A CONTINENT OF A BILLION & HALF PEOPLE IN SEARCH OF A DEVELOPMENT MODEL: AU@60?

The lasting legacy of the Berlin Conference that partitioned Africa in 1864 is the foolish acquiescence of African leaders in maintaining the artificial borders that Europeans created for Africans.

When Dr. Kwame Nkrumah shared his vision of a Continental Union Government of Africa in 1963, there were no obvious models for the leaders assembled in Addis Ababa to look at. The closest model for the leaders to consider was the USA, also a post colonial nation which started its experiment in self Government with 13 colonies predominantly on the east coast of the USA.

For whatever reasons this model was not appealing to the assembled leaders, so despite Nkrumah's visionary eloquence for an African Unity Government the leaders chose to settle for an Organization that has been talking about unity for 60 years and has firm plans to continue talking about African Unity for another 40 years before Africa is United! Ridiculously titled Agenda 2063!

Ironically the Europeans who diabolically divided Africa into principalities and nonviable countries and at the same time fought two world wars amongst themselves have managed to build a Union Government in record time.

The European union project started in earnest in 1950 when the French foreign minister Robert Schumann put West German and French coal and steel industries under a single authority to make war between the two nations "materially impossible".

Soon after Italy Belgium Netherlands and Luxembourg joined the two and signed the treaty of Paris in 1951creating the European Coal and Steel Community. Thus, these 6 nations in 1957 became the founding nations of the European Economic Community EEC by signing the treaty of Rome.

Ten years later the European Community was formed and in 1974 the European Council was created as an informal forum between heads of state and government and now one the seven EU institutions and in 1979 the Exchange Rate Mechanism was formed.

Thereafter the Maastricht Treaty of 1991 created a Framework for economic and monetary union and set the timetable and conditions for a single European currency by 1999, a common foreign and security policy, and cooperation on justice and home affairs. The EC was renamed the European union.

When the Organization for African Unity OAU was renamed AU the African Union, most Africans were told that the future evolution of AU will modeled on the EU. Two decades on the African Union continue to evolve at a sluggish pace. So what what happened to the EU model?

The whole point of looking at models is to get what works best for your circumstances. In terms of geography Africa is larger and natural resources richer than all the major countries of the world. So in terms of the economic development canvas Africa has a spatial advantage.

This is my point of departure: starting with unlimited resources to build a successful union state.

The Peaceful Rise of China story is a Man made story and as JFK said long ago: our problems are man made therefore they can be solved by Man and there is no limit to human ingenuity and achievements.

So it is up to African leaders to set their sights on the stars of high achievements and not to look down into the gutter of failures.

I believe it is time to corporatize the African integration process by establishing Housing, Agricultural and Infrastructure Banks modeled on Asia Infrastructure Bank. My idea of corporatization of the development process does not mean driving the integration process as a purely corporate matter but establishing efficient and value adding institutions.

What I am suggesting is that corporations should be established for end to end delivery of services to the people across the continent. for the education system healthcare services and environmental sustainability

The tag has been placed on this model-some scoffingly call it STATE CAPITALISM; Deng Xiaoping, the Chinese President credited with opening up China had learned this approach to development for a complex place like China from Lee Kuan Yew Singapore’s first PM.

Therefore corporatization of the development process in my view offers the best democratic alternative in vast and complex societies. And in any case democracy in much of Africa is a byword for corruption chicanery and incompetence of the government of the day.