(LUSAKATIMES) An African Authority?

An African Authority?
February 8, 2009
By Mingeli Palata

I somehow found myself in front of a TV on Monday and after switching through the channels I normally watch, I realized I didn’t want to be stressed with news on the war in Gaza so I tuned to the National Geographic channel and there was a program called ‘earth investigated’. Seeing as I was in some deep thought and only wanted something to keep me busy, I thought hey, here is something to watch!

A few seconds into the program, the narrator said something that I found interesting, he said in the next 2000 years, all the continents would merge into one. Scary I thought, for a moment I tried thinking about what it would be like living with the Arabs and their friends the Jews, the Russians and the Chinese living right next to us. No. I stopped right there, we are better off left apart and far from each others evils. Now how much more the proposed United States of Africa?

About three years ago, when the Libyan Colonel was the Chairman of the African Union, I was privileged to be among a group of Youth advocates as we would fondly call ourselves. In Tripoli we joined other youths from the African Continent who had been called to talk about the possibility of one African Government.

Aside from the fact that it was nice mingling with fellow youths from different African countries, making friends and all, this experience was also saddening. I realized the fact that Africa was divided and the possibility of one African government was merely Utopia. Allow me to highlight a few reasons why I think its ill devised.

I will begin with the person promoting the concept of one African Government, now I know you will find it weird that I actually like the colonels idea of democracy, I will tell you that I think the Green Book (A set of principles on which Libyan Authority is founded) is one of the most brilliant collections of thought on governance I have ever come across. Aside from central authority, the green book or the Libyan system promotes participatory democracy, in which people are more involved in making decisions on issues that affect them.

For someone who believes in concept driven Governance, it was easy to like this guy. But maybe you could try out the fact that the man has built a country, he has gardens in the desert and the rest is cliché. He is a great man, a great man who idolizes himself. If you go to Tripoli today all you will see is pictures of the man. One of the pictures that really caught my eye was on in which he was depicting himself as the king or supreme ruler of the entire African continent. I paused and said look, isn’t this man thinking way too much of himself? Isn’t he up to pursuing a selfish ambition? I began to understand why other African leaders were opposed to the idea.

When it came to the actual youth parliament deliberations, I was more convinced that while the idea of an African integration was good, the motives and ideals behind it were rather crude. We had a rather wired system of voting. As soon as nominations started, the name of Gaddafi’s son was brought forward and before we knew it, everyone was clapping and at the end of the day, Gaddafi’s son was announced head of the African Youth Parliament. But wait? We didn’t vote? Clearly we were sort of duped or for lack of a better term forced into choosing a leader. For me, that was fore-glimpse of what kind of Democracy we would have in a United States of Africa. Then I thought of it from another point of view, a Ugandan friend told me that it was better for Gadafhi’s son to head the Youth parliament because then we would get the necessary resources. I didn’t think that was a reason enough for someone to be elected leader of what was to be an important African body. By the way, the Libyan Leader was believed to have paid for all the expenses incurred by the youth delegates. I found that odd.

Frankly, I just think this USA is nothing more than one man’s ambition to lead a continent. Hey, doesn’t the fact that it’s now being called an African Authority tell you something?