FORMER African leaders who met in Dar es Salaam have called for committed leadership to move towards an integrated continent.
The leaders who were attending the
Second Annual Leadership Forum said the continent believed in
integration and already institutions are in place that could drive the
agenda home, but lack of leadership’s commitment in addressing
challenges impede the integration process.
Former President Benjamin Mkapa started
the ball rolling by pausing key questions that included whether Africa’s
natural resource treasure trove was a salvation or a curse, instead of
making African people rich, pointing out that they were still poor.
Mr Mkapa asked why the speed of
integration was slow while instruments and great development plans that
should help speed up the process, such as ECOWAS, SADC, EAC, NEPAD and
the Agenda 2063 that should accelerate development of the continent were
in place.
Malawi’s former President Bakili Muluzi
drew attention of the need to look and address challenges such as
infrastructure, communication and visa issues.
“We all want integration but then we
must work to eliminate snags in the integration process... We have
countries in the continent that are sending other Africans away. How can
we talk about integration when African people cannot move freely in the
continent?” he wondered.
The same sentiments were echoed by
Nigeria’s former President Olesegun Obasanjo questioning “how can Africa
trade within the continent, when there is no free movement?
He however noted that there are some
progresses made towards an integrated Africa, calling for attention to
the development already made in West Africa with regard to economic
integration, citing a power pool and gas pipeline as an example.
Mr Obasanjo noted that although
integration would be the best thing for Africa, it might not be for the
rest of the world, noting that the continent has striven to unite the
continent but there has been external forces impeding the progress.
He said African leaders must be ready to
pay the prices for Africa to be integrated, noting that the few
countries that are ready doing that should move ahead, and the rest to
join whenever they were ready.
Mr Obasanjo cited the formation of NEPAD
which started with six member states but now has membership of more
than 33 countries. Former Prime Minister Dr Salim Ahmed Salim noted that
integration had occupied the minds of African leaders for a long time
while the process was facing hurdles such as free movement of people.
“In 1991 a friend told me that it is
much easier for a Mzungu (whiteman) to easily move within the African
continent than for an African.
If integration is to work, we need a
change of mindset from leadership to the general public. “There have
been many decisions that lack commitment from African Leaders.
It is high time that the Leaders take the responsibility to implement these decisions,” he explained.
Former President of Ghana Jerry Rawlings
said African leaders must sacrifice for the greater good of the
continent, echoing Mr Obasanjo on the strides made in West Africa where
there is high movement of people and goods compared to the rest of the
continent.
He said it took leadership sacrifices to
make the positive strides in the West African region to reach where it
is at the moment.
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