The matter of the possibility of establishing an All-Africa Union Government has appeared on the agenda of the AU over the last two years. The January 2007 8th Ordinary Session of the Assembly decided that the July Accra Summit Meeting should be dedicated to a discussion of this important matter in order to reach some finality about how our continent should proceed with regard to the issue of the establishment of a Union Government.
The Summit Meeting concluded with the adoption of the Accra Declaration, which did indeed specify the Continental Programme of Action to address the issue of a Union Government. But before we reflect on the content of the Accra Declaration, we must make some comments on various issues that relate to this important matter.
A shared destiny:
For many decades, the peoples of Africa have shared the hope that in time Africa would unite, repudiating the divisions imposed on the continent during the period of imperialism and colonialism, which gave our countries their national boundaries.
The desire to unite was driven by the recognition of the fact that the peoples of Africa share a common destiny and that we would succeed to secure our rightful place among the world community of nations when and if we are able to act together as one integrated unit, in fact a United States of Africa.
All the African Heads of State and Government and the Ministers who participated in the Summit Meeting reemphasised and underlined this view. There is absolutely no doubt that our continent's political leadership is firmly committed to the vision of a united Africa. This leadership understands very well what this would mean in terms of the full recovery of the dignity of the African people, including those in the Diaspora.
It also clearly understands the critical importance of African integration and unity to the achievement of the goal of a better life for all our peoples. Regularly and correctly, many of the 40 speakers who addressed the Summit Meeting during the general debate recalled the appeal made by Kwame Nkrumah, an Esteemed Member of the Order of the Companions of O.R. Tambo, that - Africa must Unite!
Reflecting this strong conviction, the Accra Declaration said Africa's leaders are convinced "of the need for common responses to the major challenges of globalisation facing Africa and boosting regional integration processes through an effective continental mechanism. (They recognise) that opening up narrow domestic markets to greater trade and investment through freer movement of persons, goods, services and capital would accelerate growth thus, reducing excessive weaknesses of many of our Member of States, (and that the envisaged) Union Government should be built on common values that need to be identified and agreed upon as benchmarks. (Given the critical importance of this matter, Africa's political leaders also acknowledge) the importance of involving the African peoples in order to ensure that the African Union is a Union of peoples and not just a "Union of states and governments," as well as the African Diaspora in the processes of economic and political integration of our continent."
Our mandate:
Our delegation at the Accra Summit Meeting was especially empowered to participate in the deliberations for a number of reasons. One of these was that our National Assembly had discussed our approach to the issue of the formation of a Union Government.
The overwhelming view of this important chamber of our National Parliament was that our country should support and encourage the advancement of our continent towards its integration and unity. The National Assembly said we should work towards this objective systematically and step by step, starting by laying a firm foundation and then proceeding to build the required edifice.
The July 27-30 ANC National Policy Conference had also considered this matter. It adopted exactly the same approach taken by our National Assembly. Specifically, it said our movement "in principle supports the establishment of the Union Government and the creation of the United States of Africa as a step towards the strategic goal of the unification of Africa.
"The process must be informed by a developmental agenda for Africa with an immediate focus on building regional economic communities (RECs).and the strengthening of the AU, and all its organs, in its role as a catalyst towards the formation of the Union of African States."
Beyond all this we were empowered by the fact that for us, the vision of a United Africa is more than 150 years old. Already in the 1850s, our emerging modern intelligentsia, represented by such outstanding patriots as the Rev Tiyo Soga, spoke out in favour of a United Africa.
When this intelligentsia, represented by such patriots as Mangena Mokone, broke away from the established white churches in the 19th century, it established the Ethiopian Church, so named to underline the fact that it was formed to assert the unity of our continent and its common determination to restore Africa's independence by liberating her from colonial rule.
As we reported in Vol 7 No 24 of this journal, this same sentiment was also conveyed by such founders of the ANC as John Langalibalele Dube and Pixley ka Izaka Seme well before the foundation of our movement. Thus was the ANC established not as a South African movement, but the organised leader of the peoples of Southern Africa.
We therefore went to Accra informed by a mandate in favour of African Unity that is deeply embedded in our history and the very being of our movement. We also went to Accra fully conscious of the enormous contribution that united African action had made to our own struggle for liberation, as encapsulated in the activities of the OAU and the sacrifices of the peoples especially of Southern Africa.
