The ‘under carpet’ syndrome of urban violence management in developing countries
Article Sidebar
Main Article Content
Abstract
The developing countries have peculiar challenges which are related to the modality of managing violence and related matters. It is the duty of the state to secure the lives and property of the citizens promptly. What is usually obtained in many developing countries is micromanagement and jettisoning of important security matters. Therefore, the syndrome obtained when urgent security issues are abandoned or partially executed and when major aspects of curbing violence is jettisoned and the minor part is politically magnified, then essentialities of the germane issues is the ‘under-carpet sweeping’ syndrome. A time of relapse may ensue when under carpet syndromes becomes unbearable. The repercussion will be a wide spread violence or at the magnitude of civil war. The research question spotlight is what are the effects of organised abandonments of potential security threats on safety and development in most developing and some developed countries. The notion of relative deprivation theory is used to justify organised abandonments of major issues in the democratic regimes. Afrobarometer database is analysed to deduce the state of (in) security in five countries across Africa. The recommendation posited is that governments should allow best practice and prompt action on security matters. Conclusion is premised on the fact that when security matters are treated with levity and salient issues are swept under-carpet, violence will multiply in the country.
Downloads
Article Details
All rights reserved. Apart from citations for the purposes of research, private study, or criticism and review,no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored or transmitted in any other form without prior written permission by the publisher.
References
Afrobarometer Data. (2018a). Violent Conflict Resolved by Government per Country (Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania and Egypt) (Round 7) [Dataset]. [Online URL: http://www.afrobarometer.org] accessed on June 4, 2019.
Afrobarometer Data. (2018b). Safety in the Neighbourhood per Country (Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania and Egypt) (Round 7) [Dataset]. [Online URL: http://www.afrobarometer.org] accessed on June 4, 2019.
Akinwale, A. and Aderinto, A. (2012). Crisis of governance and urban violence in Nigeria. African Journal of Criminology and Justice Studies 5(1&2): 49-77.
Alam S. (2013); Relative Deprivation Theory, Nationalism, Ethnicity and Identity Conflicts. Geopolitics Quarterly 8(4): 156-174.
Aluko, O. I. (2016). Refocusing the focus, metafocus and profocus: mopping urban violence in developing cities. Journal of Social Science 5(2): 45-51.
Aluko, O. I. (2017). Urban violence dimension in Nigeria: farmer and herders onslaught. AGATHOS 8(1): 187-206.
Aluko, O. I. (2018a). Gang and urban violence prevalence on democratic sustenance. ABAC Journal 38(1): 133-143.
Aluko, O. I. (2018b). Entangled in the ‘new world order’: Africa’s (in-)security quandaries and prospects. In Rethinking Securities in an Emergent Technoscientific New World Order: Retracing the Contours for Africa’s Hi-jacked Future, edited by Mawere, A. and Nhemachena, A., pp. 171-191. Bamenda: Langaa Research and Publishing CIG.
Aluko, O. I. (2019a). Caging the leviathan. Dynamics of Public Administration 36(1): 20-36.
Aluko, O. I. (2019b). Political Culture of Violence in Developing Democracies Nigeria. Political Science Association Journal Studies in Politics and Society (7): 32-36.
Aluko, O. I. (2020a). Backdoor politics: permitting informalities for formal development in African democracy. TEME Journal for Social Sciences XLIV(1): 209-229.
Aluko, O. I. (2020b). Breaking the cycle of corruption in Nigeria: the myth and reality. Journal of Co-operative and Business Studies 5(1): 115-125.
Aluko, O. I. and Ogunnubi, O. (2018). Nigeria’s Soft Power and Economic Diplomacy in Africa. Journal of African Foreign Affairs 5(2): 189-206.
Aremu, F. A. and Aluko, O. I. (2017). Tension in the paradise: a paradigm shift in urban violence in Nigeria. Silpakorn University Journal of Social Sciences, Humanities, and Arts 17(1): 81-96.
