Facebook Friday: AU government--Realistic?

Below is just a sample of what some Facebookers were saying earlier this year about AU government. Enjoy!:

the EU, USA are not in favour and will fight it with the backing of some AU country Heads. Remember, the our skin colour even gives us away most of the time when black africans deal with light skinned africans. Besides, our barriers are many: language, democratic/coup d'etat/dictatorship rule, currency and so on..

I guess what we need is the proverbial eternal vigilance!

I think the government is realistic. We just have to educate our people on the benefits and sell the idea wholly to them. We do preach Africa Unite sometimes but we are mostly locked into our nationalities.

The language barrier isn't too much of an issue, they have had AU meetings since time immemorial. We need the AU gov't to push for a currency, better trade, communication, cross-country infrastructure as well.

Why is the EU or USA not in favour?

I think it's simply that they would consider a population of 900million people working hard to strengthen Africa a veritable threat. It's that simple.

its a question of challenging the ideas that have come to dominate our lives. The task of re-orienting the minds of a people is huge. One cannot underestimate the nationalism that has taken hold of Africans...the funny ideas that they can be superior to others simply by being who they are.

What we must focus on is what binds us and to reach out for the younger generation who may not be too stuck in their ways. (We cannot also forget the oldest among us who still hold on with nostalgia to the early years of African Independence) Simple things like football music the arts and culture can speak to people in ways that words may not easily do...But it has to be sold as part of a wider plan to improve the peoples lot. In the end it has to be a Peoples Initiative!