The book discusses the failure of many African governments in providing the social needs of the masses, thereby placing the citizenry on the desperate quest for economic resources. Unfortunately, in many African States, mineral resources are owned, explored and marketed by the machinery of the state. The problem arises when the masses begin to challenge state access and ownership of resources that are domiciled within their ancestral land, communities, and constituencies. Often the challenge and resistance to state ownership of resources is generated by communal or group sense of exploitation, negligence and widespread poverty in the face of high resource endowment and waste by the government officials.  Paradoxically, in Niger Delta of Nigeria, as discussed in the book, the state has unleashed unlimited might upon all social groups and agitators, thereby leading to the increased act of taking arms by such groups. When the informal resource agitators succeed in arming themselves, they begin to demand social and environmental justice, thereby leading to mass armed conflict between them and the government security agencies. Sometimes, the confrontation could be between them and other rival local resource actors in the informal sector of their country’s economy bearing in mind that the resources within their jurisdiction have become the central determinant of national commonwealth.   It is at that state of desperado to control access, extraction and sale of natural resources in a State, by different armed groups that the process of natural resources extraction qualifies as the most visible cause of conflicts and crises around the African continent that is the centrepiece of the book. This is quite understandable given that mineral resource is a gift of nature; and nature is that phenomenon that every human, group and nation claim to represent, or, believe to represent them.

This collection of essays on international relations and conflict in Africa is offered as a scholarly tribute to Professor Victor Ojakorotu, a distinguished scholar of African international politics. The editors, rising scholars Kelechi Johnmary Ani and Kayode Eesuola, have assembled a team of contributors whose work examines vital themes for understanding modern Africa. The volume encompasses assessments of African international politics, governance, conflict dynamics, and peacekeeping efforts, focusing on the national conflicts in Central African Republic and Somalia, protests in South Africa, terrorism in Nigeria, and insecurity in West African states. The dynamics of diplomacy and challenges of bilateral and multilateral relations, peacekeeping, gender in governance, and international trade figure prominently. International Relations and Security Politics in Africa will be essential reading for all students of the continent. The second theme of International Relations and Environmental Conflict in Africa covers pressing issues of environmental politics, such as environmental activism and litigation, climate change, conservation, the challenges of coastal communities, flood prevention, and waste management. Oil subsidy removal, rule of law, and the roles of media and religion are also closely considered. This collection's final theme covers domestic security issues, such as policing, ethno-religious conflicts, local conflicts between farmers and herdsmen, and strategies of conflict resolution. Other issues under discussion include peacebuilding, urban machine politics, the place of children and youth in nation building, and the intersection of politics and psychology in self-determination struggles. Of vital importance to any student of modern Africa, these chapters offer a solid and detailed compendium of readings to contextualize key international relations subjects in the real world. The compendium is also a fitting tribute to the life's work of one of the brightest scholarly minds Africa has produced.

This book shows the push and pull effects between resources, human security and conflicts in Africa. It recognizes the need for resources in Africa to be processed into finished goods in order to influence global market and redefine the pattern of trade relations with powerful countries of Asia, America and Europe in shaping the destiny and future of African countries. The achievement of this laudable objective is plagued by the security challenges which are directly or indirectly linked to resource-related conflicts rocking most of the resource endowed countries in the continent, thereby threatening global peace and security. To deal with this menace in the continent, it requires global co-operation and support of foreign governments, international organizations, international non-government organizations, governments of host countries and its citizens. The book presents the cases and experiences of countries that are endowed with resource, as well as have experienced different forms of human insecurity and have witnessed environmental conflicts in its analysis, which make the discourse interesting and quite educating.

The book presents a historical account of the colonial foundation of African economy and diplomacy. It reveals how the colonial companies and their agents penetrated different parts of Africa and entrenched Western colonialism and imperialism. Ironically, the arrival of these colonial companies became a driver of colonial labour migration as the educated and few privileged African people have to move towards the location of the colonial companies in order to eke-out improved standard of living. It presents the dynamics of import and export trade as promoted by the colonial companies. Consequently, the second part of the study raised the nature of relations amongst some independent African states. First, it reveals the deep-rooted challenge of poverty, migration problem, xenophobia in South Africa and resource conflicts within sovereign border areas of Nigeria and Cameroon as well as the Ethiopian dam crisis with Egypt, as some negative effects of colonialism on some African states. Secondly, it advocated for the advancement of African sports diplomacy, balancing of Chinese-African trade diplomacy and improved labour migration within Africa as some paths to sustainable diplomacy in continent.

This book interrogates the nature of elections and election violence in the African countries. It traces the causes of the governance menace to multiple factors that are not limited to poverty, unemployment, and media. The book documents how election violence cripples the nation-building process across many African countries. Consequently, it reveals that states have lost their manifest destiny of national transformation in Africa because they cannot guarantee that legitimate candidates, who should win elections, due to the widespread manipulation of violence at all levels of electoral engineering. The chapters rely on the cases and changing dynamics of elections and electoral violence in the different Nigerian states. It traces the origins of elections, the nature and patterns of a number of past elections as well as the roles of youth, judiciary, electoral umpire, social media, and gender on the changing nature of elections in Nigeria.

In Conflict and Human Security Threats in Africa, South African scholar Victor Ojakorotu unravels the dynamics of conflicts and human security threats now affecting numerous African nations. While some of these conflicts are local, others are national and international. This current and highly engaging study captures multiple cases of insecurity, presenting discussions of terrorism, kidnapping, militia activities, human trafficking, political violence, teenage pregnancy, civil war, and armed conflicts, as well as strategies for their future management. Ojakorotu documents a philosophical assessment of African politics as well as the place of the "new" media in the politics of human security and the development of an African worldview in the post-modern intellectual arena. This book is a must-read for all students of African and global politics, as well as policy makers and diplomats working with Africa, which will soon be home to more than three billion people and a center of global growth.

Environmental Conflicts and Peacebuilding in Africa covers pressing issues of environmental politics, such as environmental activism and litigation, climate change, conservation, the challenges of coastal communities, flood prevention, and waste management. Oil subsidy removal, rule of law, and the roles of media and religion are also closely considered. This collection of essays also covers domestic security issues, such as policing, ethno-religious conflicts, local conflicts between farmers and herdsmen, and strategies of conflict resolution affecting the environment. Other issues under discussion include peacebuilding, urban machine politics, the place of children and youth in nation building, and the intersection of politics and psychology in self-determination struggles. Of vital importance to any student of modern Africa, these chapters offer a solid and detailed compendium of readings to contextualize key international relations subjects in the real world. The compendium is also a fitting tribute to the life's work of one of the brightest scholarly minds Africa has produced.