Sub Saharan Africa: Political Power Struggle in Nigeria (Essay Sample)

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Sub Saharan Africa
Introduction
Political power struggles are prevalent in most parts of the African continent. On the face of fact, Africa from the Far East to the far West has had a series of crises that are politically motivated. Political power denotes the power to exercise control over the common citizenry in a particular country. Political power, in the recent times, has been overstated. The overstatement of the same is partly due to its influence in the society. Nothing attracts the attention of the people than politics. In Africa, politics is life and life is close to impossible without politics.
Political Power Struggle in Nigeria
Nigeria, in the recent has raised the world’s eye brows as regards the rate of development in the region. Nigeria is convincingly the best place to reside if someone were to choose a place to settle in Africa. When it comes to democracy little can be said concerning the same subject. In general, democracy in the newly independent African states has not sprouted to the levels that can be perceived by the international community as a whole. However, Nigeria, as compared to other independent nations in the continent, can be said to have made significant foot steps towards the realization of democracy and human rights protection. Democracy cannot be said to be complete without due regard to the respect for human rights. Various legal enactments have been installed in the system to provide a complete protection of Nigerian nationals in the country CITATION Jos14 \l 1033 (Joseph). Economically, Nigeria is endowed with fairly good infrastructure. The good infrastructure is responsible for the high rate of development in the country. Compared to other Sub Saharan African countries, Nigeria emerges the best developed. South Africa, too, has fairly good infrastructure close to that of Nigeria.
Administratively, Nigeria is a federation. The federal system cant said to be indigenous in the strict sense. Worth noting is the fact that Nigeria was recently under British colonization. The effects of colonization cannot be said to be extremely imperceptible. Importation of completely different system of administration is among the effects of colonial imperialism. As a result, Nigeria adopted the British form of administration in the various districts of the country. However, the copied system of administration was ‘Africanized’ to fit the prevailing context in the country.
Political power, as explained above, is entirely valued in Nigeria. Winning an election means that a person, his village, tribe or even region obtain all top posts in the government, get very attractive government contracts and better forms of roads in their areas. The people who manage to bring forth a leader are likely to benefit in all spheres of human life. Awarding scholarships is first directed to the people who emerge to possess a representative of their own in the government. The fact that other parts of the country are arid; the possibility of having a well dug at your place is dependent on a community’s influence to raise a leader. Industrialization is non uniform. If you a community ‘won’ an election, then it are likely to have more industries built on its place. Therefore, the genesis of the unending political struggles is closely connected to the scramble for the control of the various economic resources in the country. Losing an election is depicted as the surrendering to the significant necessities of human life. The struggle, in essence, is shaped by the desire to have control of the pool of the country resources for the benefit of an individual community.
Manifestly, the struggle is dominated by the two rival groups. The rival groups include the Muslim North that is inhabited by the Hausa-Fulani tribe and the more Negroid tribes of the Southern regions. The North is observed to dominate the legislative representation. In 1959, the North was carrying 174 out of 312 of the representative seats in the federal legislature. The main asset for the North was their large number of political seats over their southern counterparts. Largely, the Northern parties lured the western region into joining them. Predictably, they promised them a lot of benefits from the alliance to be.
This dimension of political power conflicts is endemic in Nigeria and it includes issues such as electoral crisis and dispute related to resource sharing CITATION Ikp96 \l 1033 (Ikporukpo). Nigeria, as a country, has a history of electoral crisis. The 1964 electoral crisis made a mark in the nation’s political history. There was rampant electoral malpractices and manipulation that initially stared from the western Nigeria and ultimately spread to the entire country. The electoral malpractices and manipulations together did contribute to coup in 1960, which tore the first nation and later led to the Nigerian Civil War. Notably, the First Republic collapsed as a result of effects of intra-party crisis, the second Republic too did collapse under the similar circumstances.
The Implications of Political Struggle in Nigeria
The impacts of political struggle across Nigeria are multi-dimensional. The outbreak of violent conflicts in the last 50 or so years leaves much to be desired in Nigeria. The following are some of the implication of political struggle and conflicts thereto in Sub Saharan Africa, Nigeria, in particular.
First, there is loss of significant revenue. Nigerian government losses sizeable part of revenue wherever there are crises in the country. For instance, during crises brought about by the politically motivated power struggles, the government finds it difficult to collect taxes around the country. Another effect such conflict is the loss of lives. Violent crises in Nigeria have led to a number of causalities. The Civil war between 1967 and 1970 remarkably produced the largest causality in which an estimated 2 million lives was claimed by the hostility as a result.
There is discouragement of foreign investment if the country is dominated by war. Instability in a nation has the effect of discouraging foreign investors who have a willing heart of establishing multinational corporations in a particular country. The ultimate effect of discouraged foreign investors is the rise of unemployment, reduced tax collection and escalated poverty levels in a country.
Curbing Political Power Struggle
Generally speaking conflict is bears negative impacts in a certain country. Political power is the sole cause of inter ethnic conflicts in the current Nigeria CITATION Dud66 \l 1033 (Dudley). However, the whole situation of political unrest and civil wars due to power struggle between the opposing sides can be curbed.
Nigeria is a country that is multi ethnic and therefore prone to conflicts due to divergent political vie...