Kwame Nkrumah was right, i'm sure they regret

Mar 04, 2019

The year was 1964, at the Organization of African Union, Nkrumah’s addressed the urgent necessity for the acceptance, at least in principle, of the idea of setting up the Union Government for Africa.

By Jerome Kansiime

Over the years Africa has had its shares of struggles after independence from a country breaking off from another in the case of South Sudan, to border conflicts and now more recently to border closure of Rwanda from Uganda.

This among the many cases is the most interesting one.  Rwanda's head of state is the leader of the East Africa Community having taken over from Uganda's.

The Purpose of EAC among other reasons to foster trade among member countries with an intention of the greater goal to African Union.

The year was 1964, at the Organization of African Union, Nkrumah's addressed the urgent necessity for the acceptance, at least in principle, of the idea of setting up the Union Government for Africa.

In his speech, he lamented the economic subservience of many African countries. His contemporaries at the time shot him down with reasons of regional formation rather than the African Union as a state.

The current push and pull within African countries would have a different twist had his arguments been heeded.

Kwame upheld that the appeal for a Union Government of Africa is therefore not being made merely to satisfy a political end.

It is absolutely indispensable for our economic survival in this modern world of ours.

He argued that borders, the creation of colonialists would only divide Africans to the benefit of imperialists. He further argued that it would solve the refugee issue which would later rock African countries.

His speech was shot down by a powerful orator at a time Julius Nyerere. Mwalimu (Teacher), as he was commonly known at a time argued for a gradual unification of regional African blocks.

He argued for economic blocks rather than the Union of Africa. Kwame's idea was sidestepped with a ministerial committee to study his proposal and report back to the organization of the African Union. 

Nyerere later confessed in later years that Kwame's ideas however noble there were, they threated post-independence leaders. "Kwame Nkrumah was the state crusader for African unity.

He wanted the Accra summit of 1965 to establish Union Government for the whole of independent Africa. But we failed.

The one minor reason is that Kwame, like all great believers, underestimated the degree of suspicion and animosity, which his crusading passion had created among a substantial number of his fellow Heads of State.

The major reason was linked to the first: already too many of us had a vested interest in keeping Africa divided.

Kwame Nkrumah's predictions have come to pass in later years. Africans have become refugees in their own Africa.

In Uganda alone, there is still a classification of nationalities, for example, Rwandese, south Sudanese and Somalis despite these nationalities being member countries of East Africa.

The irony being conflicts stemming from the head of the East African community and the former head of the East African community. Only this among the so many defeats Nyerere's position for gradual unification.

The gradual process will only help in breaking up formations but not build them.

Unification requires bold steps. From America to the now breaking Europe unification came at a cost.

In China, kingdoms had to concede being under the strong one or they risked imposition. Africa would have been exceptional had it achieved this.

In 1999, at the extra-ordinally summit in Libya Gadhafi "hijacked" the African leaders when he opened the summit with the ‘United States of Africa' plan.

Equally shocking was his insistence that the plan, which entailed the creation of a continental presidency with a five-year term of office, a single military force, a common African currency, be approved "then and there.

A compromise was reached by the thirty-three African leaders to overhaul the OAU completely.

A constitutive legal document outlining a new continental body for Africa was prepared by the Council of Ministers who submitted it to the 30th Ordinary Session of the OAU in Lome in 2000. 

Fundamentally, it appeared that of all the African leaders, Gaddafi had taken up the Pan-African mantle of Nkrumah.

And in the same spirit like it was with Nkurumah, Ghadaffi had become a threat to some heads of state notable, Obasanjo of Nigeria, Thambo Mbeki of South Africa and other long-serving leaders at the time.

Already the price was paid, a once powerful African country is in shambles. Actually, foreign powers imposed a no-fly zone over Libya as African states watched on as one of their own was ousted, humiliated and later executed in the brutal most of the ways by foreigners.

What measures have African states put in place to avoid such calamities from befalling them? This question does not only go to the sitting government but to opposing parties in various African countries.

This question goes to each one of us as African people. We should demand issues that raise our pride as Africans. 

Political effectiveness is important in policy implementation in order to achieve material prosperity. As an African people, we demand political effectiveness in breaking the border disputes and brokerages. 

Isn't a rich environment beneficial to a chief than a poor environment to a king? But again, this question is in the hands of our kings to Answer.

As other countries in the world are exploring the sides of the moon and the cold most Continent on earth Antarctica down in East Africa we are spying at each other.

(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});