Africa Must Unite!

The 9th Ordinary Session of the African Union (AU) Assembly of Heads of State and Government took place in Accra, Ghana on July 1-3. The Summit Meeting was very well attended. In part this was because it served as yet another occasion to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the independence of Ghana. It was of course also distinguished by the fact that it was scheduled to engage in a "Grand Debate on the (African) Union Government", which it did.

The matter of the possibility of establishing an All-Africa Union Government has appeared on the agenda of the AU over the last two years. The January 2007 8th Ordinary Session of the Assembly decided that the July Accra Summit Meeting should be dedicated to a discussion of this important matter in order to reach some finality about how our continent should proceed with regard to the issue of the establishment of a Union Government.

The Summit Meeting concluded with the adoption of the Accra Declaration, which did indeed specify the Continental Programme of Action to address the issue of a Union Government. But before we reflect on the content of the Accra Declaration, we must make some comments on various issues that relate to this important matter.

A shared destiny:

For many decades, the peoples of Africa have shared the hope that in time Africa would unite, repudiating the divisions imposed on the continent during the period of imperialism and colonialism, which gave our countries their national boundaries.

The desire to unite was driven by the recognition of the fact that the peoples of Africa share a common destiny and that we would succeed to secure our rightful place among the world community of nations when and if we are able to act together as one integrated unit, in fact a United States of Africa.

All the African Heads of State and Government and the Ministers who participated in the Summit Meeting reemphasised and underlined this view. There is absolutely no doubt that our continent's political leadership is firmly committed to the vision of a united Africa. This leadership understands very well what this would mean in terms of the full recovery of the dignity of the African people, including those in the Diaspora.

It also clearly understands the critical importance of African integration and unity to the achievement of the goal of a better life for all our peoples. Regularly and correctly, many of the 40 speakers who addressed the Summit Meeting during the general debate recalled the appeal made by Kwame Nkrumah, an Esteemed Member of the Order of the Companions of O.R. Tambo, that - Africa must Unite!

Reflecting this strong conviction, the Accra Declaration said Africa's leaders are convinced "of the need for common responses to the major challenges of globalisation facing Africa and boosting regional integration processes through an effective continental mechanism. (They recognise) that opening up narrow domestic markets to greater trade and investment through freer movement of persons, goods, services and capital would accelerate growth thus, reducing excessive weaknesses of many of our Member of States, (and that the envisaged) Union Government should be built on common values that need to be identified and agreed upon as benchmarks. (Given the critical importance of this matter, Africa's political leaders also acknowledge) the importance of involving the African peoples in order to ensure that the African Union is a Union of peoples and not just a "Union of states and governments," as well as the African Diaspora in the processes of economic and political integration of our continent."

Our mandate:

Our delegation at the Accra Summit Meeting was especially empowered to participate in the deliberations for a number of reasons. One of these was that our National Assembly had discussed our approach to the issue of the formation of a Union Government.

The overwhelming view of this important chamber of our National Parliament was that our country should support and encourage the advancement of our continent towards its integration and unity. The National Assembly said we should work towards this objective systematically and step by step, starting by laying a firm foundation and then proceeding to build the required edifice.

The July 27-30 ANC National Policy Conference had also considered this matter. It adopted exactly the same approach taken by our National Assembly. Specifically, it said our movement "in principle supports the establishment of the Union Government and the creation of the United States of Africa as a step towards the strategic goal of the unification of Africa.

"The process must be informed by a developmental agenda for Africa with an immediate focus on building regional economic communities (RECs).and the strengthening of the AU, and all its organs, in its role as a catalyst towards the formation of the Union of African States."

Beyond all this we were empowered by the fact that for us, the vision of a United Africa is more than 150 years old. Already in the 1850s, our emerging modern intelligentsia, represented by such outstanding patriots as the Rev Tiyo Soga, spoke out in favour of a United Africa.

When this intelligentsia, represented by such patriots as Mangena Mokone, broke away from the established white churches in the 19th century, it established the Ethiopian Church, so named to underline the fact that it was formed to assert the unity of our continent and its common determination to restore Africa's independence by liberating her from colonial rule.

