Ghana: Libyan President calls for a Pan-African Government Now; right message, wrong messenger?

Tuesday 3 July 2007, brought to an end the 9th African Union Summit in Accra, Ghana. The three-day conference proceedings were dominated by the need for a debate on an African Union Government, with a view to providing a clear vision of the future of the African Union and of African unity, as adopted at the AU Summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in January 2007. Two distinct camps emerged on how to achieve this goal; Libyan President Colonel Gaddafi led the call for the Continent to unite immediately without delay; other heads of states such as South African President Thabo Mbeki preferred a gradual approach, stating the need to increase the regional economic integration as a higher priority. The AU heads opted for the gradual approach, and the summit concluded with the issuing of the Accra Declaration, which outlined the following:

• The ultimate objective of the African Union is the United States of Africa with a Union Government as envisaged by the founding fathers of the Organization of African Unity and, in particular, the visionary leader, Dr. Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana;

• Opening up narrow domestic markets to greater trade and investment through freer movement of persons, goods, services and capital would accelerate growth thus, reducing excessive weaknesses of many of our Member States;

• There was an acknowledgement of the importance of involving the African peoples in order to ensure that the African Union is a Union of peoples and not just a “Union of states and governments”, as well as the African Diaspora in the processes of economic and political integration of our continent;

Much scepticism has raged about the sincerity of the call from the Libyan leader for an immediate Pan-African Union Government. Some have declared that Gaddafi is the only head of state in Africa calling for an All African Union Government, in which Garvey, Padmore, CLR James, Kwame Ture, Sekou Toure and Julius Nyerere and all the other great Pan-Africanists said would free Africans worldwide; many reject this notion and believe the real motivation for Gaddafi’s Pan-African exuberance, is to obtain greater access to African land and resources for the Arab world.

In 2001, Colonel Gaddafi stated the following in an address to the Arab League, "…the third of the Arab community living outside Africa should move in with the two-thirds on the continent and join the African Union ‘which is the only space we have.’"