“The Accidental Ecowas
& AU Citizen”:
Why
“Africa” is Lost in the “Abuja Treaty” Translation
By E.K.Bensah Jr
There's a
conspicuously delicious irony centred around Nigeria in African integration
history: it's to do with the fact that despite that country's “gradualist”
pretensions to African unity, it's capital city is an eponymous representation
to what is perhaps the most ambitious project to unite Africa--the Abuja
Treaty.
Signed in May 1991, it has been in operation since June 1994. But many Africans
wouldn't know it, for despite efforts by the AU to operationalise it, it is
perhaps the best-kept open secret in Africa--as perhaps are the regional
economic communities(RECs)!
Abuja Treaty vs AEC
and RECs
The Treaty establishing
the African Economic Community(AEC) was signed in Abuja, Nigeria in 1991. The
AEC offers a framework for continental integration. The RECS are mere
building blocs towards the full realisation of the AEC.
As regards the AEC, it has set no less than SIX stages to be fully
operational. Starting from 1994, it has allowed 34 years for FULL
political and economic integration. That makes 2018/2019 an important
year. So, if we're
lucky, by 2020, the African Economic Community should be fully operational,
with the eight AU-recognised RECs(AU-RECs) possibly subsumed under
regions of North, Central, East, South and West African Economic Communities.
I believe the reality to be very different by 2020. As RECs gain prestige in
their comparative advantages of peace/conflict management; infrastructure, etc,
they are wont to maintain themselves as legal personalities in their own
right, and not necessarily want to subsume their staff and competencies under
one sub-regional economic community!
If what Ghanaian lawyer and academic Dr.Richard Frimpong Oppong says is
anything to go by in his insightful March 2010 piece "The
African Union, the African Economic Community and Africa's Regional Economic Communities",
given that the African Economic Community does not have a legal personality--that
is to say that it has rights, protections, privileges, responsibilities, and
liabilities under law, just as natural persons (humans) do--it already makes
the framework upon which the African Union operates rather shaky and tenuous.
This is because while there is a protocol establishing the relationship between
the AEC and RECs, "to what extent are the RECs bound by decisions of
the AEC? Since the RECs, which have their own legal personality, are not
parties to the AEC Treaty, what is the legal basis for assuming that they will
merge and form the African Economic Community?"[italics are that of
Dr.Oppong in his piece on p.94]
In my opinion, this is the crux of his piece--and a very important one at that
too. Even more important is "rationalising", if you will, the
relationship between the AEC and RECs as they progress and advance in their
development. This other important point ought not to be lost on as we
cogitate over the future of African integration and where the AU is going.
In my view, Dr.Oppong has opened up a whole new can of worms around African
integration, and one which, in the light of the challenges the AU has been
going through this year with Libya, merits serious consideration.
Pax
Nigeriana
The specific case of
Africa being “lost in the Abuja Treaty translation” is two-fold: one is
historical; and the other has to do with the kind of vilification Nigeria goes
through every now and then over its governance.
History shows us that
Nigeria’s vision of continental union was not always as progressive as it has
been made out to be. Long before the then-OAU was established in May 1963,
Nigeria was all too happy being part of the so-called 24-member “Monrovia”
group, which were more conservative and gradualist about how Africa should be
united. Comprising Nigeria, Liberia, Senegal, Ivory Coast, and Cameroon—among
many other countries—they were opposed to the “big-bang” integration advocated
by the more radical members of the six-member Casablanca group, which included
Ghana; Guinea; Mali; Egypt and Morocco.
It is ironic therefore
that both the abortive Lagos Plan of Action and the Abuja Treaty would all be
done in the most populous Black African country.
Secondly, despite the fact
that corruption and/or chaos have been by-words of that country, we cannot
escape the fact that, like Brussels being synonymous with the European Union
institutions, Abuja is also increasingly a by-word for West Africa’s regional
grouping of ECOWAS and its institutions.
As we now know, it is even
more: Abuja has not just played host to a number of important meetings on
Africa, its governance, and its integration throughout the years, but also has
an important document outlining continental integration named after the capital
city. Additionally, even if it was the Treaty of Lagos that set up ECOWAS in
1975, it is now in Abuja that many diplomatic missions worldwide flock to get
closer to what has been termed in some quarters as Africa’s most dynamic
regional economic community this side of the Sahara. Add the fact that Abuja is
set to host the third pillar of the Pan-African financial institution—the
African Central Bank—and we have for ourselves an “African Brussels” to watch
out for.
The extent to which we—as
African Union community citizens—can accept the double-edged sword of Nigeria
both as a great country that is flawed and tainted by corruption, but one that
will inevitably play critical roles in the facilitation of continental union
will largely depend on how truly committed we all are to seeing an Africa
predicated on strong, sustainable, effective and credible institutions that are
funded by Africans – for the benefit of the continent.
ekbensah AT critiquing-regionalism.org
from: http://www.thebftonline.com/bft_subcat_linkdetails.cfm?prodcatID=6&tblNewsCatID=63&tblNewsID=9224
In
2009, in his capacity as a “Do More Talk Less Ambassador” of the 42nd
Generation—an NGO that promotes and discusses Pan-Africanism--Emmanuel gave a series of lectures on the
role of ECOWAS and the AU in facilitating a Pan-African identity. Emmanuel
owns "Critiquing Regionalism" (http://www.critiquing-regionalism.org).
Established in 2004 as an initiative to respond to the dearth of knowledge on
global regional integration initiatives worldwide, this non-profit blog
features regional integration initiatives on MERCOSUR/EU/Africa/Asia and many
others. You can reach him on ekbensah@ekbensah.net
/ Mobile: 0268.687.653.
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