By Mwalimu George Ngwane (Originally published in Eden Newspaper, Wednesday, June 27, 2007)
Subject: Personal participation at the African Union summit in Accra,Ghana
Your Excellency,
From 1-3 July 2007, Ghana shall become the capital of Africa. As host of the 9th Ordinary session of the historic African Union summit, Ghana is expected to beat past records in terms of attendance by Heads of state in the history of the pan African organization summits. The stake is the Grand debate on the Union Government that should lead to the creation of the United States of Africa. Every country is therefore looking forward to the participation of their Head of state. So is Cameroon.
Your Excellency, history reminds us that Cameroon has always been on the wrong end of the African Unity stick. Under your predecessor, Ahmadou Ahidjo, Cameroon militated for gradual integration within the Monrovia bloc as opposed to fast track integration proposed by the Casablanca group. Even though Cameroon is the only country that has produced two Secretary Generals (Nzo Ekhangaky and Eteki Mboumoua) of the Organisation of African Unity, her diplomatic offensive in favour of pan African unity has been dismal. The political discourse of your predecessor was completely at variance with the aspirations of the Cameroonian people who yearn for a continental government. A case in point is the speech he (Ahidjo) delivered at the Bafoussam Congress in November 1961 and I quote:
“For Cameroon, it is a simple matter. A continental government in Africa at the present time would appear to be pure political Africa, a façade and show-piece for the outside world and an instrument without any real effectiveness for the true evolution of the continent”.
Amadou Ahidjo and his anti-African unity rhetoric are dead. May they rest in Peace. A reading of your book “Communal Liberalism” portended a new African Unity stance as you wrote and I quote.
“Aware of the fact that a disunited Africa cannot hope to change anything in the world order, we believe that Cameroon should muster all its force so as to contribute to the strengthening of African Unity at the continental, regional and sub regional level”.
Cameroon, under your leadership, hosted the O.A.U summit in 1996. Cameroon under your leadership has had her sons and daughters placed in strategic positions within the African Union Commission. Cameroon, under your leadership initiated the African week and the African diplomatic forum. At the same time Cameroon, under your leadership has backtracked on the promises of forging greater African unity. A case in point is your personal absence at all African Union summits since 1996. Yes, 10 years of Cameroon’s Presidential empty chair politics at the African Union summit; Yes, 10 years of Cameroon’s top leadership snub to decision-making summits that revolve around improving the quality of the life of the African; Yes 10 years of Cameroon’s negation to the ideals of the founding fathers of the O.A.U to which we were pioneer signatories.
Situated within an enviable central geographical axis and endowed with a multicultural pluralism, Cameroon prides herself of being Africa in miniature.
Your Excellency, the Accra summit provides Cameroon and your high office an opportunity to reclaim Cameroon’s voice in the African unity architecture.
Your personal participation at this summit shall once more stamp our identity as a country which aspires to be the quintessence of the African epoch.
Your personal attendance shall provide the tonic needed to rejuvenate Cameroon’s diplomatic lull. For indeed when the history of the African Union shall be written on which page shall Cameroon under your leadership find herself? Among the progressives, conservatives or fence-sitters?
History has come full circle; forty-five years after Ahidjo denied Cameroon the pivotal status of engendering continental unity, the 2007 Accra summit gives Cameroonians through your personal participation, the opportunity to erase the scars of our collective blemished memory. By attending the Accra summit, the spirit of Um Nyobe’s search for a genuine Independent Cameroon shall be borne and the voice of Kwame Nkrumah’s cry for a continental government shall resonate.
Your Excellency, the Accra rendezvous promises to be the template on which the true African heroes shall be written and the mirror that shall reflect your commitment and loyalty to a concept that you term “a more interdependent mankind”.
Accra 2007 calls!
Your citizen
Mwalimu George Ngwane
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