignored existing ethnic or cultural divisions. New borders divided peoples of the same background or threw different—often rival—groups together. Because of this, a sense of national identity was difficult to develop. After independence, the old colonial boundaries became the borders of the newly independent states. As a result, ethnic and cultural conflicts remained and African nations with unbalanced economies and a small middle class. Such economic problems lessened chances of creating democratic stability. During that time there was no majority rule which is against democracy tenets. They only served the minority, thus putting democracy on life support machines.

The liberal notion of democracy has put democracy in Africa, in the intensive care unit. This liberal notion of democracy has been criticised in certain circles as being too elitist, stressing that aspects of participation are neglected (Pateman 1970; Chambers 1996). These other debates about more substantive democracy therefore put much more emphasis on inclusionary, deliberative, and participatory processes. As John Gaventa (2006) has put it, the ‘deepening democracy’ strand of the democracy debate ‘focuses on the political project of developing and sustaining more substantive and empowered citizen  participation in the political process than what is normally found in liberal representative  democracy alone. Though far from perfect, the constitutions of both post-authoritarian Brazil and post-apartheid South Africa offer examples of deliberate attempts at more substantive and participatory democratic governance (including provisions for participatory budgeting, for instance).

However, it will be naïve to rule out African democracy as that it is in the intensive care unit entirely because in some parts of the African continent it has had its successes. When evaluated by democracy’s minimum definition and procedural conditions (as outlined by Bobbio, 2008; Dahl, 2000,Schmitter and Karl, 1996) - as a system with free, fair and frequent elections, universal suffrage and that guarantees certain freedoms and rights to its citizens –Botswana and South Africa democracy is striving. Given South Africa’s particular context as a country with many languages, cultures, religions and social structures with tensions between them, an evaluation of democracy as an instrument for conflict prevention and resolution is a must. In this respect, democracy, as a system of rights that protects, incorporates and respects minorities, allows expression and is responsive to citizen’s demands, is effectively instrumental, and thus successful, for the peaceful resolution of conflicts. Zuma was recently brought before the High Court, News24, (2016) (rule of law) in that country for the Nkandla Security Structures case where he used state funds and he had to answer for that. There has not been any mention of violence or harassment during elections and people can demonstrate whichever way they please and opposition parties can directly attack the President in Parliament. Thus democracy is not only in the intensive care unit but is striving in other countries.

In a nutshell, it is valid to conclude basing on the evidence above that democracy in the African continent is in the intensive care unit to a greater extent. Some scholars however, argue that although it is in the intensive care unit democracy is striving in other countries in the same continent. With this it is crucial to note that democracy is not an event, it is a process.

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Major economic roots of civil conflicts and possible ways of mitigating these

There is no single explanation or model for civil conflicts across the globe rather; multiple competing and modified models exist. Civil wars have gained increasing attention from academics and policymakers alike in recent years. This concern is understandable since civil conflict is the source of immense human suffering.It is estimated that civil wars have resulted in three times as many deaths as wars between states since World War II. A major locus for civil wars in recent years has been Sub-Saharan Africa, where twenty-nine of forty-three countries suffered from civil conflict during the 1980s and 1990s. In the median Sub-Saharan African country, hundreds of thousands of people were displaced from their homes as a consequence of civil war during this period. There is a growing body of research that highlights the association between economic conditions and civil conflict. Some of the major economic roots of civil conflicts include unequal distribution of resources, land disputes, poverty, corruption, greed  and unemployment among a host of other causes.

Precarious economic welfare ignites civil conflict; causing insecurity and growing dissatisfaction among the people against existing governments. Political instability and the risk of conflict increase. This encourages emigration of highly skilled and educated labour and the flight of capital making it even more difficult to reverse the process of economic decline. The vicious circle of poverty and stagnation continues and with it the likelihood of conflict.

According Collier (2003) a civil war is classified as an internal conflict with at least one thousand battle-related deaths. Fortna (2008) cited that a civil war should represent a challenge to the sovereignty of internationally recognized state, occur within recognize boundary of the state, recognize the state as one of the principal combatants and lastly the rebel were should be able to mount an organized military opposition were to inflict significant casualties to the state.

