Regional Integration Schemes in Africa: ACritical ...

Chapter

10 Regional Integration Schemes in Africa: ACritical Review Dr O. W. lgwe I Dr Uche A. Dike

The emergence of the European Community in the 1950s and its attendant success In resolving the post-World War development crises in Europe turned out to be a source of encouragement to the entire Third World towards adopting regional integration as a viable development strategy. Individual Third World nations came to the realization that economic survival in the modern world system has become impossible for any single state or group of states without cooperation with, not only the Western States, but also neighbouring and non-neighbouring states. This is considerably due to unequal distribution of natural wealth among these states. Therefore, several Africa States started imbibing the pan-Africanist view, though with political restraints. Progressively, the African nations advanced towards sub-regional economic integration, which subsequently metamorphosed into as many as thirty-five different schemes and unions in West Africa alone by 1984 (Onwuka 1988). These included joint implementation of projects to Free Trade Area, Customs Union and Common External Tariff and Economic Community. Out of these lots were the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS, May 1975),

Communeute Economique des

de l'Afrique Centrale (CEEAC, 1984), which were

parallel organizations in their sub-regions with numerous others being in the membership individually.

133

134 THIRD WORLD DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES

At the regional level, the OAU had been formed in May 1963 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia by the new emergent states of Africa as a post-colonial institutional representation of the idea of Pan Africanism thresholding integration at this level. It should be noted that Pan-Africanism itself was an African ideological reaction to slavery, racism and colonialism. The objectives of the OAU were among others to rid the continent of the remaining vestiges of colonization and apartheid, to promote unity and solidarity among African States, to co-ordinate and encourage co-operation for development, to safeguard the sovereignty and territorial integrity of member states, and to promote international cooperation within the framework of the United Nations (Uwechue (ed.) 1977). All those were in part leeway of African development. Indeed, the OAU

The I

succeeded in ridding Africa of colonialism and apartheid and provided an effective forum that

Exeeutivi

enabled all member states to adopt co-ordinated positions on matters of common interest to

putting t

the continent; for example, they spoke as one with undivided determination in forging an

Session

international consensus in support of the liberation struggle and the fight against apartheid

plan of

(African Union in a Nutshell, 2006, http://www.dfa.gov.za/au.nepad/au).

The I

As against the ideals of Pan-Africansim, cold war between the then two contending world

objective

power polarized the continent along ideological lines. To that extent, the early attempts of OAU

could, th

towards a common market in the 1960s and 1970s failed. However, the springboard for the

the last

present attainment of integration of Africa could be traced to OAU's adoption of the Lagos Plan

govemm

of Action (LPA) in Lagos, in April 1980. The plan reaffirmed the commitment of the African

to be

leaders to the establishment by the year 2000 of an African Economic Community (AEC). This

institutic

community would foster the economic, social and cultural integration of Africa.

HOWl

As noted earlier, the African economies were left in crisis and were heading toward a

room te

collapse when the African heads of states and governments met in Monrovia in July 1979, to

stirnulan

discuss and examine the economic problems. This meeting arrived at some very historic

terms

decisions which included among others. The declaration that they would take concrete

the adv(

measures to realize national and collective self-reliance in economic and social domains faced

The Bal

by the then New International Economic Order (NIEO). They also noted that they had

overcon

recognized the necessity to realizing rapid economic growth in the context of collective self reliant development. They resolved that it was vital to do the foiiowinq: Promote economic and social integration of African economies to enhance self-centred development. Create national, sub-regional institutions in pursuit of self-reliance;

-,

I

0'

REGIONAL INTEGRATION SCHEMES IN AFRICA: A CRITICAL REVIEW

the

135

Give primacy to human resource development

!Pan

Place science and technology at the centre of Africa's development processes;

tself

Ensure Self-reliance in food production and guarantee the African proper and adequate

the

nutrition together with other basic needs for a civilized standard of living.

and

Undertake proper planning in all sectors of development-particularly agriculture,

.,

industry, and environmentally sound use of natural resources - with the aim of

ber

achieving modern economics at the national, sub-regional and regional levels by the

ions

years 2008 (Nyongo 2006)

'OAU

that t to

an held

The heads of states and governments therefore charged the OAU Secretary-General and the Executive Secretary of Economic Commission for Africa to come up with a sound plan for putting these objectives in proper perspective. This was what led to the second Extraordinary Session of the Head of States and Governments held in Lagos in July 1980 to pass the Lagos plan of Action and the final act for the economic development of Africa. The Lagos Plan of Action (LPA) came to be an elaboration of the general principles and

