Dangling 50 years old dreams

The 9th Summit of A.U. Heads of State which convened in Accra, Ghana from July 1,-3 2007 was no more than a frivolous flattery to an ageing war-horsewho has recently been rehabilitated from international pariah status.

It took the now defunct OAU a good portion of half a century to transform it self into the African Union. Truth to tell, it is still unclear to many how the OAU was any different or in what way (s) the AU is dissimilar to its forebearer.

The proposal to establish a United States of Africa or USA by Gaddafi has been met with shallow but warm enthusiasm by the assembled heads of state. The Libyan motion was received with so much excitement that it boarded on the super fiscal. This is because it was not a new idea at all. In fact, the proposed USA 2(for clarity’s sake) was the inspiration behind the inception of the Organization of African unity which was established in 1963.

The dream of a United Africa was what especially President Kwame Nkrumah lived for and aspired to. Nkrumah, along with our own Emperor Haile Sellasie, Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser and Senegals Leoplod Sedar Senghor had believed that a USA-2 was feasible in their life times. They would have never imagined that over 50 years later, the continent would be more fractured than it was in their era.

Bandying about the now stale vision of a USA-2 may be good PR and a great photo-op for a largely beleagured clutch of leaders who will certainly cause no harm by daring to dream. However, what is talk of one African government with a 2 million man defense force to the father whose sons have been massacred and his wife and daughter’s honors have been raped bare in Darfur?

It is inconceivable to us and all peace loving Africans why our leaders waste meager resources on preparing a summit on such an absurd scheme when they have abandoned millions of Africans to be decimated by other Africans. Until Africa wakes up from its shametal slumber whenever issues such as Darfur or Somalia crop up, unless our leaders firstly stability establish, prosperity and cohesion and in their own houses – them they shall not have the moral authority to dangle such an unattainable prize. The beauty of the great African dream of a united continent is tarnished when it is raised in a context of extreme long term state tension between member nations – Ethiopia and Eritrea for example, and serious government issues in nearly the whole membership.

It may be said that Africa is in somewhat the same situation as the proverbial question which came first, the egg or the chicken? In Africa’s particular case, the question could be amended and read as a forward dated version – Unite Africa by Fixing it or Fix Africa by Uniting it?

It seems to us that our leaders have chosen the latter part of the question. talk about choosing the hard way …