President J A Kufuor

Diplomatic desk

The next African Union summit to be held in Accra in July will see a new push from the leadership to build Kwame Nkrumah's vision of a ‘United States of Africa.’

The continent’s political leaders Tuesday chose the theme, "An AU government: towards the United States of Africa,” as the sole agenda item for the next AU summit here, which is expected to be the international highlight of President John Agyekum Kufuor’s two-term presidency.

The United States of Africa agenda has been described by one senior diplomat as a real “historic victory” for Ghana and the continent, considering that the summit will convene here, 44 years after the launch of the continental body (now defunct Organisation of African Unity) in 1963 in Accra. 

The President, accompanied by Nana Akufo-Addo, Foreign Minister, DK Osei, Secretary to the President, and presidential press secretary Andrew Awuni, arrived back in Accra yesterday afternoon after his election in Addis Ababa Monday by the 53-member AU to direct the affairs of the continent for the next 12 months.

According to media reports, several participants in the two-day AU summit in Addis Ababa that wrapped up late Tuesday said West African states, led by Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal, were broadly supportive of a closer union, while countries from the south had been more sceptical.

Also, in line with the Accra summit theme, hints being picked up by The Statesman from the corridors of the Foreign Ministry point to a conscious effort by the new AU Chairman, President John Kufuor, to make the free movements of people, goods, services, technology and ideas among African countries a priority for his chairmanship.

In his closing remarks Tuesday, President Kufuor stressed that African states had much to gain by forging closer ties. “Divided we are weak,” he said. “United, Africa can become one of the world powers for good.”

The exclusive agenda for the Accra summit is to accelerate this old unity vision of Dr Nkrumah.

“But, as it’s natural with the Danquah-Busia family the approach would not be gung-ho or idealistic. The President intends to push the agenda in a most pragmatic and acceptable way, learning of course from past mistakes. Ghana has been given another opportunity to spearhead the vision that Dr Nkrumah outlined for Africa nearly five decades ago and we intend to make it work this time,” a senior Government source told The Statesman yesterday.

The Statesman can disclose that the chairmanship of the AU did not just come to Ghana on a silver platter. It started with the high-level lobbying which saw Ghana first being awarded host-status for this year’s AU summit.

The next task was to see how best to push the historic agenda, as captured in the AU constitution, of forging a closer union.

Beyond that, Government had for months studied, calculated and forecast events within the continent and accordingly put in place the appropriate diplomatic strategy to make President Kufuor the acceptable option if, as it turned out, Sudan President Omar al-Bashir’s bid fell through.

Part of this diplomatic strategy was to liaise with other leaders on the continent who shared Ghana’s historic drive for greater unity and harmonisation within Africa. The Presidents of Senegal and Nigeria were most willing participants.    

Reuters, however, reported one delegate as saying, South African President Thabo Mbeki told his peers at a closed-door meeting on Tuesday that “before you put a roof on a house, you need to build the foundations,” underlining the southern scepticism that threatened the agenda for Africa’s own USA.

The issue of the United States of Africa has been in discussion at the level of the African Union for three years, without any progress being made. It was an item on the agenda of the seventh summit of the African Union Heads of State and government, held in July last year, in Banjul, Gambia. But a group of experts set up by the AU Commission studied the issue and finally decided to refer it to the Executive Council. The members of the Council later rejected the conclusions by the experts.

Yet, just like Ghana’s non-gung-ho, subtle but deadly diplomacy that made President Kufuor acceptable by all sides, including Sudan, to chair the AU, the southern Africans, who led the revolt against the acceleration drive, were finally won over by what our senior source described as “a well grounded expectation that Ghana will proceed with this greater integration agenda with her feet firmly on the ground.”

The senior Ghanaian diplomatic source added, “It is our principled yet prudent and practical approach to diplomacy that is making things possible.”

President Kufuor’s intention to form a kind of cabinet of Heads of State and or their foreign ministers, is in line with his strategy to draw for the continent an acceptable integration plan, which at the same time  accelerates the pace of it.

The Statesman has been reliably informed that the make-up of that cabinet will reflect the various sub-regional blocs of Africa.  

Senegal’s President Abdoulaye Wade set the tone at the summit with his letter to fellow Heads of State at the eighth AU summit, which urged that moves to draw up a constitution for a “government of the union” be accelerated.

Senegalese Foreign Minister Sheikh Tidiane Gadio said afterwards of the Accra AU summit, “This is an historic victory.” 

In a related development, France is pleased about the election of President John Agyekum Kufuor as the chairman of the African Union and desires to “further strengthen” its ties with the bloc, French Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei said on Tuesday.

Mattei said the election of President Kufuor is a tribute to the people and the steadfastness of democracy in his country. The spokesman assured the new AU chairman of France’s “support” and willingness to “further strengthen its ties with the union.”