The risk of civil war will be particularly high if there is a sudden sharp fall in output, employment and income, and no clear sign that the country will be able to reverse it in the foreseeable future. The costs of economic stagnation have “a dramatic causal impact on the likelihood of civil war.” Moreover, this is not confined to low-income countries though they are, of course, particularly vulnerable because “the impact of growth shocks on conflict is not significantly different in richer more democratic or more ethnically diverse countries”. For instance, sharp falls in income and large increases in unemployment preceded civil wars in Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Indonesia. The same happened in Yugoslavia following the liberal reforms in 1989. The economy declined by 15-20 per cent and the rate of unemployment in some regions reached 40 per cent of the adult population “fuelling social unrest.” The difference between these four states was that in Yugoslavia income per capita was two or three times the average for civil war countries and it had high levels of education as well as a public health service that was unusually comprehensive for the country’s level of industrialization. Two years later the first of the Yugoslav civil wars broke out.

Impoverishment and inequality has increased over the last thirty years worldwide to the extent that governments have become either unable or unwilling to compensate for this through income transfers thus causing civil war. The danger is that nothing is done to reverse this situation; these trends will create exactly the conditions in which people, especially inhabitants of the poorest countries, can easily become caught in the vicious circle of relative or absolute impoverishment, despair and hate.  The low level of development limits the capacity of a country to produce the volume of output required to satisfy the needs and aspirations of its population.Consequently, employment opportunities are also limited so that unemployment is invariably high and it increases the inequality.

Corruption plays an important role in igniting civil wars. Corrupt governments are usually incapable of delivering public services to the people. Closely linked to corruption are nepotism, ethnicism and tribalism resulting into unequal participation in the socio-economic and political space of a country. These factors can be perfect ingredients to ignite civil wars. According to the Sierra Leone Human Rights Commission(2008), bad governance, endemic corruption and the denial of human rights together with their attendant consequences made the Sierra Leone civil conflict inevitable‖. According to a Monograph article (2001) Kabila failed to reverse corruption, mismanagement and self-enrichment that had characterised Mobutu’s government hence this led to the DRC conflict of 1997. Campell (1999) cited that Congolese Democratic Movement (CDM) Kabila’s mass killings, arbitrary violence, tribalism, nepotism and corruption. Recently Mubarak and Morsi were removed by coups in Egypt because of a corrupt system that failed to provide ‘Bread, Freedom and Social equality’ as symbolised in the slogans that were chanted at Tahir Square (Brown 2013).

According Mwanika (2010) natural resources can also be connected to the acquisition, use, and proliferation of small arms and light weapons, a situation that has exploited the negative opportunities provided by globalisation. In this case, natural resources have provided a parallel political economy for fuelling wars and conflicts. Mineral Resources such as diamonds has been known to have sustained wars in various African countries like Sierra Leone and Angola. Rebels or the governments have been accused to plunder minerals to fund civil wars through exchanging the precious minerals for military weapons. Roberts (2003) noted that United Nation's Fowler Report cited that The United Nations estimated Angolans made between three and four billion dollars through the diamond trade between 1992 and 1998 despite sanctions and trade restriction and diamond firms like  De Beers have openly acknowledges spending $500 million on legal and illegal Angolan diamonds in 1992 alone while people like Joe De Deker, a former stockholder in De Beers, worked with the government of Zaire to supply military equipment to UNITA from 1993 to 1997. The Diplomatic handbook (2007) cited that it will be simplistic to attribute the Sierra civil war of  March 1991 to January 2002 to diamonds however diamonds played an important role in funding the war as well as creating allies like Muammar Gaddafi who had interests in diamonds who supplied weapons and training bases. Similarly Horovitz (2009) observed By late 1992, the Revolutionary United Front RUF (the rebels fighting against the All People‘s Congress (APC) occupied diamond-rich areas and began sending gems to their foreign patrons, in exchange for weapons and logistical support. Gudza (2007) observed that countries like Zimbabwe were motivated by diamonds to enter the Democratic Republic of Congo war on the side of Laurent Kabila an illegitimate leader. In Somalia Al Shaabab finance its war through selling ivory and it has been accused of killing more than ten thousand elephants each year. wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Shaabad (militia-group)

