Towards a Union Government for Africa
blurb:isstoday:12112008afrunion
12 November 2008: Towards a Union Government for Africa
‘Africa must unite or perish!’
- Kwame Nkrumah
Communist, nationalist, tyrant, romantic, dictator, idealist, pragmatist, and nationalist, as first Ghanaian president Kwame Nkrumah has been called and still called, fought tirelessly for the unity of African countries into a single African Federal State. Forty-four years after Nkrumah’s visionary proposal, the leadership of the African Union (AU), the successor organisation to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), is still grappling with the issue of whether to forge a Union Government for Africa.
Africa’s search for a collective development strategy and integration scheme, documented in the Lagos Plan of Action (LPA), as well as in the Final Act of Lagos (FAL) and the Abuja Treaty Establishing an African Economic Community (AEC), was an initiative of the OAU supported by the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). Both the FAL and the Abuja Treaty specifically stressed the role of Regional Economic Communities (RECs) in the establishment of the AEC in six stages over a period of 34 years, from the entry into force of the Treaty. The Treaty also made provision for the establishment of continental institutions including a Pan African Parliament (PAP), and Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC) and an African Central Bank (ACB).
Since 2006, the issue of the formation of a Union Government has again been a priority item on the agenda of the AU. The 8th Ordinary Assembly of Heads of States and Government held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in January 2007 decided to convene national consultations on the issue and hold a 'Grand Debate on the Union Government' at the level of heads of states and government. It was expected to determine Africa’s institutional future in terms of continental organization.
Following this decision, prior to the 9th Ordinary Session of the AU Assembly of Heads of State and Government, in Accra, Ghana in July 2007, two major conflicting conceptions of the institutional future of the African continent emerged, namely the maximalist approach and the gradualist approach. The ‘maximalists’ advocated the immediate creation of a Union Government, while the ‘gradualists’ opted for a stage-by-stage process, with the first stage being the integration of RECs. The ‘skeptics’ group, positioned between the maximalist and gradualist camps, was made up of member states that had not yet taken a stance.
The maximalist camp, spearheaded by Senegal and Libya, wanted to set up a Union Government immediately. Yet, the gradualists which include South Africa, Uganda, Kenya, Nigeria, The Gambia, Angola, Lesotho, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mauritius for their part pleaded the cause of RECs which, according to them, should be strengthened before any continental integration. The gradualists felt that integration should be achieved in stages, with priority given to the harmonization of polices and regional integration.
Speaking at the end of the Grand Debate in Accra, which closed early, the AU Chairman, President John Agyekum Kufuor said “it was a unanimous decision.” He said the leaders have adopted “a step by step approach” in order to come out with a concept that suits the African condition.
The direct consequence of the Accra Declaration was a consensus on the rationale for integration. As such, the Heads of State and Government agreed to accelerate the economic and political integration of the continent, including the formation of the Union Government in Africa. This was done with a view to providing a clear vision of the future of the Union Government. Accordingly, it was decided to conduct an audit of the Executive Council, the Commission as well as the other Organs of the African Union, and to establish a Ministerial Committee to examine the content of the Union Government concept, its relation with National Governments, and elaboration of the roadmap together with time frames for the establishment of the Union Government in which the outcome of the audit and the work of the Ministerial Committee were to be submitted to the Executive Council to make appropriate recommendations to the Ordinary Session of the Assembly.
The Executive Council held its Eleventh Extraordinary Session in Arusha, Tanzania from 6 to 7 May 2008 and recommended that these issues be examined by the Committee of Twelve Heads of State and Government on the Union Government which convened in Arusha, Tanzania from 22 to 23 May 2008.
From the discussions of the Committee of Twelve, and in conformity with the Accra Declaration, it is quite clear that the issue of Union Government is not whether to put in place a Union Government, but how and when, and to clarify the concept and content of such a Government. In addressing the issues of how and when, the Committee of Twelve recommended that the form of the Union Government shall be a union of independent and sovereign states on the basis of a gradual process. The accelerators and benchmarks contained in the Report of the High Level Panel on the Audit of the Union were generally acceptable and agreed upon for implementation. Furthermore, the importance of the free movement of peoples across borders as contained in Abuja Treaty and the Constitutive Act, the development of transcontinental and inter-regional infrastructure as well as the multinational African firms are considered as a step forward in accelerating Africa’s integration. The early establishment of the continental financial institutions identified in Article 19 of the Constitutive Act (the African Central Bank, the African Monetary Fund, and the African investment Bank) was also considered as accelerators toward the Union Government.
The 11th Assembly of the African Union held in Sharm El Sheikh from 30 June to 1 July 2008 requested the Commission to work out the modalities for the implementation of the recommendations on the Union Government of the Committee of Twelve, including a road map and the issues that require clarity, and to submit the proposals to the next ordinary session of the Assembly scheduled for January 2009.
The Assembly further decided to devote a full day of its January 2009 session to consider the report of the Commission on this matter with a view to bringing the debate to a final conclusion. African leaders through the abovementioned agreements and recommendations have recognized the need for continental integration. Today, there is a growing recognition among African countries of the need to provide the African Union with stronger continental machinery in order to work on agreed strategic areas of focus and as stated above “necessity for eventual Union Government is not in doubt.”
In conclusion, the Union Government must be a Union of the African people and not merely a Union of states and governments. It must be based on shared values drawn from both African culture and societies, and from articulated commitments of African countries to meet the challenge of coping with historical legacies and current realities. In addition, it would be important for African countries to be guided by adherence to the rule of law, popular participation in governance, respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms and transparency in public policy making.
Dr Debay Tadesse,
Senior Researcher,
Direct Conflict Prevention Programme, ISS Addis Ababa