African self-reliance:
During the Accra Summit Meeting we also launched the Pan-African Infrastructure Investment Fund (PAIID). PAIID, currently capitalised at over R4 billion ($625 million), which is made up exclusively of African capital contributed by South African and Ghanaian pension funds, the African Development Bank, and South African private and public financial institutions.
This is the first time ever that our continent has combined to draw on Africa's own financial resources to address its developmental challenges. The launch of PAIID therefore made the unequivocal statement that Africa is determined to be its own liberator from poverty, underdevelopment and global marginalisation.
It gave concrete expression to the aspiration expressed during the Grand Debate on the Union Government that we must rely on ourselves to elaborate the policies and programmes and generate a significant part of the resources that will take us to the desired goal of a truly free Africa. We are confident that over the next 12 months, PAIID capitalisation will grow at least to R7 billion ($1 billion).
The launch of the PAIID served as a practical response to the passionate statement made by the President of Madagascar, Marc Ravalomanana, during the Grand Debate, when he said:
"I also agree with my brother, President Wade (of Senegal). We should not always say Africa is a sick continent. We may not be sick, but we are not very healthy! But we must also be honest, parts of Africa are very sick.
"That is why we are so dependent on donors. The donors are like doctors. The doctor keeps giving us our medicine, but we don't seem to be getting any better. Maybe the medicine is wrong! Maybe we have the wrong doctor!...
"If we want to succeed, we have to catch up with Asia and Europe fast. If we do not catch up, we will always be far behind. But how can you catch up when Asia and the West have such a big advantage?"
The launch of PAIID gave the powerful response that one of the things that we must do to catch up with Asia and the West is to rely on our resources, demonstrating that from now onwards we will not rely so exclusively on the "medicine" we receive from our donors. To emphasise this critically important development, PAIID has already identified the NEPAD infrastructure projects in which it should invest.
The APRM and a shared value system:
The other important matter we would like to mention is that the African Peer Review Forum made up of the Heads of State and Government of the African countries that have acceded to the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), (now numbering 27), also met to consider the Reviews of Algeria and South Africa, as well as the annual reports on the Programmes of Action of the Governments of Kenya and Rwanda, originally elaborated to respond to the APRM reviews of these two countries.
There will be an opportunity in future for us to fully reflect on all the principal elements of the APRM Report on South Africa. For now we would like to mention only three important points that are directly relevant to the pursuit of the goal of African Unity, and especially what the Accra Declaration identified as "common values that need to be identified and agreed upon as benchmarks", in the effort to realise the vision of the United States of Africa.
The proceedings of the African Peer Review Forum demonstrated that the APRM is alive and well and is making a critical contribution to the creation of the new Africa. During these proceedings an important discussion also took place focusing on improving the quality of the work, and therefore the all-important credibility, of the APRM. I am certain this will make a valuable contribution to the critical objective further to improve the objectivity, precision and credibility of the APRM reports and emphasise the independence of the APR panel which has the task to prepare its own reviews of our countries.
As a people we must feel inspired that, among other things in its report on South Africa, the APR panel identified 18 best practices in our country, which it recommended should be emulated by other African countries as we, together, strive to improve overall governance and accelerate our advance towards meeting the goal of a better life for the masses of the peoples of our continent.
Whither Africa?
It was within this setting, including the continuing celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the independence of Ghana, that the AU Summit Meeting adopted that Accra Declaration after an intense, frank and inclusive debate. In essence the debate centred on one critical strategic question.
This was - should we adopt a top-down approach to the formation of the United States of Africa, with its Union Government, or should we follow the bottom-up route! Should we set up a Union Government to lead this process or should we use our existing structures, especially the Regional Economic Communities and the African Union to effect the process of integration that would lead to the formation of a Union Government serving as the Executive Authority of the United States of Africa!
The Accra Summit Meeting decided unanimously in favour of the latter option, of building the House of Africa from its foundation upwards, constructing one floor at a time, as Uganda President, Yoweri Museveni, put it. In the contribution we have already cited, President Marc Ravalomanana of Madagscar said:
"I know that for more than 40 years we have been talking about Pan Africanism. I agree it is now time to move from talking to action. Let us get practical. Come up with the plan. Let us agree on time-frames. Let us formulate a strategy.
"In the Bible it says: 'Do not build your house on a foundation of sand. It will collapse. The wise man builds his house on a foundation of stone. That house will last.' "
Emphasising the common resolve of our continent to move speedily towards its unity, El Hadj President Omar Bongo Ondimba of Gabon said: "In effect, it is when Africa speaks in one and the same voice that the international community will hear and understand us. From this must emerge a consensus in favour of the political and economic integration of Africa.
