UNCONSTITUTIONAL POWER AND THE SECURITY DILEMMA OF GOVERNANCE: REGIME PRESERVATION, POLITICAL INSTABILITY, AND THE CRISIS OF PEACEBUILDING IN AFRICA

Abstract

Across many African states, recurring insecurity, democratic fragility, economic inequality, inefficient development and stalled peace processes reveal a deeper structural crisis embedded within governance systems. This work interrogates how unconstitutional configurations of power generate a governance-based peace and security dilemma in which political elites prioritise regime preservation over and above the collective welfare of citizens, thereby reinforcing cycles of instability. Conceptually grounded in political sociology and normative theories of authority, the study defines illegitimate power as the erosion of consent, accountability, and moral justification in public rule, when authority loses its ethical foundation, state institutions increasingly rely on coercion, patronage, and exclusionary practices to maintain control, weakening institutional credibility and intensifying societal grievances. Using a qualitative comparative design supported by documentary analysis and selected African case illustrations, the article demonstrates that the persistence of political instability is not merely the product of limited state capacity but of fractured legitimacy and distorted state–society relations. The analysis shows how distrust in governance institutions fuels protest movements, electoral disputes, elite fragmentation, and, in some cases, violent contestation. These dynamics undermine long-term peacebuilding initiatives by reproducing insecurity from within the political system itself. The study concludes that sustainable peace in Africa requires reconstructing authority around ethical accountability, participatory inclusion, and renewed social compacts, rather than relying on securitised governance frameworks that treat instability as a threat to be suppressed rather than a symptom to be resolved.