African Union Monitor
The undecided union government of Africa
AU Monitor Weekly Roundup: Issue 169, 2009
2009-02-18, Issue 420
http://pambazuka.org/en/category/aumonitor/54172
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The final decisions of the January 2009 African Union (AU) summit, including the assembly decision on the union government, are available to download at www.aumonitor.org The decision on the union government and the election of the Muammar Gaddafi of Libya as chairperson of the AU was the culmination of an ongoing internal struggle between the ‘unionists’ led by Libya and Senegal who want an urgent and deeper continental political union and the ‘gradualists’ that include South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya, and Zambia who argue that it would be impudent to rush into a union government. Indeed, the director of South Africa’s foreign affairs department reiterated that the establishment of a United States of Africa cannot be achieved in one leap but that it is first necessary to strengthen the regional economic communities and to agree on democratic principles and values that would govern the continent, amongst other conditions. Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi further warned that the United States of Africa could not be wished into existence but that an integrated economic bloc across Africa must first be built. Whereas Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade declared that the government of the AU would be established by January 2010 while the United States of Africa would be proclaimed in 2017. He added that a group of 20 African countries were ready to go their own way and set up a Federal Union. The African Development Bank launching the report ‘Assessing Regional Integration in Africa III’ in fact made note that many regional economic blocs were hindering regional integration.
Several regional leaders attended the swearing in of Morgan Tsvangirai as Zimbabwe’s prime minister in a unity government that is expected to end months of power struggle between the ZANU-PF government and the MDC opposition following contested elections last year. ‘The swearing in of the Prime Minister and the ministers in a unity government in Zimbabwe should be hailed as a landmark in the political development of the country’ notes the African Monitor, while outlining three next steps that are required to meet the needs of the people of Zimbabwe in their estimation. The first is addressing the humanitarian crisis and reconstruction of the country; the second being the creation of a mechanism to mobilize African professional expertise into Zimbabwe to help restore and de-politicize national and local government institutions and to retool these institutions in the next three to five years; and lastly they propose a round table to hammer out how Zimbabwean professionals currently dispersed around the globe can contribute to the reconstruction of their country. While Zimbabwe’s unity government moves forward, the AU chairman sent a team to meet Mauritania’s political stakeholders with a view to resolving the political crisis plaguing the country since military officers overthrew the democratically elected government in August 2008.
African ministers participating in the ‘African Agriculture in the 21st Century: Meeting the challenges, making a sustainable Green Revolution’ conference 'support the call for a uniquely African Green Revolution to help boost agricultural productivity, food production and national food security' and 'support the work of the Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (Agra) in spearheading efforts to achieve a sustainable green revolution, working with African governments, farmers, donors, private sector and civil society'.
Finally, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is inviting participation and input of citizens into the ECOWAS Vision 2020 Project that seeks to provide a reference point for an integrated development approach for the West Africa region.