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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