Africa needs peace and stability for progress
Peace is good for business and peace is the dwindling capital that Africa lacks. No place can thrive with trade, industry and commerce without quantifiable peace. For Africa to compete for capital and investments, she must be able to attain and maintain a sustainable quantifiable peace.
Africa is bedeviled with political instability due to lack of peace manifested by ubiquitous wars and intra disruption among many countries in Africa. The paucity of peace makes it difficult for Africa to progress and advance economically. The absence of peace in Africa and among many African countries makes it nearly impossible for attraction of investments to see the light of the day. The resistant of investors do not involve only the attraction of foreign capital but connotes domestic African investors who are hesitant and adamant of putting their resources in the continent.
This development encourages and booster capital flight and the shunning and abandonment of the African landscape. In globalized economy no one that understand how capital function in free enterprise can blame capitalist and investors for sending their capitals to a conducive environment where they can expect appreciative returns and safety.
Take a country like Nigeria, the most populous nation in Africa is endowed with both natural and human capital but rudimentary deterrence including paucity of quantifiable peace becomes a stumbling block to sustainable economic progress. The problems of kidnapping, urban crimes and political uprising especially the issue of Niger Delta deter foreign investments and trigger capital flight.
Peace can be quantified in the sense that there is a repository of peace that a nation needs to make capitalism and free enterprise functional. Safety of investments including protection of life and property are necessary for sustainable economic growth. Peace can be measured with regards to the crime rate, mini-wars and political disturbances which can become a threat to trade and commerce in a given area. In most industrialized and advanced nations they enjoy high quantifiable peace that allow their economic advancement to be sustainable.
Most third world countries have low quantifiable peace that abhors economic progress and creates infertile landscape for investments. These rich countries including USA, Japan, Germany and others can maintain a sustainable economy because they do not have a major internal disturbances, ubiquitous crimes and internal uprising that can deter economic progress and development. This is not say that they do not have problems of crimes and political turmoil but they can mange their internal issue to a barest minimum that poses no threat to free market and capitalism. They have organized structural architecture that is capable of taming and restructuring peculiarity and abnormality in their system.
The problems of low quantifiable peace associated with developing nation is a reality because they cannot sustain economic progress for a prolong time. At a certain period one of these developing countries will be in the news for making progress with affirmative economic indices then the next period they become destabilized due to instability brought either by religious or political disturbances or due to high level of crimes.
In this case, these countries especially in the South of Sahara cannot manage the internal conflicts and the uprising of internal mobs that are claiming grievances to ethnic oppression therefore are seeking self determination. The major issue is that countries with low quantifiable peace do not have the structures and channels to resolve internal conflicts nor do they have resources and know-how to manage those ills that are confronting economic advancement in their respective countries. The existing courts, laws and legislations are outdated, weak and flimsy to make a real impact on the polity and on the prevailing status quo.
Often, some African countries campaign for investments by rebranding their countries but they fail because they have not attacked the crux of the matter which is political instability impelled by paucity of peace . They must first and foremost quenched the fire engulfing their countries before seeking for investments and attraction of capitals. The former US Secretary of State once emphasized that capital love to go to where it is loved and pampered. African countries have not done the necessary things needed to receive capital, thus making it safe and happy, to stay put without migrating to the greener pasture.
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