'Orld

objectives arrived at in Monrovia in 1979. LPA went into details, sector by sector, on how Africa

AU

could, through collective self-reliance, achieve rapid economic and social development during

the Plan ican

This

the last two decades of the 20th century. The Final Act Lagos (FAL) committed the governments to establish the African Economic Community by the year 2000 and stated steps to be taken to this effect. In other words, the FAL took principles, programs and political institutional agreements necessary to realize these. However, the Lagos Plan of Action was criticized by the World Bank as not giving enough

a , to

room to the private sector, not conceding the reforms necessary in the public sector to stimulate growth and being too ambitious in its projections on what Africa could achieve in

one

terms of industrial growth. Given that the west was notably hostile to arguments advanced by

'ete

the advocates of the NIEO, it was not surprising that they paid scant attention to LPA and FAL.

ced

The Bank also undertook an assessment of how to jump start Africa economies, so as to

had

overcome underdevelopment. According to Nyongo:

elfProfessor Elliot Berg was appointed by the World Bank to head a team of evaluators who came up with the famous Berg report entitled Accelerated red

Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Agenda for Africa. Like the LPA, the Berg Report also analyzed the African economies sector by sector, and was

I 136 THIRD WORLD DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES

equally convinced that Africa had little to show in terms of development

partly be

twenty years after independence (Nyongo 2006:3).

patronage Ibid).

I

From the details of the Berg report, it is observable that it dared political issues which LPA

A mor

avoided. Such issues included the problem of corruption, mismanagement of public affairs

conjunctic

which were becoming parasitic on society, and overblown bureaucracy among others. The

Recovery

report condemned the state-led development model which relied more on government's

Action for

subsidized social welfare. Industrializing through tariff, supported import substitution, foreign

In thE

exchange controls and deficit financing of public expenditure among other issues the World

proposed

Bank deemed antithetical to development.

African

On the contrary, the Bank recommended a two-pronged solution to the crisis of

and socia

underdevelopment and the search for accelerated development in Africa. Nyongo (Op cit) also

prominen

adds that the first was the need to roll back the state from involvement in the economy by

of trade.

privatizing public enterprises and confining the state to its traditional role as a regulator. The

The e

second was to open the economy to more private sector participation and the role of the

partly re:

economy by market forces through liberalization.

socio-Ecc

It was this economic reform policy package which the World Bank and other international

African q

donors handed down to the African government as conditions for their disbursement of aids

obse

that came to be known as Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP). An analysis of the SAP

bogged (

packages showed that, to a reasonable extent, it was antithetical to genuine development of

of its gr

the African economies at least in the short-run. For example, it was not quite clear how the

report a

state could be expected (as a condition for aid) to pull altogether its support for public health

percent

and education, why it was mandatory that food subsidies be withdrawn even where it meant

million

starvation of thousands of workers and their families trapped in the mining districts, even if

the wor

workers could barely afford to travel to work where affordable public transportation was no

turn of 1

Livir

longer available. These were the basis of criticism and contamination which the Berg's World Bank report attracted from scholars, researchers, the African governments, and some donors

the

themselves.

differen

The criticisms not-withstanding, the World Bank and the IMF through their established framework (SAP) pressurized the African countries to dismantle inefficient public enterprises, reduce barriers to trade, and increase real economic incentives to farmers to raise agricultural production and exports. In response, many African countries resisted the economic reform,

REGIONAL INTEGRATION SCHEMES IN AFRICA: A CRITICAL REVIEW

137

partly because political elites had established regimes around an elaborate system of patronage, and in which corruption abounded (African Development Strategy in Retrospect Ibid). A more proactive approach was therefore taken by the Economic Commission for Africa in conjunction with African governments to produce Africa's Priority programme for Economic Recovery 1986-1990 (APPER). This was later converted into the United Nations programme of Action for Africa's Economic Recovery and Development (UNPAAERD). In these two documents, Africans tried to come to terms with SAP's conditionalities and proposed to the UN body other viable economic programmes and objectives under which African governments could engage the external world in a joint endeavour to tackle economic and social backwardness in Africa. The problems of debt burden as Nyongo observed became prominent; inadequacy of investment resources was emphasized along with unequal exchange of trade. The existing complexities in the SAP and how Africans would live above its impediments was partly responsible for the ECA's establishment of the African Alternative Framework to SAP for socio-Economic Recovery and Transformation (AAF-SAP). But AAF-SAP was seen in certain African quarters as a retreat from LPA or that worst, a capitulation to the SAP's Mafia. Observably, then Africa was still weighed down with a population of more than 600 million, bogged down by an external debt of $359 billion. This debt appropriated more than 80 percent of its gross domestic Product GDP and 320 percent of the continent's export earnings. The report added that between 1980 and 1986, Africa's total per capital income declined to 3.5 percent and the number of available jobs declined by 16 percent annually. This resulted to 22 million unemployed and 95 million underemployed Africans. Again, Africa was the only region of the world where the number of people remains unchecked, and was greatly increased at the turn of the 20th century (Uwechue (ed.) 1991). Living in crises, the OAU's quest for solution of the continent's numerous problems pushed the Organization to search for avenues for achieving economic integration. It strove into different initiatives. The various initiatives that preceded the establishment of the African Union included: i.