Some scholars like Collier subscribe to the greed and grievance discourse. This theory highlight that civil wars can be caused pure greed while grievances are used to a facade. According Collier (2006) argues that the financial vibility of rebel organization is a determinant factor in civil wars. He argues that factors inequality, a lack of democracy, and ethnic and religious divisions, had little systematic effect on causing conflicts. His argument uses groups that led Civil conflicts in Colombia like FARC which was able to employ 12,000 people through kidnapping and drugs. In contrast the Michigan Militia in USA failed to make an impact because it had no money to finance the war. The motivation of groups like FARC is greed than grievances.  The rebels usually target primary commodity exports, examples can be drawn from secceions thus the Katangan secession movement in Zaire targeted the

copper mining region; the Biafran secession movement targeted Nigerian oil producing region ; the Aceh secession movement in Indonesia took the oil-producing region with per capita GDP three times the national average; the successful Eritrean secession was a region with double the per capita income of the rest of Ethiopia (Collier 2003).

Possible ways of mitigating these stems from using an effective criterion for anticipating the likelihood of civil war is to consider whether the country has already suffered from a civil conflict. Indeed, half of the civil wars since World War II, and every civil war that began after 2003 have taken place in countries that had a previous civil war (Collier and Hoeffler, 2007; World Development Report, 2011). The recent report from the World Bank argues that international assistance focuses on recovery rather than prevention (World Development Report, 2011). The predominance of civil wars during the 80s and the 90s in the South has led international support to be targeted to ending civil conflicts. The aid received in post-conflict countries greatly exceeds the aid received in fragile states to prevent an escalation of violence. An illustration is West Africa during the 2000s. The World Bank reports that the aid to two post-conflict countries, Liberia in 2008 and Sierra Leone over the 2000-2003 period, was around US$415 per capita and US$186 per capita (each year) respectively. By contrast, aid for preventing conflict in Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, and Togo was only US$42 per capita. However, understanding the precise causes of civil war may help to apply adequate instruments to prevent them. There are some inexpensive interventions, such as state-society consultations even if financial assistance is often necessary to stop the rising of violence (World Development Report, 2011).

Economic Development

The main empirical result of the literature suggests that the best long-run conflict prevention strategy is economic development. A direct instrument for development is giving aid to poor countries. Aid has some positive effects in conflict prevention, in addition to the desired reduction of poverty. Collier and Hoeffler (2002) argue that aid has no systematic direct effect on the risk of conflict, but that it is beneficial nonetheless through its effect on growth.  However, Collier et al. (2004) show that the gain is modest relative to the cost of the aid and they argue in consequence that conflict reduction should not be the core rationale for aid to low-income countries. An essential factor of long-run development is the quality of institutions (Acemoglu et al. 2001). The World Bank report argues that institutions for security, justice and jobs should first be consolidated to prevent repeated cycles of violence. To have any chance of success, post-conflict strategies must, therefore, concentrate from the start on institutional changes and policies that promote reconciliation, reconstruction and reduction in absolute poverty and income insecurity.

Reconciliation

The effort to achieve reconciliation of the warring factions is therefore of critical importance, and its success will depend on how the authorities deal with four major problems, each of them more serious after the conflict than before. First, as all internal conflicts result in atrocities against civilian populations as well as the combatants, the old grievances, resentments and animosities are likely to be felt even more intensely. The war may also change the ethnic balance of the population in a region or country, as large numbers of people are forced to flee their homes. The minority will now feel even more insecure than before, a fact that the majority may exploit in order to ‘cleanse’ the ethnic or religious character of their region or country by making the minority’s life intolerable and forcing it to emigrate. Anticipating this, a Government genuinely determined to promote reconciliation will act promptly after the conflict to outlaw discrimination and threats against any group and will use – and be seen to use – the law enforcing agencies to implement the new laws. This is essential to demonstrate the determination of the authorities to break with the past by giving all those living on their territory a stake in the new order.

