YOUTH PERCEPTIONS OF HUMAN SECURITY ISSUES IN AFRICA

...the youth are adversely affected when it comes to human security; Preventive and corrective measures can be done to reduce the prevalence of human insecurity among them...

BY KHALWALE LUNALO JAMES

AUGUST, 2008

The scholarly approach of the term 'youth' shows that a youth is a young person with more ambitions in life, versatile and industrious. Because of the current situations in Africa, the youth are the most adversely affected species with the human insecurity situation.

In Africa, human insecurity is observed through the high rates of corruption scandals and unequal distribution of resources, which leads to poverty. This is alongside poor management of the resources in all African states. This has therefore led to unemployment among the youth. They have therefore resolved to engage into inhuman activities such as armed robbery and violence, prostitution, drug abuse and civil wars. The youth therefore perceive human security in Africa in terms of the struggle for existence and survival for the fittest.

With the advent of industrialization in Europe, Africa has been the continent most affected with the effects of global warming causing human insecurity. This is through the declining land masses by the melting sea ice and increase in the sea level; poor tourists' attraction as wildlife migrates to safer continents due to global warming in Africa; and, above all, health problems as disease causing vectors such as Vibrio paraheamolyticus and plasmodium get conducive environment for multiplication.

In the same way the corrupt nature of African regimes leaves the youth disillusioned and hopeless. Despite the youths' distance from the African culture, the society is too unfair to accommodate them.
As a preventive and corrective measure, I, the writer, recommend that proper regional co-operation should be built to control the prevalence of insecurity, poverty and corruption, which the youth consider to be major threats of insecurity. Minimal dependence on foreign aid can also help Africa develop independently.

Introduction

Africa has seen more than one third of the worlds armed conflicts. In fact, those African states that look stable like Tanzania, are simply potentially insecure, Obura A (2004). Africa needs peace through better educational programs in post-conflict countries for healing purposes and prevention of future conflicts. The stable countries should not be complacent about peace but need to consolidate gaining and eliminating the remaining disparities. There is no country in Africa that can consider itself immune due to the nature of the global, regional and internal factors currently fueling conflict. Social disparities are increasing on the continent- a vicious cycle in which conflict results in extreme poverty and gun cry, poverty is often associated with violence.

The use of unjustifiable entry quotas to systematically reduce numbers of groups such as schools is to exclude them from specific courses, for example, Hutu in Burundi and Tutsi in Rwanda. Education mirrors the society and can be used as an instrument to further political agenda, produce goods alongside food, exacerbate disparity and fuel conflict. The type of education programs, government policies, diseases such as Acquired Immune-Deficiency syndrome, and availability of food therefore, drastically affect African security. In discussion of this topic, youth perceptions of human security in Africa, first is a definition of key terms and phrases.

A youth is a young person who has not experienced a lot in life and still has the chance to further explorations in life. A youth is therefore considered as a person between the age 15 and 35 years (Kenya). He is versatile, charming, industrious, energetic person who, through experiments, comes up with new ideas and issues. The oxford dictionary describes a youth as a short-lived person in terms of experiences in life.

Perception is the process whereby sensory stimulation is translated into organized and meaningful experiences. Experimental evidence suggests that percepts follow a measurable, developmental time course and may even change with time or yield more than one perception. This explains why there exist differences between the perception about issues among the youth and the elders or children.
Perception generally involves the scope of view and emotional sensations about our environment. The impressions created in the mind, values, beliefs and ambitions at different stages in life can all describe a human perception. A perception will therefore finally affect the attitude of the bearer.
The term security is inter-disciplinary. In political science, security refers to any of the various means or devices designed to guard persons and property against a broad range of hazards including but not limited to crime, fire, accidents, espionage, sabotage, subversion and attack. Most security systems emphasize certain hazards than others.

Protection therefore includes: personal safety-people in an organization, customers and employees; tangible property-plant, equipment, finished goods cash and securities; intangible security-information such as state privacy or trade secrets. Most governments in Africa exercise passive security instead of the active one.

