AFRICAN UNITY IS THE ANSWER (MAY, 26, 2009)

UNITY is strength, so goes a popular adage.
Indeed, there is so much wisdom in this saying as it, more often than not, reflects in the true life situations of people and institutions.
When the founding fathers of the Africa in the personalities of Osagyefo Dr Kwame Nkrumah, Jamal Abdul Nasser, Ahmed Sekou Toure, Patrice Lumumba, Modibo Keita, Emperor Haile Sellasie, etc, lit the torch that would liberate the African continent from the yoke of colonialism, they undoubtedly drew a lot of encouragement from this saying.
When Ghana, under the dynamic leadership of Osagyefo Dr Nkrumah, attained independence in 1957, the first in sub-Saharan Africa to do so, only about half a dozen states on the continent could lay claim to such sovereign status.
Being completely inundated in the sea of imperialist powers whose insatiable appetite for the control of overseas territories and resources had shown no sign of diminishing, these trailblazers of African liberation had to craft and rely on the unification of the independent states then as a means to the eventual defeat of the colonial order.
It came as little wonder, therefore, when, at the dawn of Ghana’s independence, Osagyefo declared at the then Polo Grounds that Ghana’s independence was meaningless unless it was linked with the total liberation of the African continent.
Thanks to the wisdom, vision and unbending determination of these leaders, and with the solid support of the people, the first phase of the quest for the total freedom of the African people has been won with the political liberation of the entire continent.
Today, the bigger and more sophisticated battle for the African continent is that of overthrowing the last vestiges of colonialism — neo-colonialism.
While most Africans are generally agreed on the ridding of the continent of its precarious economic dependence on these nations, the means for attaining this lofty goal has remained a contentious issue since the days of the founding fathers of the OAU when the issue split the continent along the Casablanca (radical group) and the Monrovia (dovish group) blocs.
Be that as it may, there cannot be any doubt about the fact that the battle against under-development, economic marginalisation and dependence and their attendant vicious circle of poverty and misery of the African people can only be won if and when the continent unites.
The history of the United States of America (USA) and more recently the European Union (EU) should tell us that the timid and uncommitted steps taken so far on the part of African nations cannot get us to the unification goal in the next 50 years.
Africa needs to change the integration gear into a faster one as the rest of the world, from the USA, through the EU to the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), are moving ever faster.
As the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration, Alhaji Mohammed Mumuni, put it at the commemoration of the AU Day in Accra yesterday, the widespread feeling among African people is for continental unity now, with their total involvement (see pages 24 and 25).
The continent today needs leaders with vision and the requisite political will to integrate and not those who see themselves as petty chieftains clinging on to small enclaves they love to call and view as their bona fide territories.
We would want, on this occasion, to ask all Africans to ponder over this irony of why Africa is the richest continent on earth but its people are the poorest in the world.
Disunity is our bane and in unity lies our salvation.
The time for that unity is now!