Clear differences emerged on Monday among African leaders over their visions for the continent’s system of governance as they gathered behind closed doors to thrash out how to forge a closer union.
On the second day of an African Union summit in Ghana, heads of state began a grand debate in which they split over whether to create a United States of Africa or simply upgrade existing institutions.
Libya’s Moammar Gadaffi has been leading a push to create a confederation of states, with a union government that would replace the existing AU Commission and draw up common foreign and defence policies as well as ease trade barriers.
Other key players on the continent, however, want the existing structure to be given time to mature, including South African President Thabo Mbeki, who hosted the meeting five years ago in Durban when the AU was formally created.
Although Mbeki himself was not scheduled to speak, Lesotho Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili presented the misgivings of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), a 14-country regional bloc.
Mosisili, whose country is surrounded by South Africa, told fellow heads of state it was important to gradually develop existing continent-wide cooperation structures and emphasis should be placed on nurturing regional groupings such as SADC.
“We recognise that Africa’s interests would be best served through economic and political integration,” he said, according to a copy of the speech obtained by Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“However, we must adopt a bottoms-up approach, not a top-down one … We believe that such integration should be gradual rather than precipitous.”
The new Nigerian leader, Umaru Yar’Adua, struck a similarly sceptical line, according to a delegate speaking on condition of anonymity.
Gadaffi himself had not yet presented his views but advocates of stronger unity, including Senegal’s President Abdoulaye Wade and Gabon’s Ondimba Omar Bongo, both spoke forcibly for a much tighter union.
“Today, our continent must proceed towards an acceleration of its process of integration. It is clear that the time is right for the creation of a union government,” said Bongo.
Foreign Minister Sheikh Tidiane Gadio said Senegal was ready to support the immediate creation of a union government, insisting that breaking down of barriers could only benefit the continent.
“We can even bypass the discussions,” Gadio told AFP ahead of the debate. “The African people are ready but the question is are the African governments ready to catch up with their people.”
Ghana’s host President John Kufuor and AAU Commission chief Alpha Oumar Konare acknowledged at the opening of the three-day meeting that the current executive had to be improved and its remit was ill-defined.
Although the summit is meant to be devoted to the prospects for closer unity, dubbed by some as the creation of a United States of Africa, the continent’s trouble spots continue to loom large.
The Darfur conflict, which scuppered Khartoum’s hopes of assuming the presidency at the last summit, also featured high on the agenda on the opening day as Konare called for a United Nations resolution to hammer out the long-promised deployment of a hybrid United Nations-AU force to the western Sudanese region.
Speakers, however, showed little inclination to dwell on the problems of Somalia. No new countries have come forward offering troops to serve in an AU peacekeeping mission in Mogadishu since January’s summit in Addis Ababa.
UN Deputy Secretary General Asha Rose Migiro said the problems of Somalia should not just be left to Africa.
“African leaders are ready to take a role in addressing the Somalia issue but Somalia is of international concern, it’s not an issue for Africa alone,” she told reporters.
The World Bank, meanwhile, said Africa would benefit from economic as well as political integration.
“We support the economic integration ambitions of the continent,” said vice-president Obiageli Katryn Ezekwesili, a former Nigerian Cabinet minister. — AFP