Abstracto

The West and Politico-Economic Growth or Decline in Sub- Saharan African Countries: Focus on Policies on Structural Adjustment Programmes, Poverty and Corruption (1980-2018)

Peter Sakwe Masumbe

Trepidations of politico-economic decline rather than growth, arising from poverty, corruption and impervious governances’ policies, gravely threaten human and material livelihoods in sub- Saharan African countries. Through inappropriate policies, selfseeking- punchline political leaders, imbued with unconstitutional, illegitimate and dictatorial fantasies, nepotism and unbridled populations’ impoverishment egoistically drag their countries to the unsavoury West’s World Bank and International Monetary Fund’s Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAP). Allegedly, these Bretton’s Woods Institutions rapaciously sponsor SAP to curtail insalubrious politico-economic conditions, promote equity in distributional objectives of governmental intervention and social justice in subscribing countries. But debates on SAP and its political, economic and social implications in this region have been ideologically blatant and pernicious, yet unfinished. While some people signify SAP as an impeccable politico-economic mechanism for redressing countries’ economies, others view SAP as a malignant neo-colonial tool, which exacerbates countries’ politico-economic decline. Given these 1980-2018 unfinished debates, and this region’s prevailing politico-economic hardships; and using the political economy approach, this article seeks to divulge how, even with SAP as the mediator, there is irking political and economic debility than growth in sub-Saharan African countries.