Africa, Politics, Government
African leaders were struggling Tuesday to nail down an agreement on a roadmap for a closer union at the end of a summit which exposed deep rifts over how fast they should move towards integration.The three-day African Union summit in Ghana has been almost entirely devoted to talks on how to realize what some have dubbed a United States of Africa, a notion first championed by the country’s founding president Kwame Nkrumah.But while his vision has been widely invoked by heads of state since the weekend, many of their speeches have also cautioned about moving too fast.
Libya’s Moamer Kadhafi, the prime instigator of the alternative
USA, was expected to address his fellow heads of state and call on them to accelerate the pace towards integration after other heavyweights urged caution.
Kadhafi and his chief ally in the debate, Senegal’s Abdoulaye Wade, want the immediate formation of a union government which can draw up common foreign and trade policies to replace the existing AU commission.Diplomatic sources said that
Senegal had threatened to lead a breakaway movement of mainly West African states which would draw up its own plans for a union government and try to persuade the others to sign up later, unless the current summit came to an agreement.
In a press conference after the debate broke up for the night, Wade did not rule out such a possibility although he said he remained optimistic of a deal.“It cannot be ruled out as I’ve already made my position clear but I don’t think we’re going in that direction,” he said.Ahead of the resumption of the debate Tuesday, Jean Ping, vice-president and foreign minister of
Gabon, said the day would be spent finding a compromise.
“Everybody agrees with the idea of creating an African executive. This could be the (existing AU) commission with enhanced powers or with a different structure. But we must reach an agreement on this executive,” he told AFP.“The differences are over the pace of the integration: should we have this executive immediately or is it better to do it in stages with a set timetable? That’s the problem and we will have to find a compromise.”The new leader of
Nigeria, a country whose support will be vital for any drive towards closer union, argued in a speech Monday that integration could best be reached by first concentrating on regional cooperation.“Our perspective is mediated by the critical need at this point in our continent’s developmental process for the nations of Africa to focus more on the strengthening and consolidation of internal governance and growth structures and on more robust regional integration,” said Umaru Yar’Adua.Mindful of the need to draw up a joint declaration as is customary at the end of AU summits,
Ghana has been emphasizing the need for consensus.“I believe the trend has been towards, along the lines, of what the European Union is doing,”
Ghana’s Information Minister Kwamena Bartels told reporters.“The approach (of the likes of Senegal and Libya) has been
USA now but we need to tread more cautiously and ensure that at every turn whatever problems we face we are able to address them.”Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates, whose government took over the European Union’s rotating presidency for six months on Sunday, and current EU Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso were both due to address the heads of state ahead of the final closing statement from
Ghana’s President John Kufuor.
Socrates on Monday side-stepped the delicate issue of whether Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, who is banned from the European Union as well as the United States, could attend an EU-Africa summit in
Lisbon in December.
[via AFP]
Bill Jefferson @ July 3, 2007