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US of Africa ignites new battle
07/02/2008 15:32 - (SA)
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia - The United States of Africa - It's one of few concrete plans African leaders agreed on as they struggled with issues of peacekeeping and political disputes at the African Union summit.
The problem was, so many countries wanted to be Washington, DC.
African leaders had been pushing for a continental government for years. And the plan continued to garner widespread support from the 40-odd delegations at the AU summit that ended on Saturday in Ethiopia's capital.
Yet even countries facing disputed elections and conflict at home, were loath to suggest they would be anything but a leader of the group, even given the light-hearted question of what US state they most resemble.
Their responses highlighted pecking-order positioning that could keep a federally unified continent from ever becoming a reality.
Abdalmahmood Abdalhaleem, Sudan's ambassador to the United Nations said: "Sudan is something like Washington, DC.
"Sudan is always a leader. So we want to have the White House of Africa, the Pentagon of Africa."
Not so fast, Sudan. Bamanga Tukur, a native of Nigeria and chairperson of the AU's New Partnership for African Development, gave the honour to Ethiopia, the only African nation to have never been colonised.
He said: "Ethiopia can be Washington," As for his own, oil-rich nation, Tukur said: "Nigeria can be Texas. Isn't that nice?"
But, asked if Addis Ababa, the headquarters of the AU, might someday become the African Beltway, Ethiopian Prime Minister, Meles Zenawi, was similarly cagey.
"That's in the future," he said.
The battle for power
Any such future is far away. Everyone agreed that a unified African government could take decades, and would require many nations to make drastic improvements to governance, infrastructure, poverty and education.
But the stickiest issue was power, so most leaders advocated a slow approach that would let them cement their regional ties and position, analysts said
Others, notably formerly isolationist Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade, had called for quicker integration, which might favour their more established governments.
"Obviously, power politics are taking place throughout the continent," said Kenneth Mpyisi, director of the Institute for Security Studies, a think tank in Addis Ababa.
"We have various regional powers in different parts of the continent. ... They would obviously want to retain a certain amount of power in their sphere of influence."
Still, presidential candidates were already rumoured. Libya's Gaddafi, a regional leader with a huge, oil-rich country and aspirations of global statesmanship, passionately argued for bringing Africa together immediately, and recently canvassed West Africa.
While no immediate union came from this week's summit, Gaddafi did push successfully for a presidential committee that will lay out proposals at a Cairo summit in June.
"I am satisfied," he said. "We have reached an agreement today."
But asked if he aspired to one day be president of the United States of Africa, Gaddafi simply laughed and walked away.
Others were more forthcoming. Emmanuel Issoze-Ngondet, Gabon's ambassador to the AU, had big dreams for his small, oil-rich coastal nation.
Gabon's foreign minister, after all, was selected as the AU's new operating chief during the Addis Ababa meeting.
"If we finally reach the goal of the United States of Africa, Gabon will be like California," he said. "Why not?"
When it was pointed out to him that, geographically, California would dwarf the West African nation, he smiled.
"Maybe like Los Angeles, then," he said.
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