Reports – Macharia Gaitho

Delegates attend the ninth summit of African Union in Accra on July 3, 2007. African leaders have reaffirmed their common vision of a future continental union under a single government, but agreed to study the details and timing of how to achieve it.

African heads of state and government who recently attended the ninth African Union Summit in Accra, Ghana, to discuss regional integration agreed in principle on the need for the formation of the United States of Africa.

But they raised concern over the modalities of such integration, with many advocating economic and social cooperation rather than political union.

Here are excerpts from sample speeches:

President Kibaki, Kenya

We are gathered here today to focus our minds and exchange views on an issue that preoccupied the minds of the founding fathers of Africa’s independence and democracy movements.

The creation of a supranational union will require enormous resources and consensus on the modalities of achieving such a goal. Towards this end, the views of non-state actors and the common citizenry are of paramount importance.

This is principally because the desired union government must be a union of the African people, and not merely a union of states and governments.

Opinions were, however, varied on the pace this process should take. That notwithstanding, the predominant view underscored the need to accelerate integration through the regional economic communities as the building blocs of a united Africa.

We in the East African Community have made major strides in our integration process. As we forge forward towards unification, I wish to underscore the need to reinforce our shared history, language, culture and a common heritage.

Umaru Yar’Adua, Nigeria

Nigeria has consistently supported and advocated the imperative of the ultimate goal of the African Union being full political and economic integration leading to evolvement of the United States of Africa. The critical issue at this point is whether to fast-track the process or to pursue the same objective through gradual incrementalism.

Of critical importance is the identification of the vital institutional and operational challenges which the concept of union government throws up, and principles approaches to meeting this challenges. This makes a strong case for gradual incrementalism.

There are clear and present threats and challenges which we must face up to. We cannot ignore the social, economic and political inequalities within and among our member states, which if not bridged would pose daunting obstacles on the march towards the union.

Yoweri Museveni, Uganda

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. In East Africa we have been talking about fast-tracking the political federation.

East Africans are compatible, they can and should integrate economically and politically. Other areas of Africa that feel they have got a comparative degree of similarity or compatibility could also work for political integration.

Insisting on political integration at the continental level will bring together incompatible linkages that may create tension rather than cohesion.

Our recommendation is that we take a functions-based rational approach. What functions can most rationally be done at what level — village, district within Uganda, national, regional or continental?

There are definitely functions that can be done at the continental level, such as environment, trade negotiations, defence pact and common market.

Pakalitha Mosisili, Lesotho

The world has become a global village. In a globalised world ‘splendid isolation’ has no place. The more countries, especially in Africa, remain as individual countries, the more marginalised they shall remain. United we stand, divided we fall.

But even as we pursue this noble objective, we cannot ignore the factors that militate against it. Full political integration presupposes total surrender of sovereignty. To some of us this may indeed be a tall order. Partial surrender of sovereignty in some areas may be the best option. The most appealing form of integration would be economic integration.

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, Liberia

In 1959 Liberia called for a more measured approach [in the creation of a United Sates of Africa] through an association of African states which would focus attention on building institutions as a path towards President Kwame Nkrumah‘s dream of one Africa.

These two movements led to the formation in 1961 of the Casablanca Group promoting the views of President Nkrumah and the Monrovia Group representing the views of President Nyerere and Liberian President William Tubman. In 1963, adopting the Monrovia alternative, the OAU was born.

Today, 45 years after the Casablanca and Monrovia movements, we are back to the challenge, we are in the country of President Nkrumah to discuss, once again, the unity of Africa. Today, Liberia, this promoter of African liberation, lies in ruins.

When Liberia was in the throes of self-destruction, West Africa and Africa generally intervened to save us form ourselves. We lost our sovereignty.

Liberia believes that this meeting should endorse without further study the concept of the United States of Africa.

REFERENCES:

1. Marxism and Anti-Imperialism in Africa.
2. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa — Walter Rodney 1973.
3. Dates of Major African Events — From 1500 CE to 2000 CE | 1501 First black slaves in America [BEGINING OF A GENOCIDAL TRANS-ATLANTIC SLAVE TRADE] ……………..PRESENT.
4. Education for a New Reality in the African World — Dr. John Henrik Clarke

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