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Opinions of Wednesday, 25 July 2007

Columnist: Amankwah, Nana Kofi

Let's Adopt Draconian Measures for African Unity

What would be the changes in relationship between African leaders and Africa? It would be the fundamentals. There is no time wasting to change the models to unify the African continent. The proposal that has been put in place to reform the democratic principals for the unification of the entire continent by Muammar Gaddafi and others needs to be implemented. The leaders of all nations in Africa need to adopt this draconian measure to give hope to our future generations. As a citizen of Africa, we all need to live as western nations that do offer a comfortable life. We should be all well off, with regarding of haven many things the western nations enjoy. The continent needs to adopt models that will eradicate poverty from the entire continent through economic independence and good governance with development ideas that will resolve our socioeconomic dilemmas. As a result the leaders need to adopt drastic principles as the Japanese did during the 1930’s. We need to attack the situations with all our conviction as some of our leaders have already suggested to put such mechanism in place. As an Africans we need to put pressure on the leaders to stop being dependents on the so called donor countries that often use this financial assistance to pull us down through their media outlets across the western notions. Since nine years Gaddafi and others established the Africa unity the organization has done great for the continent than the previous Africa union. The United Nations assessment report had solid evidence for the nine years that organization has achieved a lot. The establishment of A.U Military forces which currently handles political conflict without the western nation interventions. The AU faces tremendous financial problems, which they often lack for logistic, has become the fundamental dilemma. These African countries that are financially self-sufficient need to increase their contributions to the AU’S treasury. South Africa, Gabon, Nigeria, Libya and Sudan should increase their financial assistance to the organization. In essence their $1,000 dues will never help the continent to progress. If one compares the African unity’s budget to the European Union (EU) the differences are great. According to United Nation reports the (EU) Budget from 2004 and 2005 were almost 34 billion dollars as compared to the same year Africa Unity budget. Which was just 25 million dollars. This is a major problem for the whole continent to carry out its social and economic development program. The European Union has changed their currency. This was a risk worth taking, as many economists had predicted. But look what has happen? They are doing more than they themselves had expected. Now there is serious negotiation among the OPEC members about the decline in the US dollar for business transaction to Euros. They are discussing –replacing the dollar. The Africa unity has come along way than many of the western nations have expected. There is more that they can achieve, by adopting the models from Gaddafi and others. After all, we have nothing to lose if it does not worked, we all will learn form our mistakes and try it again. Henceforth, African leaders who have no ideas for Africa unification should not criticizes, but rather provide the political and moral support needed to continue this mission.

From Nana Kofi Amankwah (New York)

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