Gaddafi storms out of AU summit

By Els De Temmerman
in Accra, Ghana

A disappointed Libyan leader, Col. Muammar Gaddafi, left the AU Summit in Accra, Ghana, prematurely on Tuesday night after the majority of African leaders, including President Yoweri Museveni, rejected a call for the immediate creation of a United States of Africa.

The leaders only agreed to set up a committee to establish a roadmap and a time frame for a union government, according to the final declaration, reached after three days of behind-closed-doors debates.

They also agreed to carry out detailed studies to identify the “contents of the union government concept and its relations with national governments” as well as its “domains of competence and the impact of its establishment on the sovereignty of member states”.
While emphasising that a United States of Africa was the AU’s ultimate goal, the leaders committed themselves to accelerate the economic integration of regional blocs.

“We reintegrate our earlier decision on the rationalisation and strengthening of the regional economic communities and the harmonisation of their activities so as to lead to the creation of an African common market,” the Accra Declaration reads.

“Regional economic communities, where possible, should be encouraged to engage in political integration,” was added, at the instigation of Uganda.

Museveni had earlier pleaded for the strengthening of regional blocs such as the East African Community, arguing that Africa was too diverse for one government.

“While economically I support integration with everybody, politically we should only integrate with people who are either similar or compatible with us,” he told the gathering on Monday.

“Insisting on political integration at the continental level will bring together incompatible linkages that may create tension rather than cohesion.”

Uganda also insisted on involving the African people, including those in the Diaspora, in the processes leading to the formation of the union government.

“Whatever happens in relation to a continental government must be people-driven, a bottom-up approach,” Museveni told The New Vision at the end of the summit.

In his closing address, AU chairman and Ghanaian President John Kufuor said the gathering had not produced winners or losers.

“We met in the debates with a commonality of perspective, a common vision in principle for the realisation of a union government.

“On that, there have been no differences and that will be welcome and reassuring for the African people who are awaiting the outcome of our debate.”

But delegates present said heated debates had preceded the final outcome, with the summit split between Gaddafi and his allies, who insisted on the immediate formation of a continental government, and the rest of the continent, which supported gradual integration through regional blocs.
Gaddafi’s allies, according to sources, included Senegal, Mali, Guinea-Conakry, Guinea-Bissau, Togo and Gabon.

The Libyan leader, dressed in a golden tunic and wearing sunglasses most of the time, reportedly angered several delegations by stating that he helped them in their liberation struggles and knew their countries better than them, accusing those who opposed his scheme of not being interested in developing.

He allegedly also caused unease when he proposed the immediate creation of continental ministries, beginning with a ministry of defence, which he proposed to head himself.

Surprisingly, some of Gaddafi’s natural allies, such as Sudan, rejected the idea of a continental government now, arguing that they faced many problems which they were not even able to solve at a national level.

The majority of AU member states, led by Ethiopia, Uganda and South Africa, called the creation of a United States of Africa premature and unrealistic, arguing that it would require a change of constitution and a referendum.

Instead, leaders like Museveni proposed to move step by step, starting with building infrastructure across the continent and increasing trade among themselves.

Others noted that African countries had different levels of economic and political development, and lacked shared values such as democracy, good governance, respect for human rights and the rule of law. The dominant view can best be summarised by the statement of Botswana.

“It is a fallacy to talk of economic and political integration when the fundamentals among our countries are not the same,” minister of foreign affairs Mompati Merafhe told the summit.

“Desirable as this union is, it would be imprudent to assume that it can be achieved overnight. We need to have an evolutionary process, not a revolutionary process. History is replete with rushed failures; we need not make the same mistakes.”

See Museveni’s full statement under OPINION