The Post Newspaper (Friday June 29, 2007)
Between June 18 and 20, 2007, some 36 researchers, activists and civil society actors from across Africa attended a conference on the theme "The Cost of Non-integration In Africa" in Marrakech, Morocco. Amongst the participants was writer, Pan-Africanist and Executive Director of AFRICAphonie, Mwalimu George Ngwane. On his return, The Post's Nana Walter Wilson accosted him. Ngwane, as usual, had a heap to say. First, he said African integration had hitherto been a state-driven project until recently.
African integration, he explained, has mainly been pursued under the political banner of pan-Africanism while its economic trajectory was developed in the Lagos Plan of Action, the African Economic Treaty and NEPAD.
Unfortunately, according to Ngwane, the cultural component has not been fully exploited and this has undermined the quest for an African citizenship through a common language, a pan-African media organ, a revised and harmonised education system, and a return to the organic concept of co-existence and cooperation as it obtained before individualism and exclusion became our new mantra.
Thus, to fulfill the need for an independent vision based on practical realities and analyses from civil society actors, non-state actors were invited to Marrakech.
Second, Ngwane said the civil society has refused to assume its role as a building block of the African architecture, instead it has become the victim of its own paralysis either because of its insular and parochial vision of speaking to national bread and butter issues, or through its own perceived peripheral power of influencing decisions taken by policy makers at the continental level.
Third, the conference was organised on the eve of the historic African Union Summit holding in Accra, Ghana, from July 1 to 3, 2007.The preoccupation of this summit is the grand debate on an African Union Government leading to the creation of the United States of Africa.
"It is, therefore, hoped that proceedings of our conference shall be tabled at this historic summit at the ECOSOC office and at the Pan-African Parliament to hold before the end of this year, said the Pan-Africanist.
When asked as to how relevant integration is to Cameroonians since Cameroon has systematically boycotted African Union summits since 1996, Mwalimu, said despite that fact, Cameroon makes considerable financial contributions to African Union, as well as human resources.
"Nonetheless, the pathological absence of President Paul Biya from AU summits is a disservice to our diplomatic offensive and a negation to Biya's annual addresses about the plight of Africa," Ngwane laments.
He expresses worries that Cameroon and some other African countries advocating gradual African integration have wasted their resources fighting to integrate their economies into the global agenda through the Bretton Woods and through the Chinese dragons.
The result, according to Ngwane, is economic growth without economic development, liberal democracy without social dividends and political voice without political authority.
The Mwalimu believes that without a clear commitment to intra-African trade and political diplomatic presence in the African scene, Cameroon may remain a mere national footnote (thanks to our football identity) on the pages of the Pan-African history.
As to whether a united Africa possible, Ngwane has no doubt: "It is not only possible but imperative. A united Africa has always existed among the people and even among some heads of state. The sticking point is the time frame and nature of this united Africa. While some continue to militate for gradualism through regional economic communities, others are of the one-off continental unity model reminiscent of Kwame Nkrumah's vision.
"I, therefore, propose that if the Accra July summit fails to achieve a minimum consensus on the African Union government now, then we should abandon the holistic approach of trying to get all African countries to accept the one-off continental version and embark on the voluntary approach which requires countries or regions that are prepared to create a United States of Africa,
to come together as nucleus members like it was in 1961 among Ghana, Guinea and Mali. And when other citizens shall see the benefits accruing from these core members, they shall oblige their governments into associating with the United Africa architecture."
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