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Let us not fail Africa by taking
unexamined decisions - Kufuor
Accra, July 1, Ghanadot/GNA – President John Agyekum Kufuor,
Chairman of the African Union (AU), on Sunday challenged his
colleague leaders in the continent not to fail the people of
Africa and its future by taking unexamined decisions, as
they gather in Accra for the grand debate on the Union
Government.
“We have the unique opportunity to elaborate clear-cut
modalities and signposts on how to achieve our collective
objective of the Union Government.
“The task before us is enormous but exciting. We are at the
crossroads and at the same time the threshold of a new era,
with great opportunities but also many challenges and
responsibilities for Africa,” he said.
President Kufuor was addressing the opening of the Ninth
Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the AU.
The AU, at its Eight Ordinary Session in Addis Ababa,
Ethiopia, in January this year, decided to devote the Accra
Summit to the single agenda of discussing the direction of
the Union.
President Kufuor said given the high sense of responsibility
to the cause of Africa, he was confident that the leaders
would arrive at a common understanding on the sort of
“Continental Government” they wanted for Africa and how to
develop a roadmap with time lines towards its realization.
He counselled that they should enter the debate with
positive attitudes, political will and confidence.
They should all engage in the debate with mutual trust,
respect, fellow-feeling and abiding faith in the great
future that awaited the continent.
President Kufuor said, it was his hope that whatever the
leaders put forward as their view points should reflect the
views of their peoples.
“With this as our guiding principle, everything else should
be secondary.
“Gender, religion, ideology and country should all be
subsumed under the welfare of the peoples of Africa, who
empower us as their leaders to meet at this summit.”
He pointed out that it was only through such ownership of
the debate by their peoples that the conference would be
given legitimacy and sustainability.
President Kufuor said given the complexities and practical
difficulties in the path of attaining the Union Government
in one form or the other, it was important they acknowledged
the necessity for shared values in terms of respect for
human rights, principles of good governance and the rule of
law.
These values, he said, should constitute the fabric of the
Union’s budding institutions like the Pan-African Parliament
and the Union Court of Justice and Human Rights.
President Kufuor noted that with the passage of the
Consultative Act of the AU and the adoption of the New
Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), the immediate
challenge to the realization of its goals was “political
will” and institutional development.
He identified the various sub-regional groupings as critical
building blocks for the integration process.
Their co-ordination and streamlining to service the central
institutions of the AU were therefore prerequisites for
unification.
He said it was unfortunate that over the past two decades or
so of their establishment, these groupings had not performed
to the degree of efficiency and purposefulness, which would
assure an objective observer of hastening the day of the
attainment of the Continental Government itself.
He said, in the light of global developments, the continent
must leapfrog to attain a dignified and promising place in
the globalization process.
Professor Alpha Konare, President of the AU Commission,
suggested to the Assembly of Heads of State and Government
to delegate some powers to the Commission’s established
institutions.
He said competencies, power and resources should be placed
at the disposal of the AU institutions to enable them to
perform more efficiently.
GNA
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