A union government for Africa came under spotlight as a position
paper on the issue is expected to be submitted to African heads of
state, who will then present it to the African Union (AU)
secretariat for consideration at the forthcoming summit to be held
in Accra, Ghana in July, participants to a symposium?in
Harare?were told on Thursday.
They were also told that the AU is targeting to achieve a
continental government by 2015.
On Thursday, more than 200 people including African ambassadors
accredited to Zimbabwe, academics and students converged at the
University of Zimbabwe to contribute to the ongoing continental
debate about the formation as well as explore the need and
feasibility of a union government for Africa.
The symposium with the theme of "Grand Debate: Union Government
for Africa", coming on the eve of the Africa Day commemorations,
sought to highlight some of the various dimensions that need to be
considered as the continent makes strides towards regional
integration.
Needs for union government
In his keynote address, renowned scholar and Africa University
vice chancellor Professor Rukudzo Murapa said Africa was the
world's most fragmented region both politically and economically,
and thus the need for continental unity in Africa could not be
overemphasized.
He said it was important for Africa to have a continental
government to favorably compete with other political unions and
economic blocs in this globalized world. "A union government will
allow for greater coordination and mobilization of resources, which
is fundamental for growth and development," he said. "It will also
give us better opportunities for economies of scale. A union
government will mean 53 African countries (excluding Morocco)
standing together with one voice, strength and unity."
A continental government, Murapa added, would reduce or
eliminate incidents of opportunistic external interference in some
countries.
However, in its attempts to move towards a union government,
Africa needs to learn from the experiences of others and cited the
European Union (EU), as perhaps the most advanced form of regional,
international, economic and political integration achieved to
date.
He said while the EU strategy had been to achieve complete
economic integration in the short term and then to achieve
political integration in the longer term, Africa should tread this
ground carefully as beginning the integration process with a
requirement for member states to forgo their sovereignty was bound
to be counter-productive.
As a way forward, Murapa suggested that the continent should
first aim to achieve integration in important areas of human
welfare such as infrastructure development, communications,
transportation, education, health and energy. He said
infrastructure integration would facilitate the movement of people,
goods and capital and thus promote integration.
Moreover, successes in these areas would have a "locomotive
effect" and pull the rest of society in the direction of unity to
the extent that politicians would realize the need to collaborate
in the more sensitive areas such as security, politics and foreign
policy, he said.
Professor Murapa said there was also need to use the numerous
regional economic communities in the continent as building blocs
for the envisaged continental government. He said rather than
becoming polarized, these regional blocs such as Southern African
Development Community, Common Market for Eastern and Southern
Africa, and the Economic Community of West African States, could be
effectively harmonized into a single continental trading bloc to
deal with other international blocs such as the EU and World Trade
Organization.
Murapa however touched on the numerous challenges facing Africa,
which he said could threaten the formation of the continental
government. These include extreme poverty, bad governance,
corruption, ethnicity, conflicts and an array of economic problems
as well as great disparities as a result of unequal and uneven
development between and within states.
Speaking at the same symposium, University of Zimbabwe's vice
chancellor, Levi Nyagura, said notwithstanding the various
successes that had been scored by the AU in tackling problems
facing Africa, the continental body needed to be financially self-
sustainable in order to reduce over reliance on donor support. "
The challenge is therefore for all African countries to meet their
obligations to the AU and avoid arrears," he said.
Nyagura said the union government needs to be founded on the
already existing AU framework for it to be effective in promoting
sustainable democracy, peace, stability and prosperity of the
continent.
Strong economic base needed
Participants urged African leaders to lay a strong political
foundation that will encourage economic integration and unity in
order to move Africa towards a continental government.
African Capacity Building Foundation (ACBF) executive director
Soumano Sako said an African Union government would rapidly
facilitate the economic integration of the continent, speed up
investment in various sectors of the economy and promote growth and
macroeconomic stability in Africa.
He said there was a growing recognition of the economic and
political advantage of having a united Africa, but expressed doubt
whether African states would be willing to surrender their
sovereignty to a supra-national institution serving as a union
government.
He said while there had been a boom in Africa's trade in recent
years, buoyed by high commodity prices, the continent needed to
diversify revenue sources to power its economic growth. Africa must
capitalize on the boom by pursuing polices which promote the
non-resource sectors of the economy, encourage more diversification
of Foreign Direct Investment inflows, and promoting intra Africa
trade, he said.
The International Monetary Fund is projecting African exports to
rise by US$69.5 billion to US$396 billion this year while imports
will be US$287.4 billion. The trade surplus of US$108.6 billion,
coupled with capital inflows of US$55 billion during recent years,
could cause foreign exchange reserves to expand by 32 percent to
US$306 billion, he said.
Much remains to be done
University of Zimbabwe lecturer, Joseph Cerebra, said a union
government would reduce the scope of conflicts in the continent."
With greater integration the scope of conflict will be limited
although this does not eliminate conflict altogether," he said.
In coming up with a continental government, issues such as state
sovereignty, national interest, the impact of AU policies on the
politics of member states, economic harmonization and the values
and cultural identity of the of AU, needed to be looked into.
Whether the AU will evolve into a single country or a club of
individual countries will also impact significantly on state
sovereignty, he said.
Professor Rudo Gaidzanwa, also a UZ lecturer, said the union
government for Africa should be people-centered. There is need to
have a union for people rather than a union for governments, she
said.
She said there was also need to promote free movement of people,
linguistic integration and facilitate intra trade among Africa
states as a prerequisite to the success of the continental
government. "The union must be good in terms of content and
quality. We should avoid the risk of having a union without
development," she said.
However, some participants to the debate said the concept of
establishing a union government is a contentious and contestable
one, calling for promotion of trade among African countries instead
of focusing all attention on trading with the North.
(Xinhua News Agency May 25, 2007)
