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| Creating An African Union Government 末 Is It Feasible? |
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| Posted on: 2007-Jul-04 Kwadwo Baffoe Donkor |
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THIS is July and the African Union (AU) summit to deliberate on the future of both the union and the continent has ended.
Just like the Durban Summit in South Africa five years ago that changed the erstwhile Organization of African Union (OAU) to the current African union, the Accra summit is expected to also change the destiny of both the AU and the peoples of Africa.
Before the summit, the debate on an African Union government was on-going with some people calling for an immediate continental government that would fight for the eradication of poverty, which has bedeviled the continent. In spite of the myriad of problems facing the continent, obviously, the main agenda of the Accra summit was the formation of this continental government.
The other school of thought that emerged out of this debate is that of those who want a gradual or progressive approach to the continental government. They are of the view that a federal continental union government is not the panacea to the problems facing Africa. Although they would want a closer collaboration among and within governments in Africa, this group of people want a union that will be modeled along the European Union type rather than the United States of America痴.
But in all these debates, no matter the approach and the form adopted, be it the radical or the progressive/gradualist, one thing that will be very fundamental to the success or otherwise of this union is the free movement of the citizenry of the continent. It therefore goes without saying that aside the discussion on the form that the union government will take, concrete efforts must be taken by our leaders to remove policies and barriers that impede the smooth integration of the continent.
Day in day out, leaders and heads of government delegations at various fora have bemoaned the low volume of trade among countries in Africa. Even sub-regional blocs that have been organized or formed with the aim of boosting regional integration and cooperation have woefully failed to achieve this aim.
Some of the main reasons behind this failure have been the subtle but potent protectionism policies adopted by these countries coupled with the multitude road barriers and borders, and non adherence to sub-regional protocols adopted by these very countries with the aim of facilitating a regional integration.
PROTOCOL
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) for instance, has a protocol that ensures the free movement of goods, services and people of the sub-region but hardly does any of the 15 or 16 countries that are signatories to these protocols adhere to them.
Travellers within the region are faced with serious problems as they travel to and from these countries. Not even the possession of a valid passport, be it national or regional (ECOWAS passport), will spare one the ordeal of delays and payment of illegal fees to the officers that man the barriers and borders of these countries.
Apart from those who travel by air, it is something that still remains very expensive in spite of the development and improvement in the sector. In recent years road users face a whole lot of problems and challenges. They are abused, assaulted and at times beaten by people who are supposed to ensure their safety.
In recent times, there had been lots of reportage on the abuses that road users suffer at the hands of these unscrupulous public officers. About two months ago, The Ghanaian Times reported on one such incident involving a police officer threatening to kill a driver for refusing to pay a bribe although the driver had up-to-date documents covering both the vehicle and the merchandise he was transporting to Burkina Faso.
From Tema to Bamako via Ouagadougou, Lagos to Praia and Accra to Freetown, the story is the same if not worse in certain jurisdictions. Travellers on these roads are subjected to all sorts of abuses, extortions and assaults.
At the recent ECOWAS meeting held at Abuja, free movement of people within the region took centre stage of the discussions; this goes to underscore the fact that for the successful implementation of USA or EU type of continental union government, a lot more energy and attention would have to be devoted to the free movement of goods and services among the various countries that would be part of this union.
Africans would want to see concrete actions taken by their governments to ensure this. Or just like it happened with the OAU when the main focus of the union then, which was to integrate the continent, was lost and rather more than three decades spent to fight colonialism, the objective of the AU of creating a politically and economically united Africa will forever remain an Utopian fantasy.
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