By JAMES SHIKWATI

July 6, 2006

So what came out of the Africa Union meeting in Banjul? The main stars were Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, all for different reasons.

Mr Chavez asked Europe and United States to apologise to Africa for colonialism and for enslaving Africans. Mr Annan warned Africans against the new "scramble for Africa", while President Ahmadinejad’s presence was viewed as a "morale booster as well as an assurance that Africa can make it."  

To ordinary Kenyans, what had caught their attention about this meeting was the voluntary peer review on President Kibaki’s performance since 2003.  

Forcing developed nations on their knees to atone for their sins against Africa is not the most effective way of getting the continent out of its economic quagmire. At the moment, it does not make strategic sense to ask Europe and North America to apologise while at the same time approaching them with a begging bowl in hand.  

Africans must recognise that the two powerful economic blocs are presently victors, and therefore they dictate terms. Rich nations have a right to bequeath $7 each to their cows while making each Africans wrongly believe that their lives are pegged on less than a dollar.

We cannot effectively protect the continent from a modern-day "scramble for Africa" without evaluating the motivation behind the latest move. The international community is well aware of the immense wealth in the continent, but our Heads of State seem to be only aware of the "poverty" in the continent.

Africa’s story is that of two people beholding opportunity and misery in the same object. What African leaders ought to be doing in their meetings is to strategise on how to exploit for the continent's benefit this second scramble .  

Here in Banjul, the AU summit was held under the theme, "Harmonisation and Rationalisation of Regional Economic Communities and the Government of the Union".  

Among the key issues reviewed included an African diplomatic passport, accelerating the free movement of peoples, goods and services in the continent, and addressing "selective immigration as a form of brain trade in which wealthy nations are currently engaged in with African populations."

There was also the call to honour the Yamoussoukro Declaration which is geared towards ensuring that Africa opens up its skies to facilitate movement while cutting down intra-Africa transport costs.  

The Africa Union, just like its predecessor, the Organisation of African Unity, is known for its noble objectives and declarations, but there is little implementation. Africans are tired of declarations.  

Take, for instance, the Economic Social Cultural Council of the African Union launched last year in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. It has taken the intervention of international NGOs to kick life and spirit into it. All the AU executives did was to have it "declared".

One other thing the African Union is infamous for is lack of speed and efficiency. It has taken the AU a decade to decide to send peacekepers to Somalia.  

The AU is being blamed for its inability to contain the Darfur crisis. But it is difficult to get African heads of states, some of whom are responsible for the turmoil bedevilling parts of the continent, to discuss harmonisation of regional economic communities.  

Participating in Africa Union events always witnesses clear ego-driven chief executives who cannot be relied upon to cede power and allow for a united Africa.  

They have chosen to hide behind "protocol" to pass on the responsibility of having a united Africa to another generation. This is set to go on forever unless individual beneficiaries to a united Africa take steps to put pressure on them.

So where does this leave the ordinary African? Africans must not wait for the heads of state to decide on a slow painful path to one market. Everyone should ask himself whether it makes economic sense to fly cheaper to Europe and America and fly expensively to a neighbouring African country.  

Each one ought to put their governments to task for presiding over a system that makes it cheaper to make phone calls to Europe than to a neighbouring country, and why it remains difficult to move within Africa and to buy food there to save the starving.  

Mr Shikwati is director, Inter-Region Economic Network, and co-ordinator of the Africa Resource Bank

E-mail: james@irenkenya.org  

Source: Sunday Nation