July 2007 saw the meeting of the African Union (AU) in Accra, Ghana for the Grand debate on Union Government. Earlier in the year in February, they also convened for the formation of the Co-Prosperity Alliance Zone (COPAZ) in Nigeria. As 2007 ends, it is worthwhile briefly reflecting on these two events, given the role of African leaders vis-à-vis with the global framework the African world finds herself in. It is worth noting the African adage; the decaying of a fish starts from its head.

The two events above are a metaphor for the African situation: the systematic tendency of African leaders to keep reinventing the wheel. This thinking is now a ‘science’. Ironically the Accra gathering replayed the same contentions of the 1960s, with the progressives wanting ‘Union government now’ and the gradualists, wanting it done gradually. In the 1960s it was the Casablanca bloc (progressives) promoted by the likes of Nkrumah, Abdel Nasser, Toure etc against the Monrovia group (gradualists) promoted by Nyerere, Tubman, Senghor, Emperor Selassie etc. In 2007, leaders of Senegal, Libya, Zimbabwe, Benin, Liberia and Guinea are the progressives and leaders of Lesotho, South Africa, Nigeria, Uganda the gradualists. To some, the true intentions of some leaders was a cause for concern. Chinweizu questioned the intentions of Libyan leader, Colonel Gaddafi’s, noting:

‘After he has spent 40 years trying to force Libya’s unification with Sudan, to forcibly annex the Auzou strip from Chad, and sponsoring destabilization in Liberia, Uganda etc. should we trust his intentions?’.
(Chinweizu, 2007)

The speeches by Presidents Museveni of Uganda and Liberian President, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf effectively summed up the positions. President Museveni observed that:

'In Uganda, we are not in favour of forming a Continental Government now on account of a number of reasons. First, while economically I support integration with everybody, politically we should only integrate with people who are either similar or compatible with us. The whole of Africa has got some obvious incompatibilities when it comes to political integration... Other areas of Africa that feel that they have got a comparative degree of similarity or compatibility could also work for political integration....If the African Commission could concentrate on these four [the environment, Trade negotiations, Managing a Defence Pact and promoting African Common Market], instead of being everywhere and nowhere... We are wasting too much time pushing unresearched positions. Some people have been disparaging OAU. Actually, OAU achieved a lot compared to the African Union. Precisely, because OAU was realistic and limited itself to what was feasible...’
(AU summit1 2007)

President Johnson-Sirleaf however lamented:

‘Today, almost 45 years later Liberia… lies in ruin her people displaced, her infrastructures destroyed, her citizens impoverished…Has conservation worked? Has gradualism served Liberia or Africa? The record speaks for itself. This is why Liberia endorses, in principle, the spirit of African unity as expressed in the proposed establishment of the United States of Africa…When Liberia was in the throes of self-destruction, when Liberia reached beyond its own borders to violate the geographic integrity of other nations… Africa generally intervened to save us from ourselves. We lost our sovereignty then and we effectively lose it now as we try to meet the conditionalities that will enable us to return to a state of normalcy... Liberia believes that this meeting should endorse without further study, the concept of the United States of Africa…’
(AU summit2, 2007)

In the end, the Accra declaration, said;

‘1. We agree to accelerate the economic and political integration of the African continent, including the formation of a Union Government for Africa with the ultimate objective of creating the United States of Africa.
2. We agree on the following steps to attaining the Union Government...
c) to establish a ministerial Committee to examine the following:
i.) identification of the contents of the Union Government concept…
iii.) definition of the relationship between the Union Government and the Regional Economic Communities…,
4. We agree on the importance of involving the African peoples, including Africans in the Diaspora in the processes leading to the formation of the Union Government’.
(AU summit3, 2007)

The creation of COPAZ within the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), was aimed at fast-tracking the integration of the economies in the region, with Benin, Nigeria, Togo and Ghana as members. So the solution for fast-tracking integration is the creation of yet another body?
In spite of the various protocol-free movement. Free movement within ECOWAS is too tortuous. Greedy officials extort money and other favours from helpless traders and travellers.

And things get even more puzzling. An Antrak flight from Accra to Cotonou, Benin in June, was turned back literally mid air, on the orders of the transport minister in Benin who said he was not briefed about the said flight. Only 6 of the 15 ECOWAS states have started issuing the common passport: Guinea, Senegal, Nigeria, Niger, Benin and Liberia.

Madam Thompson queried, how we could be ‘talking of a United States of Africa when the French Embassy issued visa to Kenyans travelling to Senegal and the United Kingdom Embassy issued visa to Senegalese going to Kenya…Ethiopia, normally gave two years visa to Americans visiting their country and only three months to Togolese on the same mission’.(GNA,2007 )

Thus, the lack of political will for continental/ regional institutions and the lukewarm implementation of treaties have led to an appetite for forming organisations with multiple overlapping functions and little enforceable mechanisms. The rhetorics of leaders more often is not matched with action.

As African leaders think about themselves or is it African people, the USA, China, EU etc are fiercely competing for ‘Africa’s attention’. Some parts of the Continent are steeped in civil strife, treatable diseases are still ravaging millions whilst millions are poorly nourished, without portable water, health care and shelter. How many ‘African leaders’ suffer these unacceptable conditions, can anyone help with an answer? Is it a wonder contests to lead governments are usually vicious and fatal?

Until African people and those of African descent are seriously factored into the African development discourse, Africa will still be marking time into the foreseeable future.

Batuuroh Sorri