Reflections on State Security and Violence in Africa: A Prognostic Analysis

Abstract

The 21st century beginning from 2000 to 2014 portrays Africa’s current situation as beset by conflicts and violence, drawing attention from every part of the world. As in decades earlier, it is no good news! Prominent among these are terrorism with its devastating impact, revolutions, uprisings, turmoil, communal conflicts, coup d’état, hatred and malicious actions towards ethnic groups, institutionalised division, deep rooted enmity between ethnic groups, dangerous religious sects, criminal political groups, corruption and all sorts of deprivation. This paper is however, a broad reflection of the general situation in the continent that we narrowed to Nigeria and its peculiarities. The Marxist theory of the post-colonial state was chosen as the tool for analysis. Further, we adopted quantitative descriptive analysis with secondary literature forming the base of our information source. In addition, we had personal discussions with security agents, though not systemised. Finally, we seek to make a further contribution to the ongoing intellectual efforts by identifying some areas that demand urgent attention. It is hoped that the strategic suggestions that this paper discusses, will provide a theoretical and practical platform for further studies and subsequent solution towards the negative news reports, thereby making news from Africa to be really, “good news”.