The word 'Human' has to do with humanism and humanity. The encyclopedia Britannica defines humanism as the attitude of the mind attaching prime importance to man and human values often regarded as the central theme of renaissance of civilization. It refers to the value system that emphasizes the personal worth of each individual.

Human security can therefore be described as the issues related to the well being of people and individuals. It has to do with good working conditions, presence of basic needs, absence of war, theft and diseases, protection of personal property and rights such as the right to education. Human security is also linked to clean environment free from pollution, desertification, drought, tremors or floods. Since Africa first attained independence in 1957 through Ghanaian president Kwame Nkrumah, we have experienced a rough time to deal with issues of security.

HUMAN SECURITY SITUATIONS IN AFRICA

We do say that it is the duty and responsibility of the community and particularly those more fortunately placed to see that our less fortunate fellow citizens are protected from shafts of fate which leave them hopeless and helpless. This the objective for which our eyes are always tuned and to which our efforts are always directed, Chitley B (1949). To begin with, Kenya and Tanzania on August 8, held the 10^th anniversary of the August 1998 bomb blast incidence where many people lost lives. Many other African states have not been spared either. Civil wars and land disputes have been reported in our third world countries as the threats on human security. Political instabilities are also a key component to human insecurity in Africa. The recent Mauritania's military rule, the unending political party rankles and the fear of governments to be opposed exacerbate the whole issue.

Poll violences

Poll violence in Kenya and Zimbabwe was a great threat to Africa's peace in the past few months leaving about 500,000 people internally displaced and 1,162 others dead in Kenya according to the human rights account of Kenya's post election violence published in the daily Nation on Saturday august 9, 2008. Poll violence caused due to the opposition between ZANU-PF's Robert Mugabe and MDC's Morgan Tsivangirai over presidential seat led to destruction of poverty and acute inflation in the country. Alqaeda terrorists are on the mission of disrupting peace in the continent as invasion of states by the military groups come to their peak. Human security is also affected by natural catastrophes in Africa. For instance, about 30 people lost lives in Bukina Faso this August through land slides and floods whereas a good number perished in Somalia over the same.

All African states still suffer from the contagious disease called corruption. Hon. Amos Kimunya in Kenya had to be removed from his finance ministry forcefully through a parliamentary vote of no confidence over a corrupt sale of the Nairobi's Grand Regency hotel to the government of Libya. Other major scandals in Kenya include the Golden berg and the Anglo-leasing scandals discovered by John Githongo. The economic and financial crimes commission, the Nigeria's anti-corruption police, accused Haruna Boni who ran the North East Adamawa state for eight years of looting approximately $790,000 (about 93 million naira) between 1999 and 2007, as governor of the home state of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar who was also recently detained. This was through president Umaru Yar Adua's effort of containing zero tolerance to corruption. Sending home old members of the army closely followed this.

The African continent is also adversely affected by the high taxation rates from the local people. However, the tax income in most states is translated into the stomachs of a few top individuals ignoring the need for development. Similarly high taxation targets the poor middle and lower class people with meager resources. In the democratic republic of Congo, tin traders recently received a big shock when taxation for tin mines, tripled in Kivu province where the tin ores, Cassiterite, are found. The customs agency, Ofida, tripled the reference price used to calculate the export tax on the ore. Kenya offers a 16% value added tax and about 28% pay as you earn tax, which are very high according to the international standards. But the parliamentarians don't pay tax yet they earn the most pay of all the public servants.

Foreign aid in Africa is yet another threat to human security. Most foreign aids target anti-terrorism ignoring genuinely poor African cases of good governance and human rights. There is no focus on poverty alleviation. According to the organization for economic assistance development, the US aid to Africa increased from $1.4 billion in the recent past to $500 billion, in order to increase boarder security and counter terrorism capacity to Mali, Chad, Niger and Mauritania through the trans-Saharan counter-terrorism initiation (TSCTI). African contingency operations training and assistance program (ACOTA) provided shell arms and training for peace keeping operations to Benin, Botswana Cote d'Voire, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique. Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Uganda and Zambia.

