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It is imperative to always make mention of the great founding African fathers of the OAU/AU such as Kwame Nekrumah of Ghana, Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, Senghor of Senegal, Kenyatta of Kenya, and Nyerere of Tanzania.
The AU in a nutshell was the OAU initiative which paved the way for the birth of AU. In July 1999, the Assembly decided to convene an extraordinary session to expedite the process of economic and political integration in the continent to enable it play its rightful role in the global economy while addressing multifaceted social, economic and political problems compounded as they are by certain negative aspects of globalisation. The Durban Summit (2002) launched the AU and convened the 1st Assembly of the Heads of States of the African Union.
Can Africa unite? My answer will be in two folds firstly, I would want to us as a nation and a continent to address some pertinent issues; do we have the needed institutional structures in place as a continent? Since Africa was subject to rule by several different colonial powers, the colonial legacy varies from one part of the continent to another. Generalizing, therefore, one can say that economies of the African states were largely developed in accordance with the needs of the colonial power. Hence the current trend of neo-colonialism, few of our countries can claim to be truly independent. It will be fundamental error not to take account of institutional weakness – notably the lack of skilled and highly trained manpower to steer an expanded state. The Grand Debate on the Union Government must acknowledge the threat/opportunities, and not shy away from the challenge posed by imperialism.
The question about who should be the head of the AU is too early and will be unprofessional on my part to answer with specifics but I would want to believe the approach in knowing who that will be will take a more integrated, synergic and deliberative approach.
In my previous submission I suggested some modalities in which the head of the AU should be familiar with, I believe.
If only I understood your question; talking the model in the form of United States of Africa or United Nation of Africa, would not be the key issue but rather putting in place the needed bench-marks to monitor our regional integration. Cooperation at every level – regional or continental – must provide an enabling framework for the involvement of civil society and other stakeholders this because cooperation at all these levels is too important to be left to heads of state alone.
Analyzing and observing the political will, I will conclude by saying it has an ideological dimension, which is the need for African leaders to have a paradigm shift and understand that they are responsible for their own development. No country or group of countries, no multinational institution, no amount of external ‘aid’ will ever ‘develop’ Africa.
The external dependency and the extreme vulnerability of the continent are also reflected in the surrender of economic policies.
I will call for an economic union and this needs to be based on a complementarily of structures. Countries can only cooperate when the issue of economic unity is approached politically.
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Cyril France
Cyril Nii-Offei France is a Development Management student and the Student Representative Council (SRC) Financial Secretary of Ghana Christian University College (GCUC). Mr. France has been zealous in finding sustainable solutions to local and global maladies. Mr. France had the opportunity to engage in mainstream youth-led development such as attending the West Africa Regional Workshop on Youth in Civic Engagement, sponsored by the World Bank Ghana office and subsequently contributed immensely to the E-Consultation on Youth Participation in Poverty Reduction Strategies hosted by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in collaboration with the World Bank Institute.
Mr. France’s audacious and selfless dedication to serve and lead local communities work out their future in a manner that does not compromise the shared benefits for future generations, impelled him to undertake numerous community-based projects with youth-led organizations such as Global Youth Action Network - Ghana, Youth Realities Network, Youth Action Movement, Student World Assembly, among others. Some achievements from this sphere include, Project Coordinator for the Global Youth Service Day (GYSD) 2008, as the National Lead Agency in Ghana. As a key team player Mr. France has worked on several youth-development committee’s and events such as planning committee member responsible for external liaison during the 3dr Annual Student World Assembly, International Convention in Ghana at the University of Ghana, Legon and the 2007 Jubilee Youth Leaders’ Summit at Kumasi.
Mr. Frances’ notable achievements paved the way for his selection to represent his school and country at the 2009 International Student Festival in Trondheim, Norway, he also gave two separate presentations at the 2008 World Youth Congress in Quebec, Canada, and subsequent he was a Rapporteur for the UN-HABITAT’s 2008 World Urban Youth Forum in Nanjing, China. Being part of these global youth engagements augmented his knowledge in emerging social issues, youth-led development, and sustainable livelihoods.
Presently, Mr. France is the Founder and Executive Coordinator of Youth Path, a youth-led development agency.
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