NEOLIBERAL ECONOMIC REFORMS AND CHALLENGES OF INSECURITY IN AFRICA

Abstract

Extant literature have identified socio-economic dysfunctionality, governance deficits, heterogeneous composition of African and power contestations among elites as the principal factors fuelling and sustaining insecurity in the region. However, these varied opinions and explanations held by scholars appear to have been inappropriate and inadequate in understanding the dynamics and as well, resolving the spate of insecurity in the region. Against this background and radically departing from the conventional knowledge, this paper interrogated the nexus between the implementation of neoliberal economic reforms and the intensification of insecurity in Africa. Relying on the secondary sources of data collection largely drawn from textbooks, journals, newspapers and internet materials together with content analysis method, this paper in compliance with the basic propositions emanating from the political economy analytical framework argued that the increasing rate of insecurity in Africa cannot be divorced of fully comprehended without recourse to the role neoliberal reforms in the continent. Indeed, the study observed that the neoliberal economic framework was designed to alienate the African government from discharging their statutory responsibilities, thereby giving opportunity for the appearance of violent groups, fighting against the incapacity of African states to meet the demands of the governed. In this light, we called for the prioritization of economic policy that will enhance and maximize the welfare of the Africans.