As we reported in Vol 7 No 24 of this journal, this same sentiment was also conveyed by such founders of the ANC as John Langalibalele Dube and Pixley ka Izaka Seme well before the foundation of our movement. Thus was the ANC established not as a South African movement, but the organised leader of the peoples of Southern Africa.

We therefore went to Accra informed by a mandate in favour of African Unity that is deeply embedded in our history and the very being of our movement. We also went to Accra fully conscious of the enormous contribution that united African action had made to our own struggle for liberation, as encapsulated in the activities of the OAU and the sacrifices of the peoples especially of Southern Africa.

African self-reliance:

During the Accra Summit Meeting we also launched the Pan-African Infrastructure Investment Fund (PAIID). PAIID, currently capitalised at over R4 billion ($625 million), which is made up exclusively of African capital contributed by South African and Ghanaian pension funds, the African Development Bank, and South African private and public financial institutions.

This is the first time ever that our continent has combined to draw on Africa's own financial resources to address its developmental challenges. The launch of PAIID therefore made the unequivocal statement that Africa is determined to be its own liberator from poverty, underdevelopment and global marginalisation.

It gave concrete expression to the aspiration expressed during the Grand Debate on the Union Government that we must rely on ourselves to elaborate the policies and programmes and generate a significant part of the resources that will take us to the desired goal of a truly free Africa. We are confident that over the next 12 months, PAIID capitalisation will grow at least to R7 billion ($1 billion).

The launch of the PAIID served as a practical response to the passionate statement made by the President of Madagascar, Marc Ravalomanana, during the Grand Debate, when he said:

"I also agree with my brother, President Wade (of Senegal). We should not always say Africa is a sick continent. We may not be sick, but we are not very healthy! But we must also be honest, parts of Africa are very sick.

"That is why we are so dependent on donors. The donors are like doctors. The doctor keeps giving us our medicine, but we don't seem to be getting any better. Maybe the medicine is wrong! Maybe we have the wrong doctor!...

"If we want to succeed, we have to catch up with Asia and Europe fast. If we do not catch up, we will always be far behind. But how can you catch up when Asia and the West have such a big advantage?"

The launch of PAIID gave the powerful response that one of the things that we must do to catch up with Asia and the West is to rely on our resources, demonstrating that from now onwards we will not rely so exclusively on the "medicine" we receive from our donors. To emphasise this critically important development, PAIID has already identified the NEPAD infrastructure projects in which it should invest.

The APRM and a shared value system:

The other important matter we would like to mention is that the African Peer Review Forum made up of the Heads of State and Government of the African countries that have acceded to the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), (now numbering 27), also met to consider the Reviews of Algeria and South Africa, as well as the annual reports on the Programmes of Action of the Governments of Kenya and Rwanda, originally elaborated to respond to the APRM reviews of these two countries.

There will be an opportunity in future for us to fully reflect on all the principal elements of the APRM Report on South Africa. For now we would like to mention only three important points that are directly relevant to the pursuit of the goal of African Unity, and especially what the Accra Declaration identified as "common values that need to be identified and agreed upon as benchmarks", in the effort to realise the vision of the United States of Africa.

The proceedings of the African Peer Review Forum demonstrated that the APRM is alive and well and is making a critical contribution to the creation of the new Africa. During these proceedings an important discussion also took place focusing on improving the quality of the work, and therefore the all-important credibility, of the APRM. I am certain this will make a valuable contribution to the critical objective further to improve the objectivity, precision and credibility of the APRM reports and emphasise the independence of the APR panel which has the task to prepare its own reviews of our countries.

As a people we must feel inspired that, among other things in its report on South Africa, the APR panel identified 18 best practices in our country, which it recommended should be emulated by other African countries as we, together, strive to improve overall governance and accelerate our advance towards meeting the goal of a better life for the masses of the peoples of our continent.

Whither Africa?

It was within this setting, including the continuing celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the independence of Ghana, that the AU Summit Meeting adopted that Accra Declaration after an intense, frank and inclusive debate. In essence the debate centred on one critical strategic question.

