A marked silence prevailed on Wednesday over Accra, the capital of Ghana and venue for the 9th Ordinary Session of the African Union.

The preceding week had seen a hive of activities, with chauffer-driven, motorcade-directed and siren announced convoys of high profile delegations moving to and from one conference or another.

The delegates, including AU Chairman President Kufuor, North African firebrand Muamar Al Qaddafi and South African moderate Thabo Mbeki, were supposed to finanlize a debate for the implementation of a common government for Africa, an agenda as old as Africa’s colonization and subsequent fight for freedom.

As it turned out, the leaders, after three days of deliberations, barely scratched the surface of the decades old headache.

The 52 leaders of the continent agreed after the three days that the continent needed a union government but a communiqué issued at the end of the summit deferred the timeframe and nature of governance to foreign ministers.

The deafening silence on when the committee will start its work is raising further concerns that the proposal could drag forever without any real unity for the continent.

“We’re not going to copy anything you may know of, say the United States of America or the European Union. We want to do custom made system of governance, something to suit the unique attributes of our continent, so I can’t give you the type of union government. I can’t say it’s federal or unitary or whatever” was how President Kufuor summed the conclusions of the summit he played host to.

Liberian President, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, said she believes three days were not enough for thoroughly discussing the Union Agenda.

“I think so because I think much of the consultations that would be necessary to move to the United States of Africa which involves the giving up of sovereignty, takes much more time.”

The American Civil Rights campaigner, Rev Jesse Jackson described the declaration as exciting and said the principle was the most important and the details should follow.

"The idea of the United States of Africa and African common market, a movement towards a common currency and those details, this is a great, exciting moment for Africa, and really for the world.”

But on the streets of Accra, the outcome of the summit has been a great source of concern for ordinary citizens. Although a few people who spoke to Joy News said they had no high expectations of the summit itself, many others expressed disappointment and said all the summit achieved was the noise it polluted the capital with.

The continent’s hope died with it.