The past few days have gone down as historic in the realisation of the dreams of our forebears, stipulated in the Organisation for African Unity’s (OAU) Charter they had signed in Addis Abeba more than half a century ago. Year after year, successive African leaders had time and again deliberated over how Africans could sort out the hurdles confronting them and prepare themselves to answer the demands of their people. The OAU, now African Union (AU), meetings and deliberations in the past had often been buffed and criticised as “talking shops” that have been adjourned for another show and competition of eloquence.
More often than not, African countries have been preoccupied with self-distraction by violent coup d’états, civil strikes, wars and peacekeeping engagements, some of which linger and remain unsolved to this day. Thousands of lives have been lost and major displacements have resulted from these civil strikes. Efforts exerted by some member countries to keep peace or bring the factions to the negotiating table have borne little or no fruits.
Regardless of these energy and resource consuming problems, Africa is now waking up from slumber and taking tangible actions that can bring the continent closer to the realisation of the African dream more than ever before. In this regard, the Nigerian billionaire, Aliko Dangote, who opened the first cement factory in Ethiopia, is an objective manifestation of intercontinental economic relationship that has opened the gate for the African economic development scheme that has come ahead of the inter-African Trade Agreements.
Although the sub-regional groupings were a prelude to the realisation of AU dreams in terms of economic integration, none is so vivid and tangible, as the treaty signed by the 26 African countries in Egypt. The Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) treaty, which embraces the interests of over 600 million people of the sub-region, is scheduled to be functional about two years from now.
In line with this plan, it may be worth mentioning that the Ethiopian and the Djiboutian governments have taken a satisfactory stride so far to live up to the dreams of our forebears.
At a time when the 25th Summit is being held in Johannesburg, South Africa, the ICC warning to arrest the Sudanese president Omar Al-Bashir has overshadowed the other crucial issues to be resolved at the summit. In fact, as a signing member of International Criminal Court (ICC), the South African government has fallen prey to the critics because of the embarrassing situation.
Cynics point out that for leaders bent on to clinging to power as long as possible such international institutions, like the ICC are obviously given deaf ears because crimes such as ethnic cleansing or genocide are facts in which the hands of some of them have been bloodied. The term “terrorism” seems to have gained political currency and is high on the political agenda these days.
In the meantime, however, socio-economic integration among and between neighbouring countries is being scaled up by the power, water, railway, aviation and telecommunications infrastructure. Ethiopia and Djibouti have become pioneers.
The history of the world shows that one-time enemies can, through time, come to their senses and become friends again. In this regard, there cannot be any earthly reason, why, in this day and age, Ethiopia and Eritrea cannot sit around the table and draw a road map to negotiate their differences and reach a compromise.
The two countries have already lost many opportunities during the last quarter of a century over and above the lives lost on both sides.
If at all there are favourable situations for any neighbouring country in the world to retrieve friendly situations, no two countries can ever be in a better situation. People to people relations have never been stronger. Both Eritreans and Ethiopians in the Diaspora are living harmoniously and have forged friendships and a shared identity with each other so much so that the reunion or integration by some sort of confederation goes without saying.
Any delay would only pile up the opportunities lost so far. The countries of the Horn of Africa, if integrated, have every chance to be a strong power to reckon with.
Despite the positive efforts achieved so far by these African nations, however, there are certain notions of exaggeration that can lead to complacency. At a time when the rest of the world, including countries like India and Brazil, are contemplating installing bullet trains in their railway transport systems country wide, it is hard to consider a 34Km long, light train urban project that could not begin operations in four years’ time and cost over 475 million dollars.
Bringing African nations under a sub-regional common market system could be only an embryonic phase for constructing basic pillars for the gateway to prosperity. The rapidly changing world of science and technology, particularly in the field of information and communications, has made conventional thoughts and beliefs obsolete.
This includes repressing freedom of people by might, as some African leaders tend to keep themselves in power beyond the terms stipulated in their national constitutions. They consider themselves demigods as if they are endowed with self-made virtue.
It is apparent that it takes time to realise Africa’s dreams. But making these dreams come true could be accelerated by adopting the right and effective ways and means to change the setting in accordance with the historical, cultural, and socio-economic realties of the respective countries. As the AU Commissioner, Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma (PhD) has said, “Africa’s past has to be rediscovered through renaissance” and push it forward to achieve its goals of reducing poverty, achieving food security and keeping peace, while living up to the principles and objectives of the AU. It is time now for Africa to mean business even at its snail’s pace.
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