Towards a Continental AU Government?

Towards a Continental AU Government?

By E.K.Bensah jr

When The 12th Ordinary Session of the Africa Union Assembly of the Heads of State and Government ended on 3rd February 2009 with a call by the heads of State for continental government, the election of the late, controversial Libyan leader Al-Qaddafi as chair of the AU for one year helped deepen skepticism about what some believe to be lofty ideals of a United States of Africa. 

Not a New idea

Let’s face it: the idea of a United Africa is not new. Ghana’s own first, late head of State Dr.Kwame Nkrumah continues to remain the quintessential pioneer of a United Africa. His call is what would stir him to join the countries of Algeria, Guinea, Morocco, Egypt, Mali and Libya in 1961 under what would be called the Casablanca bloc; this group believed in a federation of African states. As a counterweight, the Monrovian bloc, led by Senegal’s Senghor—comprising  Nigeria, Liberia, Ethiopia and most of the former French colonies—believed that unity should be achieved gradually, through economic cooperation.

It is fair to say that the age-old duality of what would represent an united Africa continues to play out in the new terms of rapidists and instantists. However, for whatever one might think or say about al-Qaddafi, it is that he had been consistent in his dream about an Africa with one military, passport, and one foreign policy.

What many observers had been attributing to the Libyan leader of a continental African Union government is in fact a follow-up of the Grand Debate of Accra in 2007.

From AU Commission to AU Authority

The idea is to establish an “African Union Authority” that would replace the existing AU Commission. According to the late Libyan president, it would have been a “government of the union.”  According to out-gone AU Chairman, Tanzanian Kikwete, who held the post from 2008-2009, the new Authority should have been launched and made operational in July 2009. It will have a President and Vice President, while present Commissioners of the AU Commission will serve as secretaries, with portfolios structured along nine areas of shared competence. These include free movement of persons; goods and services; international trade negotiations; peace and security matters and foreign affairs.

In fact, in July 2009, in Sirte, Libya, the AU Assembly did adopt a decision on the modalities of the Transformation of the AUC into an Authority.

The idea remains for the Authority to exercise its functions on the basis of the principle of subsidiary with regards to Member States and Regional Economic Communities (REC’s). It shall have competence in continent-wide poverty reduction, free movement of persons and goods, peace and security, coordination of common defence policy of the continent as well as coordination of foreign policy of the continent among others.

Challenges

While there remain a number of challenges associated with this enterprise, perhaps the two biggest sticking points find expression in the relationship between any putative AU Authority and the regional economic communities (RECS), as well as the legal implications of a continental government. As regards the RECs, many diplomats are unclear what the roles of the RECs should be, and speculate whether they should not first be strengthened with a view to integrating them into a government. Secondly, the AU Authority would not merely be a matter of semantics, but involve the amendment of the AU Constitutive Act. This would certainly represent a boon to the naysayers who believe this would stall the project indefinitely.

If the 2006 “AU study on Union government” is anything to go by, some challenges have been identified which require some attention if the RECs are to succeed in their mission as building blocks towards deep continental integration. Almost all RECs are “inward-looking” and consider their objective (economic union or political federation) at regional level as the ultimate goal. There is no road-map at the level of the RECs for their eventual integration into a continental union; there are duplications of some AU organs at the level of RECs, notably the parliament, development/investment bank, and the ECOSOC. More importantly, there seems to be no vision in the RECs for a continental agenda.

Because of that, there is need for the AU to take the lead in the promotion of the integration agenda at the continental level.

Another challenge is related to the rationalization debate that is currently underway.You may re-call that in my earlier posts, I referred to South Sudan being member of COMESA, and contemplating becoming a member of East African Community. If one had a proper rationalization underway, whereby one AU member state can belong to only one REC, South Sudan would never have even contemplated the decision of being member of another REC.

Currently, for example, Southern and East Africa are covered by SADC, COMESA, EAC, IGAD and CEN-SAD; some countries belong to up to four RECs. The report maintains that “besides the eight RECs recognized by the AU, there are a number of customs and/or monetary unions whose mandate and work somehow duplicate what the eight RECs are expected to do”. For example, five of the SADC members belong to the Southern African Customs Union; while eight of ECOWAS members belong to the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA) which has economic union as an objective,and the six members of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) an organization that also has economic union as an objective, are members of ECCAS.

These shortcomings in terms of the objective of rational regional economic integration notwithstanding, the logic of using the RECs “as building blocks for the eventual deep, continental integration remains valid”, the study continues. The challenge is “in aligning, synchronizing and harmonizing the integration efforts of member states, the RECs themselves, and the AU”. As a consequence, “a road-map for the attainment of deep continental integration and the establishment of Union Government should learn, first, from the difficulties experienced in the implementation of the two previous road-maps (i.e. the Lagos Plan of Action and the Abuja Treaty); second, from the experience of the RECs as the building blocks; and, third, from the past four years of the existence of the AU”.

Hence to facilitate the Union Government project, it is important to also address the current problems faced at the regional level. It is fair to say that while there exist a number of protocols facilitating the addressing of these challenges, the stages of development of the RECs vary, and are likely to slow down the attainment of any Union government of AU member states.

you can also find this article on JOY online: http://opinion.myjoyonline.com/pages/feature/201111/76411.php

In 2009, in his capacity as a “Do More Talk Less Ambassador” of the 42^nd 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. He is also Ag.President of the Association of Ghanaian Journalists in ICT (AJICT-Ghana).You can reach him on ekbensah@ekbensah.net / Mobile: +233.268.687.653.