Alpha Oumar Konare, former Malian President and current Chairman of the African Union (AU) Commission, on Thursday set a radical tone for the Grand Debate in Accra and called for a union government for Africa now.

Rejecting the prescription of the moderates in Africa, who are calling for a gradual approach towards continental integration, Mr Konare said Africa had already wasted too much time on the issue of unity and that the gradualist approach began some 50 years ago.

"The questions we are asking today, we asked the same questions 59 years ago. There is, therefore, nothing new to discuss," he told the 11th Ordinary Session of the Executive Council of the Union.

On the occasion of his last summit as Chairman of the AU Commission, Mr Konare affirmed that all the institutions and protocols needed to push the union government agenda forward were already in place and that what was needed was the will of African leaders.

He cited the African Union passport, which, he said, would facilitate the free movement of Africans on the continent, and noted that there were still some serious challenges to overcome in achieving free movement of Africans in Africa.

He warned that no outside force or organisation would do the work and so the responsibility was upon Africans themselves to determine the fate of their continent, adding that "the United States of Africa is a reality that we must ensure".

The United Nations Under Secretary-General and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Mr Abdoulie Janneh, said the outcome of the grand debate did not only have ramifications for the institutional landscape of the continent but also implications for its future development.

The debate, he added, was also most timely as it came at a time of great international engagement about Africa and its development prospects.

He said Africa was experiencing the best economic growth for a generation and the overall economic performance for the continent continued to improve strongly with a 5.7 percent growth rate in 2006.

The 2007 Economic Report for Africa, which is published by the ECA and the AU Commission, he said, indicated that growth on the continent was expected to remain high over the next two years.

"These factors are contributing to the positive spirit of ownership and self-belief which must underpin the grand debate. It is quite gratifying, therefore, that the pan African ideal that informed the successful drive for liberation and decolonisation of Africa was now informing deliberations on the political and economic integration of the continent," he said.

"As the oldest of the Pan-African institutions with a mandate to support economic and social development of the continent, ECA, which will be celebrating its 50th anniversary next year, welcomes the grand debate and stands ready to upscale its efforts in support of Africa's march to closer integration," he added.

Mr Janneh said, "Regional integration is imperative for Africa to meet its development challenges and overcome the limitations of Africa's small, fragmented economies, as well as giving it a greater say in the management of global economic processes."

He said closer integration reflected the aspirations of most Africans for the continent to become one strong, robust economy, supported by a first-class trans-boundary infrastructure and a highly skilled, flexible and fully employed workforce living in conditions of political stability.

To achieve that objective, he added, Africa needed to act together to scale up efforts to achieve the Millennium Development Goals, address the obstacles to improving trade and investment flows, tackle infrastructure-related challenges, manage its natural resources and above all ensure conditions of peace and security for the African people.

In a related development, a group of civil society organisations have launched a campaign for the introduction of an African Citizens Passport in a bid to raise the profile of African citizenship and strengthen the call for an African Union Government.

The group has also called for the abolition of visas for African citizens travelling within Africa.

According to a statement from the group, the first passport was issued to the Minister of Foreign Affairs Nana Akufo-Addo as a symbol for African Heads of State to recognise African citizenship as paramount to attaining a United States of Africa.

The group includes ActionAid, AU-Ghana Civil Society Coalition, Oxfam and the African Civil Society Coalition on HIV/AIDS.

The group said the introduction of such a passport would ease travel restrictions imposed by African Governments on African citizens travelling within Africa.

At a press conference at the ongoing AU Summit, Emmanuel Akwetey of the Ghana-AU Civil Society Coalition argued that it would be difficult to "have a union of African States or even a continental government without continental citizenship.

"If citizenship is the fundamental basis of any democratic national state, why shouldn't it be so at the level of the African Union?" he asked.

On her part, Una Thompson of the Solidarity for African Women's Rights Coalition, said the grand debate must prioritise full citizenship status for women, particularly for women who marry across nationalities and currently lose their rights as a result.

Hakima Abass of Fahamu said the abolition of visas for Africans travelling within Africa "would move the debate from just a debate to a decision that would capture the imagination of 832 million African people".


Culled from Daily Graphic