The Grand debate achieved it's purpose

http://www.thestatesmanonline.com/pages/editorial_detail.php?newsid=226&section=0

*05/07/2007*

The Assembly of the African Union, meeting at its 9th Ordinary Session in
Accra, Ghana, from 1 to 3 July 2007 met here in Accra to hold a grand debate
on how to achieve the ultimate objective of the African Union, which, as
boldly printed in the preamble to the communiqué, is accepted by all to be
"the United States of Africa with a Union Government as envisaged by the
founding fathers of the Organisation of African Unity and, in particular,
the visionary leader, Dr Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana."

Important to note that top on the list of the Accra Declaration was: "We
agree to accelerate the economic and political integration of the African
continent, including the formation of a Union government for Africa with the
ultimate objective of creating the United States of Africa." How to achieve
this was what committees were tasked to study and report for adoption at the
next AU Summit.

Thus, the totality of the success of this week's grand debate would not be
known until the outcome of the next summit. However, by being able to get
the two opposing sides (Instantists and Gradualists) to agree on a single
declaration which both endorsed the acceleration of the United States
(Nations) of Africa project and using the Regional Economic Communities to
prioritise the setting up of an African Common Market should be seen by all
as a major victory for Ghanaian diplomacy.

Going by some of the reactions to the outcome of the Accra summit, it
appears the public have lost sight of the theme of the summit: Grand Debate
on Union Government. The debate was held and the debate was grand. The
debate featured 53 nations.

It allowed those who were rigid in their demands for a union government now
to better appreciate the concerns and rationale of those who were calling
for a gradual approach; and it allowed those of the gradualist persuasion to
better appreciate the frustrations and attractiveness of the other side"s
viewpoint, too. Ergo, the communiqué addressed and captured the concerns of
all sides.

Thus, *The Statesman* was surprised to wake up to news on BBC World Service
that the Accra Summit ended without an agreement. The international station
went as far as to misinform the world that the Libyan leader walked out on
his colleagues during the debate. **

*The Statesman* can state that nothing of that sort happened. Gaddafi read
his one and a half hour speech before lunch; the leaders all came back after
a lunch break and stayed until the end.* *

Indeed, Gaddafi, Wade (Union Government Now!) Zenawi (More Power to the
Commission) and Museveni and Mbeki (Common Market via the RECs) were all
very instrumental in getting the draft communiqué amended and finally
adopted.

This, it must be said, also gave Gaddafi and Mbeki the opportunity to let
out some pent up feelings against each other. It was an opportunity for
Gaddafi to ask those who did not actually believe in the Union Government
agenda to stop playing soccer with Africans and leave the AU.

It also gave the South African leader the chance to respond to indirect wide
accusations from Gaddafi that he was traitor and a stooge of white
imperialism. In the end, a consensus was reached - just as one was reached
among 27 EU member states last month in Germany - and this is evidenced by
the fact that a communiqué was agreed.

The Accra Declaration must be seen as an achievement. Even when Margaret
Thatcher was splitting hairs and screaming No! NO! No! to Jacques Delors at
Maastricht, The Netherlands, in December 1991, the treaty was still
approved. The acrimony then even between the far smaller number of 12
European countries was nowhere near what we saw in Accra of 53 countries.

We wish the AU Commission, in conjunction with our Foreign Affairs office,
will make edited versions of the Grand Debate available for public viewing
in line with the following declaration: "We agree on the importance of
involving the African Peoples, including Africans in the Diaspora, in the
process leading to the formation of the Union Government."

The fact that our leaders, against the concerns of sovereignty of Angola,
still agreed to the innovative idea of allowing the African Diaspora to
partake "in the processes of economic and political integration of our
continent" must be considered an achievement, as acknowledged by an elated
Jesse Jackson.

The issue, like always, is how to achieve this. Fortunately, among the steps
agreed to attaining a Union Government include rationalising the Regional
Economic Communities so "as to lead to the creation of an African Common
Market… with a reviewed and shorter timeframe to be agreed upon in order to
accelerate the economic and, where possible, political integration."

It may be worth noting that the original draft did not include "political
integration." Ironically, one of the strongest proponents for a common
market through the RECs rather than a union government, Museveni of Uganda,
in fact got the "political integration" bit to be inserted. He explained he
did not want the East African Community to be deemed "illegal" in the eyes
of the AU.

Also, for the first time in the AU debate since the Sirte Declaration in
1999 to set up the Union, it was only here in Accra that this important
issue was raised: Paragraph 2 (c),(i) reads that the task of the ministerial
committee should include: "identification of the contents of the Union
Government concept and its relations with national governments."

Gaddafi's proposal that Africa should come together to fight for a permanent
seat at the United Nation's Security Council was already in process, with
our Foreign Minister leading an African delegation to the UN to put this
same point across earlier in the year.

The Libyan leader's submission dwelt heavily on Article 10, which deals with
the Executive Council. He tabled a motion for Africa to present a single
front with a single minister or commissioner, such as the EU has
commissioners on trade, foreign affairs, transport, environment, etc.

In line with this, the Accra Declaration included a commitment "to conduct
immediately, an Audit of the Executive Council in terms of Article 10 of the
Constitutive Act, the Commission as well as the other organs of the African
Union in accordance with the Terms of Reference adopted by the 10th
Extraordinary Session of our Executive Council held in Zimbali, South Africa
on 10 May 2007."

The outcome of the audit and the work of the Ministerial Committee will be
submitted to the Executive Council, to make appropriate recommendations to
the next ordinary session of the AU Assembly.

In our view, what happened in Accra was important in a sense that it
narrowed the practical gap between the instantists and the gradualists. And,
we believe that the report of the ministerial committee and the audit of the
Executive Council will be accepted, including the timeframe, after some
debates, of course.

The good thing will be that at the next summit, the debate will not be one
primarily on the two sides, but on the findings and recommendations,
especially on timeframe.

We believe the stage has been set for radical progress to be made at the
next summit. Yet, the total success of the Accra Summit would only be clear,
one way or the other, after the next summit. That is the summit that should
be groundbreaking. This was one of closing the gap between the grounds in
order to move forward in the agreed accelerated manner.

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