Among the top list of human security issues in Africa is poverty. As population skyrockets, many people below the poverty line now exist. Coombs (1990) argues that the return of scarcity is the effect of an explosively increasing world population confronting finite material resources "which were thought to be inexhaustible". He adds that, the problem of poverty is intensified by the unnecessary complexity of lifestyles available. A collective responsibility is therefore required to curb poverty in Africa since no man is an island entire to himself, said John Donne.

In Africa, AIDS is a major contributing factor to poverty. The highly stigmatized disease has left many patients hopeless and unproductive. The situation in Malawi where patients sell Anti-Retroviral in exchange for food is a pathetic one. This explains how our continent's planning tools are not well focused. A report by princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, a UN messenger of peace and funding board member of Kofi Annan's global humanitarian forum revealed that adult HIV patients require 10% more energy and as the disease progresses, 20-50% more energy is required. They otherwise risk being plagued by the disease.

The poverty stricken Ghana, in the attempt to keep off hunger approved funds to tackle famine. The Botswana Agricultural marketing board was provided with funds by the government to stabilize grain prices against fluctuations in the international markets. The country's strategic reserve was on effect suggested to increase from the current 10,000 tonnes to 70,000 tonnes, according to the Botswana Guardian Newspaper.

Discrimination is another threat to human security. People are discriminated against religion, gender, citizenship, race or tribe. Most people lose job positions as a result, in addition to loss of esteem and interpersonal cohesion. In South Africa, the recent fights and killing of foreigners was one of the most irritating scenarios. This was a result of alleged phobia to social competition against enterprises and employment. This, according to me, is quite colonial and uncivilized kind of reasoning. Is there any otherwise?

The morality and culture of people directly or indirectly affects the security of Africa. It is quite believable that most people in the world do not like the, move by the Anglican church of approving marriages of the same sex as against the African culture. This therefore causes social insecurity in the entire continent. However what is considered immoral is relative depending on what people have accepted it to be in the society.

The practice of democracy and human rights enforcement by the authority is the best way to reduce human insecurity. What friends of democracy needs to bear in mind in all of these is that, however democratic an African government may be in formal terms, its scope for making policy is very radically constrained by non democratic international financial institutions like the world bank and IMF which will get to the heart of the real crisis of Africa, Shaw T (1995).

Human Security and youth perception

Most adversely affected with insecurity are the young people who actually need special handling by the society. African governments have subjected the youth to internal stress by denying them affordable educational training, employment opportunities and leadership positions. A negative saying has since time immemorial spread that the youth "are the leaders of tomorrow". What then will children do tomorrow? But when is tomorrow? Is it when inflation is at its peak or when the elders have eaten enough for the owner to notice? When is tomorrow?

Other than the west, popular legitimacy in Africa requires a perception not simply of good government- efficient and technically functioning institutions, but of a good government that is good and morally benevolent and protective to its people, Ferguson J (1995). Participative development has better and long lasting commodity development plans.

The youth therefore have different perceptions towards human security situations in Africa. First, the youth view human security to be in the effort of leaders and authority. They believe that by the authority allowing corruption to spread, a new form of insecurity is born. It is true that most young people have gone through the education system and therefore understand what is right or wrong. It is quite unfair if one wins an action in the corrupt way. Equal treatment and fair competition is what the youths perceive to be the parents of humanity and security in Africa of the 21^st century. The youths also perceive human security in terms of availability and fair distribution of national resources: human and material resources. The main shortcoming in the continent is not on the availability but the management of the resources! The fact that some provinces of the same country are richer than others shows either unfairness in distribution or poor management of resources.

Two young people engage in blacksmith business to earn a living. In Africa, job opportunities are very few and the young people have to look for alternative means to survive. Seemingly, poor governance practices have escalated the situations.

