Ayika: Journal of Environment and Politics in Africa continues to prove to be Africa’s leading platform for the discourse of environmental and political dynamics in the continent. This is attested to by the high-quality articles published in successive issues of the journal since its inception. As a journal, it also continues to demonstrate the extricate linkage between the dynamics of the environment and politics. This is to the extent, that issues and challenges in one area affect the other. For example, environmental problems such as drought, water scarcity, and even climate change, among others continue to exert pressure on political systems across the continent. Hence, in a nuanced manner, environmental dynamics continue to be one of the leading drivers of political crisis in Africa. This issue of Ayika: Journal of Environment and Politics in Africa contains a rich collection of articles. They touch on important themes of environmental and political themes affecting countries on the continent. Some of these themes include geopolitics, conflict resolution, resource conflict, internal security, terrorism, and conflict media, among others. These themes were expertly discourse, thereby unearthing the causes and effects of the issues around and also recommending practical solutions as ways out of quagmire. 

AYIKA: JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENT AND POLITICS IN AFRICA is a journal that provides an avenue to scholars, researchers, policy analysts, think tank groups, as well as the civil society community to ventilate the various ramifications of the relations between environment and politics and development in Africa. The causal relationship between the environment and politics and vice versa has grown such that the scientific and political communities have fundamentally and unprecedentedly come to agreement as to the cause(s) of environmental problems. Hence, there is a growing recognition of government as the consumer of scientific findings on the environment such as that this journal portends.

This publication offers a variety of perspectives on digitization, politics and governance in Africa, making it a great resource for readers. In order to comprehend the intricate tapestry of digitalization in the modern world, readers will have the chance to peruse scientific arrays of the viewpoints of several contributors.
We would especially want to express our sincere gratitude to the editorial staff, reviewers, and contributors whose hard work and commitment to scholarship made this extensive compilation possible. We sincerely hope that this issue will serve as a catalyst for thought- provoking discussion, encouraging critical thinking, and directing academic endeavors towards a more comprehensive comprehension of the mutually beneficial link between digitization, governance, and politics.
As editors, we extend an invitation to readers to interact with these papers, consider their implications, and participate in the ongoing conversation about this interaction between digitalization and political where the digital sphere is inextricably linked to everyday living and governance.

This issue of AYIKA: Journal of Environment and Politics in Africa contribute to the discourse of African politics, elections, governance and development that can serves as focus for scholars, civil society activists, politicians and students of African politics and elections as we all grapple with the issues and challenges in elections on the continent.

Ayika: Journal of Environment and Politics in Africa continues to prove to be Africa’s leading platform for the discourse of environmental and political dynamics in the continent. This is attested to by the highquality articles published in successive issues of the journal since its inception. As a journal, it also continues to demonstrate the extricate linkage between the dynamics of the environment and politics. This is to the extent, that issues and challenges in one area affect the other. For example, environmental problems such as drought, water scarcity, and even climate change, among others continue to exert pressure on political systems across the continent. Hence, in a nuanced manner, environmental dynamics continue to be one of the leading drivers of political crisis in Africa

Election and quest for power by the political elite has become a major source of violence in the contemporary African history. In many parts of Africa, election and quest for powerful position is the main source of accumulation of private wealth. Those that are in the seat of power uses it as an opportunity to amass unlimited national wealth and loth the treasury. They largely share the masses’ commonwealth thereby undermining the necessary resources needed for development and societal transformation into private pocket.
Furthermore, the quest to attain these degree of wealth naturally pushes many African power elites into the competition for political offices. They engage in elections at all cost and unleash private, group and personal resources towards the attainment of their political interest. This Issue of the Journal focuses on the nature of elections, electoral violence in power politics within the African continent and the way forward.

The nature of the African continent is such that environmental problems are rising steadily and in many cases are caused by a lack of good policies and investment in the environment. In some other cases, resource-rich nations in the continent have largely failed to translate their endowments into mass wealth and development, giving rise to what scholars have tagged resource curse and/or affliction. New environmental problems such as climate change continue to impact on the daily lives of the African man and woman, yet mitigation and adaptation policies and strategies are nascent and in most cases poor. While scholars have argued that new environmental realities be a developmental problem, in actual cases within the continent, the political class places very weak emphasis on this conceptualisation of environment.
AYIKA: Journal of Environment and Politics in Africa has a mandate to extend the frontiers of knowledge on issues on the environment-politics complex and to be Africa’s foremost environment and politics journal. It is therefore with profound happiness to bring out the first issue of the journal As a new journal, it intends to carve a niche for itself in the fields of political science, international relations, sociology, philosophy, law, environmental science and other relevant ones. Articles featuring in this inaugural issue of the AYIKA: Journal of Environment and Politics in Africa have been made through standardised procedures of academic publications. In this wise, we want to place on record our appreciation of all that was involved in the making of the issue, the reviewers, contributors, and many others whose names we are denied by space to mention. It is our utmost believe that each article featuring in this inaugural issue of the journal will contribute to knowledge in the environmental politics of Africa.