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Of Qathafi, the African Peoples and the Union Government
Idea
Samuel Dowuona,
Ghanadot -
Accra, July 1, Ghanadot - Libyan Leader Muamar Qathafi’s arrival in Accra for the
African Union (AU) Summit could be described as the
triumphant entry ahead of the triumph.
In his usual style, Qathafi traveled thousands of miles by
road through the desert and through the borders of several
black African countries, thereby proving to the peoples of
Africa that the borders are just imaginary and they do not
matter.
However, there were unconfirmed reports of some amount of
security upset on his arrival in Accra with 109 luxury cars
and 500 people, with whom he traveled all the way from
Libya. Apparently, members of his entourage were scrutinized
by local security for hours before being allowed into Ghana.
There was yet another unconfirmed report that when Qathafi
arrived, he and his entourage went straight to a particular
hotel in Accra (name withheld), where rooms were fully
booked and paid for by the AU secretariat, but Qathafi’s
team gave a higher offer and the hotel’s management took the
offer and quashed the AU secretariat’s bookings. That is the
power and the bullying spirit of Qathafi that some African
leaders are concerned about.
Qathafi is rich and he is no doubt and bully. Even in his
own country no one dares form an opposition to challenge his
movement in a fair election. Today he wants union government
to start in Accra, but his history with Accra was not
anything to write home about. He is known to have sponsored
Jerry Rawlings’ 31st December coup.
Qathafi also trained and sponsored a number of black African
rebel leaders to visit mayhem and atrocities on their
respective countries. Forday Sankor of Sierra Leone and
Charles Taylor of Liberia are just two of Qathafi’s students
and beneficiaries.
But that not withstanding well known opinion leaders,
political and social commentators in Ghana have hailed his
style of travel and interaction with ordinary citizens of
some of the black African countries he passed through on his
journey as “good for the AU”. One wonders whether those
commentators really meant Qathafi’s travel was good for the
AU or good for the course for which is fighting “African
Government Now”, that is.
Whatever that means, it is worth discussing the points
raised by public opinion leaders with regards to what
Qathafi’s travel through the borders and his interaction
with virtually millions of ordinary African peoples really
mean for the AU and ultimately for the union government.
First off, Qathafi made the headline when he made a stop
over in Guinea Conakry and addressed over 20,000 students
and youth in a rally, where he declared war on the status
quo amidst and sworn cheers of approval to ensure that
the meeting in Accra evolved with
concrete steps towards the realization of the union
government.
That to Mr. Kweku Baako Junior, Editor-In-Chief of the
Crusading Guide and a well known voice on radio, was good
for the AU in that over the past 50 years or so when the
fathers of Pan-Africanism initiated the move towards
continental integration, the elitist idea of gradualist
approach to the issue of union government had only placed
African leaders on a journey to nowhere.
To Mr. Baako, the radicalism was necessary to push the dream
forward. More so, for Qathafi to have come through so many
borders of African countries in a single journey to talk
about how to wipe out those borders and unify the continent
was equally significant in that he had proved to the peoples
and leaders of Africa alike that as a people we need to
outgrow the borders and show to the rest of the world that
the borders are really imaginary.
Mr. Gabby Okyere Darko, Managing Editor of the Statesman
thinks that in spite of the security challenges that Qathafi
and his large convoy and entourage may have posed to
countries they came through and finally to the security in
Accra, the summit venue, his travel through the borders
should motivate Africans leaders to speed up the process of
removing the imaginary impediments of the borders and
boundaries.
He cited the example of the European Union (EU), where
students from different countries within the union could go
to schools in other EU member-countries but still under
their home government’s sponsorship. Indeed that is the
actual impact of a union; that the masses felt the benefit
thereof.
Indeed, it
is instructive to note that in
support of Qathfi’s proposal for the process to start now
with a few countries who are ready, the EU started with six
countries and over the past five years they have grown to 27
and counting. We need not wait for everyone to be ready. For
some it is a matter of “seeing is believing”, they need to
see some action then they would follow.
No wonder Qathafi decided to interact with the peoples of
Africa and not the leaders, on his way to the summit.
Whatever the decision of the 40 leaders in Accra would be,
the 800 million people of Africa are the ones who would feel
the impact; their businesses, education, security, health,
movement etc would be impact by the decision of those
insignificant number of leaders.
Speaking of the people, Mr. Mahama Ayariga, another popular
social commentator and a leading member of the New
Democratic Congress (NDC) point out that Qathafi has proved
to African leaders that before such an important decision as
that of having a union government in Africa was taken, there
was need to build consensus with the peoples of the
continent.
He noted that in Ghana for instance the government had not
done much to build consensus with the local people, which he
said could have been done with the representatives of the
various shades of society as could be found in Parliament,
political parties, the business community/corporate Ghana as
well as civil society.
Ayariga thinks that the fact that from the onset, the
governments of the individual AU member states had not built
the necessary consensus at home with their peoples was a
clear sign of their non-commitment to achieving the union
government anytime soon.
He acknowledged that unlike in Qathafi’s Libya, where
Qathafi's word is law, about 40 of
the other AU member states were thriving democracies that
required their governments to use participatory process to
ensure that their leaders went to the summit with the voice
and approval of the people.
“To the extent that other political parties would in the
long-term inherit the decisions made at the Accra summit, it
is important that the seating governments involve them in
deciding what the country position is,” he said.
Earlier, renowned Ghanaian Lawyer, Mr. Enoch Akoto Ampaw,
had been reported as saying that Pan-Africanism, which was
the mother of the AU and the idea of a union government, was
and had always been a mass movement and not an elitist
initiative.
Qathafi got it right when he decided to target the masses
for his “African government now” campaign. Indeed the
elements he is reported to be rallying on the continent in
support of his campaign are not the elite but the ordinary
African peoples who stand to either gain or lose depending
on the elitist decisions made at the Accra summit.
But not all the elite are gradualists and pessimists. There
are a few radicals among the elite, like Professor Alpha
Oumar Konare, Chair of the AU Commission who is on record as
saying that history would not forgive the present African
leaders if they failed to move the union forward from where
it is now.
He explained that there was no point in adopting so much
text without ratification and practical steps of
implementation towards the goal which all African leaders
subscribe to; that is the union government.
Whether it is Qathafi we follow or
Prof. Konare’s advise our leaders heed to, it all leads to
the same stop; union government. But the question is how
soon? Qathafi says now, Konare says the institutional
arrangement, modalities and time frames should put in place
now for a speedy realization of he United States of Africa.
Samuel Dowuna, July 1, Accra, Ghanadot
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