Under humanity grounds national resources are supposed to be distributed according to the level of need and productivity. Less human resources intensifies insecurity. Enough labor force is required in the military, education system, banks and all spheres of the economy and society if people are to enjoy the fruits of their labor. The United Nations Human Rights charter provides for a forty-hour working week with national minimum wage, annual, sick and maternity leaves which most states do not adhere to. Exploitation of human resources is therefore called human insecurity among the youth.
Young people also perceive human security of Africa to be well described by the Darwinian theory of struggle for existence and survival for the fittest. This is well illustrated with the rampant favoritism during recruitment of the youth into the army, police force, promotions and job security. Situations where a person wins on interview in absenture or gets a job without applying are inhuman. These same occasions where many other qualified candidates apply and even attend the interviews! The fall guy is this young educated person just because he has no connections to the officers. Indeed, being a youth is like a rolling stone which gathers no moss, especially when what you have and whom you know is what really matters.

To sustain all this stress, the youth struggles to exist and survive through quite immoral activities. As you go through my essay, ask yourself these questions silently: why are there many armed robbers on African streets? Who are the persons responsible for commercial sex and prostitution in Africa? Why do we have very many drug traffickers and abusers? Have you ever wondered why many school dropouts exist? What about tribal clashes in Africa.

The question reflects an African graduate or one in an education system who has already formed an opinion, of course through their model counterparts who have already tested the rough life in Africa. You don't need to train an armed robber, do you? Any way, any attempt to explain these concerns shall arouse unending debate that space shall not allow me to write. Administrators encourage injustice at job places; they practice tribalism and are neither accountable nor transparent in their duties. The society is silent about all these and therefore the affected youth is forced to look for 'Plan B' in order to exist through, robbery, prostitution, rape and lack of interest in education. Don't worry, I am not being hateful to this continent, but am just narrating the truth. This is why the youth perceive human security in Africa as the art and science of struggle for existence and survival fir the fittest but in the unfair way.

Another perception of the youth towards human security of Africa is that it is under the custody of the rich. I will expand on this in two major perspectives: environmental and political.
We all know that industrial revolution has deep roots in the western states- the rich states. The affluent of the industries are now in Africa. Global warming is therefore no longer a theory but practice in the continent with wide spread effects. To many scholars, Africa is a third world (poor) continent. Based on the estimates by Goddard Institute for space studies the year 2005 was the warmest in Africa since 1800. it is expected that temperatures will be extreme in Africa in the near future. Carbon dioxide CO₂ and methane CH₄ gases have increased in the atmosphere by 31% and 149% respectively since 1750. The ozone layer is getting depleted due to the emission of other green house gases and chlorofluorocarbons.

Why do the youth associate human insecurity with global warming? The coastal people now risk losing habitats and life as the sea levels increase due to the melting of sea ice. Africa's major tourist industries are too being affected, as most wildlife gets extinct with extreme weather. Others have even migrated to safer continents. Glaciers are reliable sources of water in some African states, which is now melting. The world glacier monitoring service says that 90% of glacier has retreated since the year 1995.

Global warming is also associated with extreme weather as is being experienced in Africa. Floods and droughts in Somalia, Burkina Faso, Congo and other African regions have caused starvation and deaths. Health is at risk on condition that climatic changes also favor multiplication of disease causing vectors especially Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Gastro entritis, plasmodium and others. The poor African state is therefore suffering because of the celebrations of the rich western states.
On the political side, African people have two main classes in terms of who controls capital; the rich and the poor. All states levy taxes. Tax is meant for rehabilitation and development. Roads on African states are impassable. Civil servants are oppressed in terms of work done versus salary earned yet their taxation is very high. Medical attention is another quagmire. Schools lack facilities, and the curriculum is one that does not prepare young people to live with current life. There is lot insecurity in residential areas.

