Where Next for African Integration in The Post-gaddafi Era?

Colonel Gaddafi’s inaugural speech as Chairman of the African Union last February was not, apparently, music to the ears of all of the delegates attending the AU summit in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa.  While the newly-appointed Chairman expounded at length on the perceived benefits of an African Union government, a single passport and a common African currency, his detractors were less than convinced of the merits of rushing into such major developments.

President Kikwete of Tanzania, a former AU Chairman himself, cited the need for a clear legal basis for such developments. Issues of national sovereignty versus regional integration, familiar topics within the European Union,  resonate deeply with many African leaders as well. The South African delegation at the Addis summit last year were also vocal in claiming that such African integration was a long way off.

Positioning his pan-African-ism as the only valid defence against poverty, globalization and Western interference, the Libyan leader’s speech produced “lengthy and heated discussions”, according to NGO observer Edith Jibunoh, with delegates eventually rejecting  a motion to immediately transform the African Union into a union government for Africa.

Fast forward a year, and as Africa’s longest-ruling head of state clings onto power in his Bab al-Azizia compound  in Tripoli, surrounded my machine guns and loyalist guards, discussions about African economic integration appear to be gathering momentum, despite the Colonel being unable to attend and give his input. 

A gathering of African specialists, chaired by British Conservative MP and former government minister Peter Lilley , will gather in London in April to discuss “Plans for an African Free Trade Area.” Mr Lilly’s interests are, apparently, both charitable and economic. He is co-chairman of Trade out of Poverty, a charity lobbying for 100% trade access to richer countries by the poorest, as well as the abolition of subsidies by western governments to their own producers. Lilly is also chair of Tethys Petroleum, which has extensive oil and gas interests in central Asia.

Chatham House, which is facilitating the conference, shares at least part of Colonel Gaddafi’s analysis for Africa’s future when it states that “There is a wide recognition that regional integration is crucial for the prosperous future of African countries’ economic progress.”

Traditionally, low levels of internal tax revenue within African nations have lead often to countries imposing high tariffs on goods produced in neighbouring African states and, consequently, “only a very small percentage of African countries’ exports are being traded regionally.”

The African Union itself – whose theme at their annual gathering in January of this year was on Unity, Integration and Shared Values – will be represented at the London conference by Elisabeth Tankeu, AU Commissioner for Trade and Industry, and former Minister of Planning and Regional Development of Cameroon. The British government will be represented by Stephen Green, Minister for Trade and Investment.

 
At last year’s AU summit, timescales put forward for full African integration ranged from nine to thirty-five years. Despite being granted the title of King of African Kings by tribesmen from across the continent  in 2008, it is unlikely that Muammar Gaddafi will be in office to see his dream fulfilled since, in one of history’s great ironies, the Colonel declared in a 2008 speech in  the city of Benghazi that Libyan society was about to “reformulate itself in a new, free, and democratic way.”

Image via Wikipedia