Auyero, J. and Berti, M. (2015). In Harm's Way: The Dynamics of Urban Violence. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Auyero, J., Bourgois, P. and Scheper-Hughes, N. (2015). Violence at the Urban. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Cook, S. A. (2020). Egypt and Turkey: Identity as a Source of Instability. In Stabilising the Contemporary Middle East and North Africa edited by van Genugten, S., pp. 259-280. Cham: Palgrave Macmillan.
Dibua, J. I. (2017). Modernization and the crisis of development in Africa: the Nigerian experience. London: Routledge.
Garcia-Zamor, J. C. (2019). Public participation in development planning and management: cases from Africa and Asia. Routledge: London.
Hickel, J. (2014). “Xenophobia” in south Africa: order, chaos, and the moral economy of witchcraft. Cultural Anthropology 29(1): 103-127.
Humphrey, M. (2013). Violence and urban governance in Neoliberal Cities in Latin America. Arena Journal (41/42): 236-259.
Kalu, K. A. (2017). Agenda setting and public policy in Africa. Routledge: London.
Klaus, K. (2020). Political Violence in Kenya: Land, Elections and Claim-making. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Le Bas, A. (2013). Violence and urban order in Nairobi, Kenya and Lagos, Nigeria. Studies in Comparative International Development 48(3): 240-262.
McIlwaine, C. (2014). Everyday urban violence and transnational displacement of Colombian urban migrants to London, UK. Environment and Urbanization 26(2): 417-426.
Mills, G. (2018). Why Is Africa Poor? In Culture and Civilization, edited by Berna, U. G., pp. 52-62. Routledge: London.
Moser, C. O. and McIlwaine, C. (2014). New frontiers in twenty-first century urban conflict and violence. Environment and Urbanization 26(2): 331-344.
Muggah, R. (2012). Researching the Urban Dilemma: Urbanization, Poverty and Violence. Ottawa: International Development Research Centre.
Muggah, R. (2014). Deconstructing the fragile city: exploring insecurity, violence and resilience. Environment and Urbanization 26(2): 345-358.
Muggah, R. and Savage, K. (2012). Urban violence and humanitarian action: engaging the fragile city. The Journal of Humanitarian Assistance 19(1): 2012.
Pratt, N. and Rezk, D. (2019). Securitizing the Muslim Brotherhood: State Violence and Authoritarianism in Egypt after the Arab Spring. Security Dialogue 50(91): 239-256.
Reid-Henry, S. and Sending, O. (2014). The “humanitarianization” of urban violence. Environment and Urbanization 26(2): 427-442.
Rendón, M. G. (2014). “Caught Up”: How Urban Violence and Peer Ties Contribute to High School Noncompletion. Social Problems 61(1): 61-82.
Rodriguez, A., Rodriguez, P., Saborido, M., Segovia, O. and Mires, L. (2014). Visible and invisible violence and inequality in neoliberal Santiago. Environment and Urbanization 26(2): 359-372.
Saleh, A. (2013). Relative deprivation theory, nationalism, ethnicity and identity conflicts. Geopolitics Quarterly 8(4): 156-174.
Snodgrass, L. and Achieng, A. O. (2019). Mediating Post Electoral Violence in Kenya, 2007-2008. In Infrastructure for peace in Sub-Saharan Africa, edited by M. Hove and G. Harris, pp. 185-202. Cham: Springer.
Tougas, F. and Beaton, A. M. (2002). Personal and group relative deprivation: connecting the “I” to the “We”. In Relative deprivation: Specification, development and integration, edited by Walker, I. and Smith, H. J. pp. 119-135. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
van Weezel, S. (2020). Local warming and violent armed conflict in Africa. World Development 126: 104708.
Watts, M. J. (2013). Silent Violence: Food, Famine, and Peasantry in Northern Nigeria (Vol. 15). Athens: University of Georgia Press.
Wegenast, T. and Beck, J. (2020). Mining, rural livelihoods and food security: A disaggregated analysis of sub-
Saharan Africa. World Development 130: 104921.