Deconstructing Politics In Africa: The Resurgence Of Service Paradigm

The current practice of politics in Africa gravitates towards the ideal of the warfare paradigm. The conception of politics in most African states is based on the competitive nature of life. Life is a competition for scarce resources of which political power is one. Political offices are limited in number compared to many who vie for them. This competition eventually led to the idea of guerrilla warfare in African politics. The demand for political power is more than the supply of the political offices the structure of the society permits. Therefore, there is this endless battle over who occupies the limited political power available in the political market. Also, some definitions of politics proposed by some political scientists further deepened the battles in the realm of politics, especially in Africa. This paper sets out as its main goal, the proposal of an alternative paradigm based on the possibility of eliminating the warfare conception of politics.