The African Charter on Human and People's Right (Nairobi 1981) and the Grand Bay Declaration and plan of Action on Human rights: two instruments adopted by the OAU to promote Human and People's Rights in the continent. The Human Rights Chapter


led to the establishment of the African Human Rights Commission located in Banjul,

the Gambia.

ii.

Africa's Priority Programme for Economic Recovery (APPER) - 1985: an emergency programme designed to address the development crisis of the 1980s, in the wake of

iii.

In n

protracted drought and famine that had engulfed the continent and the crippling effect

Africa

of Africa's external indebtedness.

terrorisr

OAU Declaration on the political and socio-economic situation in Africa and the

humanil

fundamental changes taking place in the world (1990): This underscored Africa's

anti-con

resolve to seize the initiative, to determine its destiny and to address the challenges to

The

peace, democracy and security.

entered prograrr

iv.

The chapter on popular participation adopted in 1990: a testimony to the renewed determination of the OAU to place the African citizen at the centre of development and decision-making.

Other initiatives still include: •

The Treaty establishing the African Economic Community (AEC) - 1991: commonly known as the Abuja Treaty, it seeks to create the AEC through six stages culminating in an African Common Market using the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) as bUilding blocks. The treaty has been in operation since 1994. Yet the others included:

Union began al-Quad long-hel The

Declaral

declaral Union adopte

•

The Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolutions (1993): a political expression of the determination of the African leadership to find solutions to conflicts, promote peace, security and stability in Africa.

•

Cairo Agenda for Action (1995): a programme for re-Iaunching Africa's political,

economical and social development.

•

Africa Common Position of Africa's External Debt Crisis.

•

The Algiers decision on Unconstitutional Changes of Government (1999) and the Lome

Declaration on the framework for an OAU Response to Unconstitutional Changes

(2000)

ThE

Asseml

the thi

REGIONAL INTEGRATION

3njul,

•

IN AFRICA: A CRITICAL REVIEW

139

The 2000 Solemn Declaration on the Conference on Security, Stability, Development and Cooperation: establishes the fundamental principles for the promotion of Democracy and Good Governance in the Continent (cited in Nwaodu, 2010).

gency

lke of

effect

In response to other aspects of the region's challenges, other collective actions for overall Africa were initiated by the OAU in the protection of environment, in fighting international terrorism, in combating the scourge of HIVjAIDS, malaria and tuberculosis or dealing with

ld the

humanitarian issues as refugees and displaced persons, landmines, small and light weapons, anti-corruption mechanisms among others.

1ges to

The Constitutive Act of the African Union: adopted in 2000 at the Lome Summit (Togo) entered into force in 2001. The New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD): adopted as programme of the AU at the Lusaka Summit 2001 (Africa Union in a nutshell, 2006; African

ent and

Union - Wikipedia, http://en). Indeed, the ideal of an African Union, separation from the OAU began with the vision of a United States of Africa mooted out by the Libyan leader, Muammar al-Quaddafi who, frustrated by development in the Arab world, has in recent years given up his long-held ideologies of Arab nationalism and Pan-Arabism.

nmonly

The Head of State and Heads of Government of the OAU therefore issued the site

inating

Declaration on September 9, 1999, calling for the establishment of an African Union. That

Cs) as

declaration was followed by summits at Lome 2000, when the Constitutive Act of the African

ded:

Union was adopted and at Lusaka in 2001, when the plan for implementation of Union Act was

a

)ns to

adopted. The African Union was launched in Durban on July 9, 2002, by its 1st session of the Assembly of the African Union. The second session of the Assembly was in Maputo in 2003, and the third session in Addis Ababa on July 6, 2004. The main objectives include:

litical, •

To achieve greater unity and solidarity between the African countries and the peoples of Africa;

•

To defend the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of its Member States,

•

To accelerate the political and socio-economic integration of the continent;

•

To promotes and defends African common positions issues to the continent and its

.ome

rnges

peoples;


