United States of Africa a Good Idea, But Too Many Challenges
- By News Hound
- Published 07/3/2007
- Politics
- Unrated
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View all articles by News HoundUnited States of Africa a Good Idea, But Too Many Challenges
Donald Mogeni And Gilbert Muyumbu
Nairobi
THE PROCLIVITY TOWARDS integration into a single entity is not new in Africa. It is one of the reactions from Africans whenever they face global threats to their wellbeing.
When facing the threat of neo-colonisation at the dawn of independence, for instance, Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah unsuccessfully pushed for the idea of a United States of Africa as a way of overcoming the threat.
With the heightening of globalisation and its threat to national development, the African reaction has been to come up with regional trading blocs such as Comesa and the East African Community to retain their share of the market from the competition posed by global conglomerates.
With or without external threats, however, it is an axiomatic truth that pan-African integration would have great benefits for the continent.
At the economic level, integration can be an effective way of harnessing resources collectively, thus helping penetrate global markets, and attracting foreign direct investment.
It can also lead to substantial cost-saving resulting from co-ordinated investments in physical, social and institutional infrastructure.
The meagre resources that the individual African countries have on their own or could source from so-called development partners could, for instance, be more cost-effective under a joint continental development plan for infrastructure.
It can promote the integration of the continent's two major economies - pastoralism and agriculture - and link them up with others such as mining for the greater benefit of the continent instead of them serve the needs of the Western market as they are doing currently.
It would increase competition and thus generate greater product range and diversity and improved production techniques, leading to lower costs and more attractive opportunities for foreign investment in the continent
Suffice it to say that integration would boost the transformation and growth of Africa's currently fragmented and weak economies.
At the political level, integration would help Africa address common problems. Since currently envisioned integration would happen at a time when a substantial part of Africa has had a heightening of civic consciousness due to civic education, it would provide opportunity for the African citizen to engage the State afresh and define its obligations and responsibilities to him or her, a thing that is absent in most of the individual African states.
IT WOULD, THEREFORE, FOSTER A spirit of political and civic responsibility in the continent, such that Africa would not become a ground upon which failures such as Somalia and horrors such as DR Congo, Rwanda of the genocide era, wartime Sierra Leone and Liberia among others are tolerated in the flimsy name of non-interference in national affairs.
Continental integration at the political level would help deal with, and possibly rid the continent of, local warlords, monsters, rogues and tyrants who hide behind national sovereignty to oppress their people since they would be answerable and accountable to a larger, stronger and more rational body than the tiny entities called African independent states.
Yet, in spite of the many obvious benefits to be gained from continental integration, there are a number of crucial challenges and obstacles towards integration that cannot be wished away.
Looking at the past, there have been numerous integration schemes in the continent since the 1960s, but these have not been successful.
Among the reasons for failure include lack of grassroots support, excessive external dependency, underdeveloped economies, institutional weaknesses, international economic, ideological and political structures and their interference in Africa's affairs, and questions over distribution of the benefits of the integration.
Besides, integration has been left to governments, with the result that ordinary consciousness on issues of integration is scant.
The move towards pan-African integration has been slow due to the consensus approach adopted in reaching decisions, with the consequence that countries moving slowest have been the ones dictating the pace of integration.
Lack of centrally co-ordinated institutional mechanisms to enforce mutually agreed principles, lack of political will in member countries, and the fear of national politicians to allow the emergence of an entity more powerful than themselves have been critical obstacles.
Politicians still remain the biggest threat to integration since they are more concerned by short-termism, public image, power, political clientelism and wealth accumulation. They are mainly behind the unwillingness to subordinate national political interest to long-term continental development goals. The other critical challenge is the over-dependence on external donors for the movement towards integration.
Mr Donald Mogeni and Mr Gilbert Muyumbu are Nairobi based policy and development consultants.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200707021741.html
Nairobi
THE PROCLIVITY TOWARDS integration into a single entity is not new in Africa. It is one of the reactions from Africans whenever they face global threats to their wellbeing.
When facing the threat of neo-colonisation at the dawn of independence, for instance, Ghana's Kwame Nkrumah unsuccessfully pushed for the idea of a United States of Africa as a way of overcoming the threat.
With the heightening of globalisation and its threat to national development, the African reaction has been to come up with regional trading blocs such as Comesa and the East African Community to retain their share of the market from the competition posed by global conglomerates.
With or without external threats, however, it is an axiomatic truth that pan-African integration would have great benefits for the continent.
At the economic level, integration can be an effective way of harnessing resources collectively, thus helping penetrate global markets, and attracting foreign direct investment.
It can also lead to substantial cost-saving resulting from co-ordinated investments in physical, social and institutional infrastructure.
The meagre resources that the individual African countries have on their own or could source from so-called development partners could, for instance, be more cost-effective under a joint continental development plan for infrastructure.
It can promote the integration of the continent's two major economies - pastoralism and agriculture - and link them up with others such as mining for the greater benefit of the continent instead of them serve the needs of the Western market as they are doing currently.
It would increase competition and thus generate greater product range and diversity and improved production techniques, leading to lower costs and more attractive opportunities for foreign investment in the continent
Suffice it to say that integration would boost the transformation and growth of Africa's currently fragmented and weak economies.
At the political level, integration would help Africa address common problems. Since currently envisioned integration would happen at a time when a substantial part of Africa has had a heightening of civic consciousness due to civic education, it would provide opportunity for the African citizen to engage the State afresh and define its obligations and responsibilities to him or her, a thing that is absent in most of the individual African states.
IT WOULD, THEREFORE, FOSTER A spirit of political and civic responsibility in the continent, such that Africa would not become a ground upon which failures such as Somalia and horrors such as DR Congo, Rwanda of the genocide era, wartime Sierra Leone and Liberia among others are tolerated in the flimsy name of non-interference in national affairs.
Continental integration at the political level would help deal with, and possibly rid the continent of, local warlords, monsters, rogues and tyrants who hide behind national sovereignty to oppress their people since they would be answerable and accountable to a larger, stronger and more rational body than the tiny entities called African independent states.
Yet, in spite of the many obvious benefits to be gained from continental integration, there are a number of crucial challenges and obstacles towards integration that cannot be wished away.
Looking at the past, there have been numerous integration schemes in the continent since the 1960s, but these have not been successful.
Among the reasons for failure include lack of grassroots support, excessive external dependency, underdeveloped economies, institutional weaknesses, international economic, ideological and political structures and their interference in Africa's affairs, and questions over distribution of the benefits of the integration.
Besides, integration has been left to governments, with the result that ordinary consciousness on issues of integration is scant.
The move towards pan-African integration has been slow due to the consensus approach adopted in reaching decisions, with the consequence that countries moving slowest have been the ones dictating the pace of integration.
Lack of centrally co-ordinated institutional mechanisms to enforce mutually agreed principles, lack of political will in member countries, and the fear of national politicians to allow the emergence of an entity more powerful than themselves have been critical obstacles.
Politicians still remain the biggest threat to integration since they are more concerned by short-termism, public image, power, political clientelism and wealth accumulation. They are mainly behind the unwillingness to subordinate national political interest to long-term continental development goals. The other critical challenge is the over-dependence on external donors for the movement towards integration.
Mr Donald Mogeni and Mr Gilbert Muyumbu are Nairobi based policy and development consultants.
http://allafrica.com/stories/200707021741.html
