Comparative Politics Short Essay Social Sciences Essay

Comparative Politics
Name
Institution
Introduction
From the known continents that make up the world, Africa is the second-most popular and the second-largest continent after Asia. Covering about 20 percent of its land area and 6 percent of the earth's total surface, the continent has about 1.4 billion people living there (Aborisade & Aliyyu, 2018). The population accounts for approximately 16 percent of the world's human population. Africa is recognized as a rich continent regarding natural resources and agriculture. It is abundant with gold, diamond, bauxite, cocoa beans, copper iron, uranium, natural gas, platinum, and cobalt(Aborisade & Aliyyu, 2018). With all these resources, different countries from different continents have made their way into Africa in search and scramble for these resources. Something that has and still brings Africa to its knees. Africa, as a continent, needs quality leaders who will propel it back to its glory. My argument will primarily be based on poor leadership and misuse of power as some of the causes of a poor depiction of the African continent. Such issues have resulted in Africans protesting for better lives and leadership, which is also the main issue that will be addressed in this paper.
For years, countries worldwide have shown their generosity by donating food, clothes, funds for projects, among other necessities, to several countries in Africa. Such donations are sent to these countries whenever a specific country is on the brink of war (civil or political), terrorism, natural disasters (a rare occurrence), or political conflicts. Africa is prosperous, and it does not require aid. All it needs is good leadership and proper allocation of resources (Mueller, 2018). Africa should be the continent doing most of the exports than other continents because of its natural resources that countries from the west salivate on.
From the 54 countries in the African continent, Nigeria stands a chance of being the superpower. The Nigerian government has the biggest economy in the continent, it has a vast trained military budgeted for, and it has a fair record of regional engagement (Aborisade & Aliyyu, 2018). Consequently, it is still featured as one of the most corrupt countries in the continent due to a flawed governance system, incompetent leadership, and unjust or misappropriation of public resources and funds. With such issues in place, getting jobs has been a burden for citizens in Nigeria. When no jobs are available, crime becomes the order of the day. Nigeria is one of the countries well known to have cyber crimes. Most youths engage in cybercrime and fraud to sustain themselves.
The country has been dormant, lamenting these issues in silence until recently, where its citizens took it to the streets to protest about police brutality. The protests paved the way for expressing other issues like inequality and disbandment of the entire police unit. Tens of thousands of Nigerian citizens across the country protested over these issues, but their response was what they were protesting about (Igbo, 2017). One would wonder why the government of a civilized nation like Nigeria responded to peaceful demonstrations with the military. How would such a move to solve the situation in the...