In the last few months several articles on Sahara Reporters have raised the issue of a Sovereign National Conference and some others have called for greater unity of Nigerians.
We are all becoming more and more aware of the problems due specifically to our colonial past and the need to address issues that have been swept under the carpet for decades. Instead of a pan-Nigeria "Sovereign National Conference" I have chosen to take the pan-Africanist position of greater unity amongst Africans with a union government, but one that grants greater autonomy to the numerous ethnic nations within their colonial boundaries. I am very much against any form of secession and the production of any more "countries" (such as Eritrea and South Sudan) out of Africa. This article only scratches the surface of the subject matter of a book (Remember Me: A LETTER TO BARACK OBAMA on why America's foreign policy for Africa must be centred on the accelerated political unification of the continent). Obama urges Africans to "stop blaming colonialism of the past for the problems of the present" and according to him "Africa's future is up to Africans." Fine, but Africa's future is up to which Africans? The extremely incompetent, psychopathically corrupt and self-serving Mugabes, Abachas, Gaddafis, Gbagbos, Mobutus, and other indigenous neo-colonialists of Africa who will never leave the political scene peacefully, or the genuine and meek Africans such as those in Diaspora exemplified by the (estimated) 5000 Nigerian doctors in the UK alone? With the power of incumbency and psychopathic corruption, the future of Africa is not up to the voiceless people, but to the incumbent indigenous neo-colonialists who were fortunate enough to be handed the geographical real estates of their erstwhile colonial masters. For our future to be up to us (the genuine peoples and masses of Africa), we must creatively rebuild ourselves and the whole of Africa away from incumbents and the status quo. An opportunity to do this is what a pan-African superstate offers.
The idea of a pan-African superstate with a union government is not at all new. Indeed, the debate at the July 2007 AU summit held in Ghana, focused on the creation of a Union Government and a United States of Africa. The fact that it has so far not been seriously considered is due to the power of incumbency. Why would any sitting despot such as Robert Mugabe or Obiang Nguema (sadly the current chairperson of the AU) agree to a vision that would mean his end? Without careful consideration, the idea of a Pan-African superstate is easily dismissed by the small-minded as impractical imitation of the EU and even undesirable from Africa's unique socio-cultural standpoint. Yet, we cannot run away from the basic notion of united we stand, divided we fall: Africa remains the best place on earth to exploit people and their states because the people are divided. In the Savannahs of Africa, we see clearly how the lion preys more easily on the individual animal separated from the pack. China is now the new lion preying on separated African buffalos. So why can't Nigerians (talk less of Africans as a whole) unite? Are we too fundamentally different and bigoted to ever unite for a common purpose (for example to prevent our collective exploitation)? My answer is NO! All of mankind can unite for a common purpose if the goal is shared and well defined. Perhaps as individuals, we find it hard to really appreciate and accept the value or indispensability of another person who is not very much like us. This is the weakness of the bigot and small-minded. There is no point in paying lip service to concepts such as "there is strength in diversity" when most of us do not really appreciate what the underlying strength of diversity really entails. If we did, then no group of persons in Nigeria will ever imagine killing youths whose stated purpose was to unite the country. This is evidence of Nigeria's deep-seated bigotry and ignorance of what diversity really entails. A shared purpose is the underlying ingredient that strengthens a diverse group of anything including humans in an ecosystem or machine components! The problem with Nigerians and indeed Africans as a whole is that our (fake or basically incompetent) leaders and technocrats do not share our purpose (they have their own selfish agendas, very much like the imperialists did pre-independence) or understand diversity as explained above. If the technocrats that fly with our leaders to AU meetings understood the benefits of diversity, then a union government would have been in place by now. Agreed, leadership has been identified as a critical factor for Africa's current underdevelopment (and this was why Ghana and not Nigeria was chosen for Obama's first visit to sub-Saharan Africa), but it is Africa's history that gave birth to rulers (non-leaders) as leaders who do not have it within their intellectual capacity to have a true vision for diverse peoples. This is a serious matter and it is clear that Africa has had illiterate and half-educated "leaders" who just cannot be expected to see beyond ethnic, tribal and other parochial agendas. If we had genuinely visionary leaders, then a Union Government will be top of the AU's agenda at each annual meeting until such a meeting transforms itself into the Union Government's facilitation of an annual "grand joint congressional meeting" instead of the current annual heads of state jamboree. We cannot turn back the hands of time, but those Africans (especially technocrats) who now claim to be educated and enlightened enough to see the bigger picture and the strength in diversity, must now use their intellectual prowess and creativity to create a new future for Africa that specifically excludes our current psychopathically corrupt and usually incompetent "leaders" by building a pan-African superstate big and diverse enough to be above racism, tribalism, and nepotism; strong enough to eliminate the demon of psychopathic corruption and self-serving rulers; sophisticated and intellectually challenging enough to exclude half-educated politicians from government and united in spirit, truth and purpose enough to actually work in practice to ensure economic growth for the people. Yes, it is a challenge, but not for all Africans; just those who claim to understand African affairs.
By Dr Temi Metseagharun.
Source: A Pan-African Superstate: The Solution To Africa's Intractable Problems (http://www.saharareporters.com/article/pan-african-superstate-solution-africa%E2%80%99s-intractable-problems)