Hitches to a unified African government
Mar 03, 2009
Eva Mwine, in her Article “Arabs Versus Africans at the Same AU table†of Thursday February 12, only identified one hitch towards attaining a unified Africa. And the issue is effectively managing diversity.
Vivien Kobusingye
Eva Mwine, in her Article “Arabs Versus Africans at the Same AU table†of Thursday February 12, only identified one hitch towards attaining a unified Africa. And the issue is effectively managing diversity.
However, the AU needs to prepare itself to manage the African ethnic, tribal, religious, and cultural diversity for effective operationalisation of a unified government.
According to the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) findings on cross-cutting issues of governance in Africa, managing diversity was identified.
One of the major characteristics of African countries is a high level of diversity. There are a large number of ethnic and linguistic groups. In Nigeria there are over 250 ethnic groups speaking over 470 languages. In Uganda, there is religious diversity cutting across ethnic diversity with 12% Muslim, 40% Catholic, 5% Pentecostal, Church of Uganda (Protestants) 35% and others 8% (animists). Above this religious diversity, there is over 50 ethnic groups and over 100 linguistic groups.
Make an analytical calculation for all the 53 African countries and you will appreciate the challenge I am pointing out.
The question is how ready is the African Union to deal with such an issue as it advances towards a unified government?
One school of thought suggests that strengthening of the regional blocs would be a first step to a bigger unified Africa.
However, critics think that regional unity would reduce the sovereignty of the states and governments since they would be bargaining as a regional bloc at the AU unification table.
The second school of thought suggests that sovereign states coming to the same table and agreeing to the formation of the AU unified government would cater for state specific interests, as opposed to regional interests.
Each of the thoughts presents strengths and weaknesses which will be very tasking for the AU to analyse and come up with the best road map to the unification.
That said, I think the fact that heads of state and government in Africa have reached this stage in African politics is an indication of the efforts towards a better Africa.
The writer works with the National Planning Authority
Eva Mwine, in her Article “Arabs Versus Africans at the Same AU table†of Thursday February 12, only identified one hitch towards attaining a unified Africa. And the issue is effectively managing diversity.
However, the AU needs to prepare itself to manage the African ethnic, tribal, religious, and cultural diversity for effective operationalisation of a unified government.
According to the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) findings on cross-cutting issues of governance in Africa, managing diversity was identified.
One of the major characteristics of African countries is a high level of diversity. There are a large number of ethnic and linguistic groups. In Nigeria there are over 250 ethnic groups speaking over 470 languages. In Uganda, there is religious diversity cutting across ethnic diversity with 12% Muslim, 40% Catholic, 5% Pentecostal, Church of Uganda (Protestants) 35% and others 8% (animists). Above this religious diversity, there is over 50 ethnic groups and over 100 linguistic groups.
Make an analytical calculation for all the 53 African countries and you will appreciate the challenge I am pointing out.
The question is how ready is the African Union to deal with such an issue as it advances towards a unified government?
One school of thought suggests that strengthening of the regional blocs would be a first step to a bigger unified Africa.
However, critics think that regional unity would reduce the sovereignty of the states and governments since they would be bargaining as a regional bloc at the AU unification table.
The second school of thought suggests that sovereign states coming to the same table and agreeing to the formation of the AU unified government would cater for state specific interests, as opposed to regional interests.
Each of the thoughts presents strengths and weaknesses which will be very tasking for the AU to analyse and come up with the best road map to the unification.
That said, I think the fact that heads of state and government in Africa have reached this stage in African politics is an indication of the efforts towards a better Africa.
The writer works with the National Planning Authority