Reconstruction

“The reconstruction of physical infrastructure and the provision of social services are critical for the revival of economic activity and giving people a stake in the peace process”.ll

Although the scale of destruction inflicted by civil wars will vary from country to country, the effect can be devastating even in conflicts of relatively short duration. In addition to the costs (human, social and economic) mentioned earlier, shortage of food is a common problem. As a result, nutritional standards, which are inadequate in low-income countries even at the best of times, can fall to dangerously low levels. With many residential buildings badly damaged or destroyed, serious shortage of housing is another common problem. Much of the infrastructure and productive assets in agriculture and industry will also be destroyed, damaged or made obsolete during the conflict. The combined human and economic cost of the devastation can be staggering. For example, as a result of the genocide in 1994, GDP per capita in Rwanda is 25-30 per cent lower than it would have been without the conflict. During the conflict, 10 per cent of the population died and almost four times as many people fled to neighbouring countries. As a result of such heavy casualties, children have been left with the responsibility of looking after 85,000 of the country’s households. The level of poverty increased significantly, with 60 per cent of the population regarded in 2001 as poor and 42 per cent unable to meet basic food needs.Food, shelter, clothing and medical services must, therefore, be given priority in postconflict countries in order to provide people with the basic needs necessary for survival.

Create employment

The first goal is to achieve high levels of employment and job security in order to give

everyone a stake in their country’s future so that people do not feel useless, not wanted or live in fear of the future. This was judged in the 1940s to be so important that it was enshrined in the United Nations Charter. The second goal aims at sustaining the rate of growth required to maintain high levels of employment and job security in the long run. The third goal is to keep prices stable so that the rate of inflation does not make it impossible to achieve the other objectives. The fourth goal is to ensure that the gains from economic progress are distributed in a way that is widely regarded as fair and, also, makes sure that nobody is allowed to exist below a socially acceptable standard of living. The fifth goal is a sustainable external balance (on the current and long-term capital accounts) to enable the country to preserve its economic sovereignty, thus allowing it to pursue the other four goals thereby mitigating civil war.

Fighting Corruption

Self aggrandisement and greed erodes the moral fibre of nations and it destroys the economies of the nations. It creates inequality and intolerable poverty that causes the discontent to take arms against governments. To ensure peace governments needs to adopt systems that promote accountability and transparency. Highly punitive legislation needs to be adopted to punish offenders this will deter potential offenders.

Promotion of democracy will create equitable economic growth that will attract foreign direct investments that will lead to employment and improve livelihoods. Democracy and inclusive political systems needs to be embraced. According Tobbala (2013) democratic governance is known as a combination of both the values of democracy through a process of governance that involves interaction among actors representing the State, civil society and the private sector. The process of governance is therefore based on universally accepted principles ensuring the balance of power, checks and balances. The principles mainly include: participation, accountability, and transparency, rule of law, separation of powers, access to justice, subsidiarity, equality and freedom of the press. These principles are needed to ensure that democratic governance takes root. Militarism and repressive laws needs to be curtailed. Civil societies should work hand in glove with governments to help in coming up with democratic systems that ensures that citizens has full and active participation in the government.

International and Regional bodies like UN and AU should promote and enforce good governance among member states to ensure that there is no abuse of power. The bodies can then take to task leaders who are defiant to its dictates. Bad governance in most cases results in inequalities when sharing resources.

References

Roberts, Janine (2003). Glitter & Greed: The Secret World of the Diamond Empire. , New York ,The Disinformation Company Ltd pp.223–224

Horovitz, S. (2009) ‘Sierra Leone: interaction between international and national responses to the mass atrocities’ in Domac, vol 3, December.

The Human Rights Commission of Sierra Leone, ‗First Annual Report on the State of Human Rights in Sierra Leone 2007‘ (March 2008)

Campbell H. (1999), “Democratisation, Citizenship and peace in Congo”, in M. Baregu, Crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Harare, Sapes books,

Tobbala, S. (2012). Local Governance and Democratization: The Roadmap for a Responsive Accountable Egypt, Cairo University, Faculty of Economics and Political Science – FEPS.

Gudza, T. (2007). Zimbabwe’s print media coverage of the country’s military involvement in the Democratic Republic of Congo from 1998-2002: The case of The Herald, The Sunday Mail, The Financial Gazette and The Zimbabwe Independent, Honours Dissertation, University of Zimbabwe, 2007.

Fortna. V, (2008), Peacekeeping and the peacekept: Data on peacekeeping in civil wars 1989-2004 ,New York, Columbia University.

www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al-Shaabad (militia-group)  accessed 14/4/2014