The SADC region is facing challenges of insurgency in Mozambique, the Great Lakes region especially in the Democratic Republic of Congo is another conflict prone region, Alshabaab terror group is a security nightmare in the Horn of Africa, the Sahel region is another case in point where extremist groups totally destabilised the region and Central African Republic has been engulfed in violent conflict since 2013.
In fact, conflict in the Sahel region makes the African continent as the only one that boasts of a “belt of instability” from one side of the continent to the other (From the Atlantic coast to the Indian Ocean coast). Many people have attributed the causes of these violent conflict to many factors such as foreign powers meddling in the internal affairs of African states, ethnic differences, competition for resources and a host of others. However, not much emphasis has been put on how governance deficit, which is so rampant in the continent, has contributed to the escalation of violent conflict in Africa. Many scholars of Security Studies share the same views that poor governance from many of Africa’s leaders is a driver to violent conflict in many parts of the continent. Poor governance involves various malpractices by state leaders and their cronies who push away the needs of the people by creating personal rule paradigms where public office becomes more of a personal property used for personal gain which in turn negatively affects the poorest people and leave them vulnerable as they are denied basic necessities such as education, healthcare, food and shelter.