A funny thing is that the rich class in Africa-the parliamentarian's and rich merchants-move about through aeroplanes, go for international medical checkups in London and other Western hospitals, earn good money, their salaries are tax free which otherwise will mean tax evasion and all of them employ security guards in their companies in addition to personal bodyguards .In short they use government property. How do you expect such people to know that problems exist or people suffer?
I am anxiously waiting for the period when Africa will be a classless state. This will allow equal opportunities and bearing of one another's problems. If we all became politicians in order to earn heavily, who will dig our graves when we die who will build us our premises? We all need each other. This is the main way in which human security will be created in Africa – says the youth.

The Youth are justified

The beautiful land of Africa. This is a cassava plantaion in Western parts of Kenya. If national resources were distributed equitably, the problem of poverty and governance would not be an issue in African states.

Picture by James Khalwale.

The youth are justified in their perception on human security situations in Africa. The government regimes in Africa should be civilized to appreciate the effort of the youth in their states. Because of the nature of young persons, the youth have the urge to engage in as many activities as possible provided they are given the chance. Unfortunately, a survey in African states indicates that our leaders are very conservative ignoring the dynamic nature of the world. The fact that it took a very long time for multiparty democracy to thrive in Africa is in itself evidence of power greed with our regimes. Democracy supports development and security but most governments hate this through organizing assassinations of potential opposition leaders or competitors – who are by chance young people.

However, the youth have failed to recognize that they are part of the society, which also has its own culture. Most of the youth have been greatly influenced by the western culture dumping away good culture of the African people. As part of the society, the youth should formulate a table of conversation to help maintain states quo between them, the elders and children.
Finally, human security can be found in Africa with a collective effort of the society. Regionalism in Africa through organizations such as Africa union, ECOWAS, SADCC or COMESA should be encouraged to strengthen international bonds instead of relying on aids from the west. Better methods can be devised where African states can aid each other. However, Security is an issue if the government segregates its members. Human security can only be enjoyed well with food security.

Recommendation

.... Up to this instance, it is now clear that the youth are adversely affected when it comes to human security. Preventive and corrective measures can be done to reduce the prevalence of human insecurity among them. I suggest the following to be in Africa by Africans to improve the situations I have tacked in this essay....

Abandon the conviction that bigger is better and to quality seriously the belief that maximum growth is the sine quanon of economic wisdom. Establish sustainability as primary objective for enterprise exploration or using natural resource, Coombs (1990). The problem of poverty is intensified by the unnecessary complexity of lifestyles available. I recommend that proper management of resources and viable investments be practiced to reduce poverty. Poverty eradication can also be realized through reduction of bank rates to allow many people to access loans to assist on agriculture. Over reliance on foreign aids will only increase the laziness that is otherwise potential in Africa.

Environmental security is also important for Africa. Renewal of energy sources and avoiding unnecessary burning of fuel will help reduce global warming. People should adapt to recycling of waste products. Like Kenya, other states should employ a policy on smoking policy. Smoking should be a criminal offence if done in public because it affects lives of innocent helpless people.
Block discipline and mutual interest in cohesiveness of alliances as factors moderating disagreement and conflict between states have ceased to influence relations, besides the fear of reciprocity and such legal and moral accords which are difficult to be enforced, that is, there are no strong international disciplining policies, Mihely (1995).

Regionalism in Africa should therefore aim to help curb security issues especially in Somalia and Sudan and besides, tackle main facts of poverty. As much as AIDS is a deadly disease, ARVs only cannot help. Food is more basic than they- the UNAIDS should be told this.
To end corruption, the main youth security obstacle, African states through a centralized administrative system, should come up with an independent anti-corruption organ to monitor corrupt regimes. African should join hands with their Nigerian counter part Umaru Yar Adua to fight corruption.

Human security in Africa is not a very easy task to achieve. However, with collaboration of all groups in the continent, a tangible effect can be felt. Yes, Africa is not at that extreme of insecurity, as you tend to think I imply, but an upper hand to self-sustenance instead of over reliance to foreign aids. Good long and short term goals can in put in place to achieve this.