"Quite clearly, fundamentally we have already decided that to achieve the United States of Africa, we must create an Executive Organ of our Union. It therefore seems clear that the time has come for us to create a Government of the Union."
Representing the united view of the region of Southern Africa, the current Chairperson of SADC, Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili of Lesotho, said:
"We recognise that Africa's interests would be best served through both political and economic integration. However, we must adopt a bottom-up approach, not a top-down one. The entire process must be people-driven and not leaders-driven. It must be the voice of the masses that determine Africa's ultimate destiny. Lest we be misunderstood, we must hurry to state that this view has nothing to do with abdication of leadership.
"It has everything to do with the leadership taking along the peoples of Africa that as leaders we are privileged to serve. This presupposes thorough consultations with the citizens of our countries. We also believe that such integration should be gradual rather than precipitous. It must be evolutionary rather than revolutionary. It must be based on a road map that contains stages, strategies and benchmarks.
"At the end of the day, if another form of organisation is created, we believe, it will be joined on a voluntary basis. What would the fate of those Member States who do not join? We must take care not to further divide Africa in our haste to 'unite it'."
The Accra Declaration - a Continental Directive
The July 2007 Accra 9th Ordinary Session of the African Union Assembly of African Heads of State and Government concluded its Grand Debate on the Union Government by unanimously adopting the Accra Declaration, fully reflecting the strategic approach enunciated by Prime Minister Phakalitha Mosisili and advanced by other African political leaders. With regard to the observation made in the Accra Declaration about the need to involve the African Diaspora, we were fortunate that present during the Summit Meeting were such eminent members of this African Diaspora as Jesse Jackson, Andy Young and the jazz master Herbie Hancock from the USA, as well as Valerie Amos and Dianne Abbott from the UK.
When he opened the Summit Meeting, the Current Chairperson of the AU and President of Ghana, John Kuffuor said: "In 1965, Dr. Nkrumah hosted a Summit of the OAU here in Accra where the project for the Continental Government was first discussed. It is therefore an uncanny coincidence that here in Accra, on the 50th anniversary of our Independence, this same subject of continental government should return to the agenda of the Summit of the African Union as its sole item for deliberation.
"In the light of global developments, including the formation of political and economic groupings on other continents, and in spite of some economic and political progress, Africa can be said to be running against time in its efforts at integration. For this reason, the continent must leapfrog to attain a dignified and promising place in the globalization process.
"Permit me to state unambiguously that, given the complexities and practical difficulties in the path of attaining this Union Government in one form or the other, the topmost prerequisite facing us as leaders of the continent should be mutual respect and trust among us all. We must also acknowledge the necessity for shared values in terms of respect for human rights, principles of good governance and the rule of law. These values should constitute the fabric of the Union's budding institutions like the Pan-African Parliament and the Union Court of Justice and Human Rights.
"Since it was agreed that this all important issue of Union Government should be debated upon within our various countries by our respective citizenry, it is hoped that whatever we the leaders would put forward as our view-points will reflect the views of our peoples. This should make our contributions human-centred and clearly owned by our peoples.
"With this as our guiding principle, everything else should be secondary. Gender, religion and country should all be subsumed under the welfare of the peoples of Africa who empower us as their leaders to meet at this Summit. Only our peoples' ownership of this debate will give this conference its legitimacy and sustainability."
The Accra Summit Meeting of the AU understood Chairperson John Kuffuor's message. It took historically important decisions that, certainly in our case, enjoy legitimacy and sustainability because they fully and faithfully reflect the will and the aspirations of the masses of our people.
The new President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Umaru Musa Yar'Adua drew our attention to the "more fundamental challenge" we face. He said: "As my predecessor and brother, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo declared at an earlier Forum on this issue (of the Union Government), is the presence of the requisite courage, vision, commitment, focus, and the political will to take decisions, abide by them, and implement such decisions diligently."
What now remains is that as South Africans we act together in unity, and as an integral component part of the African masses, courageously and diligently to implement the Continental Directive spelt out in the Accra Declaration. Yes indeed, as Tiyo Soga, Mangena Mokone, Langalibalele Dube and Pixley Seme foresaw, Africa must Unite!
Thabo Mbeki
President of South Africa
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