•

To encourage international cooperation, taking due account of the Charter of the

continent. beyond it,

United Nations and Universal Declaration of Human Rights;

The Al •

To promote peace, security, and stability on the continent;

•

To promote democratic principles and institutions, popular participation and good

economiCi

governance;

Wordu, 2\

•

efforts in

To promote and protect human and peoples' rights in accordance with the Africa Charter on Human and peoples' Rights and other revenant human rights instruments;

resources could pro'

sub-reqoi •

•

To establish the necessary conditions which enable the continent to play its rightful

has therel

role in the global economy and in international negotiations;

a viable

To promote sustainable development at the economic, social and cultural levels, as

especially This (

well as the integration of African economies;

problem •

To coordinate and harmonize the policies between the existing and future Regional EconomicCommunities for the gradual attainment of the objectives of the Union;

•

To advance the development of the continent by promoting research in all field, in particular in science and technology;

•

I

and capit fine the relatlonsh

The

To work with relevant international partners in the eradication of preventable diseases

been on

and the promotion of good health on the continent.

remainec

(African Union-Wikipedia,

http://en. 06/14/06),

for herse

the cont In this manner therefore, the then 39-years-old OAU transformed into AU as Africa's apex regional Organization with the constituent Act the AU replacing the OAU charter. However, it was provided by the Assembly that the OAU charter would remain operative for a one year transitional period or such further period as may be expedient as to be determined by the assembly following the entry into force of the Act for the purpose of enabling the devolution of the Assets of the OAU and its liabilities to the AU. And all worthy of note at this point is that the AU is patterned after the European Union havlnq its own Parliament, Central Bank and Court. It has a membership of 53 African States and is designed to live above those obstacles that limited the OAU from brining about lasting peace, security and economic development to the

developi and the

REGIONAL INTEGRATION SCHEMES IN

le

A CRITICAL REVIEW

141

continent. In the opinion of Mammo, what the OAU was able to do, it has done, what was beyond it, has to pass on the African Union (Mammo, 2001). The African Union as it is today is the offshoot of several decades of regional integration efforts in Africa. It is built on the continent's acceptance of the fact that none of its states is

d

economically large enough to construct a modern economy alone (Green and Seidman in Wordu, 2001). It builds on the philosophy and understanding that Africa as a whole has the resources for industrialization but it is split among fifty-three territories ... Africa as a whole could provide market to support large scale industrial complexes, yet no single African State or sub-regional economic union can do so (Green and Seidman In Wordu, 2004:156-176). The AU has therefore come to symbolize a vision of the Africans to build a united and strong Africa with a viable partnership between its government and all the various segments of the civil society, especially in this era of globalization and world market integration. This collective economic vision and destiny of the AU for Africa, notwithstanding the problem of the Continent remains that of continued dependence on the Western technology and capital which ultimately retards the continents development. Irrespective of how lofty and fine the AU's development for Africa is it has not extricated the continent from her subservient relationship with the West in all manners even after about a decade the AU came to life. The AU has defined this economic destiny in NEPAD, and for 4 years now, the design has been on implementation, but it might be surprising to note that the AU (NEPAD) has still remained obscured to a large number of Africans irrespective of the lofty ideas it mapped out for herself. This is not to say that its intervention in the crisis-ridden states and sub-regions of the continent such as in Sudan and Ivory Coast are of no benefits. The issue is that the Union's developing initiatives and programmes are not yet felt and embraced by majority of the Africans and the Nigerians seem to be in the majority of those in this darkness.

References Africa Union in a nutshell, 2006. African Union - Wikipedia, http://en African Union in a Nutshell, 2006. http://www.dfa.gov.za/au.nepad/au. (retrieved 21/08/2007) Uwechue R.U, (ed.) (1977), African Year Book and

Who

London, African Journal

Limited

"

..


Uwechue (ed.) 1991 Mammo, 2001. African Union-Forward Ever, Backward Never. New African September Nwaodu, N.D. 2010. The African Union and the Development Question in Africa, Dwerri, Mega Atlas Projects Ltd. Dnwuka, R.I. 1988. The Anguish of Dependent Regionalism. Inaugural Lecture, Obafemi Awolowo

The

University, Ile-Ife Wordu, SA 2001. Development and Conflict Resolution: the NEPAD and Civil Society Initiatives. Journal of the Centre for Ethnic and Conflict Studies, Cheba, University of Port Harcourt, Vo11, No

Dr Nuru:

Introductic

The establishl

in the direct! development.

the continent

principally tc African state Dock, complement

A fewye

collapse am

many Africc

twelve year

not maintai capital

funded. FOI

regional st

could barre

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