This was - should we adopt a top-down approach to the formation of the United States of Africa, with its Union Government, or should we follow the bottom-up route! Should we set up a Union Government to lead this process or should we use our existing structures, especially the Regional Economic Communities and the African Union to effect the process of integration that would lead to the formation of a Union Government serving as the Executive Authority of the United States of Africa!

The Accra Summit Meeting decided unanimously in favour of the latter option, of building the House of Africa from its foundation upwards, constructing one floor at a time, as Uganda President, Yoweri Museveni, put it. In the contribution we have already cited, President Marc Ravalomanana of Madagscar said:

"I know that for more than 40 years we have been talking about Pan Africanism. I agree it is now time to move from talking to action. Let us get practical. Come up with the plan. Let us agree on time-frames. Let us formulate a strategy.

"In the Bible it says: 'Do not build your house on a foundation of sand. It will collapse. The wise man builds his house on a foundation of stone. That house will last.' "

Emphasising the common resolve of our continent to move speedily towards its unity, El Hadj President Omar Bongo Ondimba of Gabon said: "In effect, it is when Africa speaks in one and the same voice that the international community will hear and understand us. From this must emerge a consensus in favour of the political and economic integration of Africa.

"Quite clearly, fundamentally we have already decided that to achieve the United States of Africa, we must create an Executive Organ of our Union. It therefore seems clear that the time has come for us to create a Government of the Union."

Representing the united view of the region of Southern Africa, the current Chairperson of SADC, Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili of Lesotho, said:

"We recognise that Africa's interests would be best served through both political and economic integration. However, we must adopt a bottom-up approach, not a top-down one. The entire process must be people-driven and not leaders-driven. It must be the voice of the masses that determine Africa's ultimate destiny. Lest we be misunderstood, we must hurry to state that this view has nothing to do with abdication of leadership.

"It has everything to do with the leadership taking along the peoples of Africa that as leaders we are privileged to serve. This presupposes thorough consultations with the citizens of our countries. We also believe that such integration should be gradual rather than precipitous. It must be evolutionary rather than revolutionary. It must be based on a road map that contains stages, strategies and benchmarks.

"At the end of the day, if another form of organisation is created, we believe, it will be joined on a voluntary basis. What would the fate of those Member States who do not join? We must take care not to further divide Africa in our haste to 'unite it'."

The Accra Declaration - a Continental Directive

The July 2007 Accra 9th Ordinary Session of the African Union Assembly of African Heads of State and Government concluded its Grand Debate on the Union Government by unanimously adopting the Accra Declaration, fully reflecting the strategic approach enunciated by Prime Minister Phakalitha Mosisili and advanced by other African political leaders. With regard to the observation made in the Accra Declaration about the need to involve the African Diaspora, we were fortunate that present during the Summit Meeting were such eminent members of this African Diaspora as Jesse Jackson, Andy Young and the jazz master Herbie Hancock from the USA, as well as Valerie Amos and Dianne Abbott from the UK.

When he opened the Summit Meeting, the Current Chairperson of the AU and President of Ghana, John Kuffuor said: "In 1965, Dr. Nkrumah hosted a Summit of the OAU here in Accra where the project for the Continental Government was first discussed. It is therefore an uncanny coincidence that here in Accra, on the 50th anniversary of our Independence, this same subject of continental government should return to the agenda of the Summit of the African Union as its sole item for deliberation.

"In the light of global developments, including the formation of political and economic groupings on other continents, and in spite of some economic and political progress, Africa can be said to be running against time in its efforts at integration. For this reason, the continent must leapfrog to attain a dignified and promising place in the globalization process.

"Permit me to state unambiguously that, given the complexities and practical difficulties in the path of attaining this Union Government in one form or the other, the topmost prerequisite facing us as leaders of the continent should be mutual respect and trust among us all. We must also acknowledge the necessity for shared values in terms of respect for human rights, principles of good governance and the rule of law. These values should constitute the fabric of the Union's budding institutions like the Pan-African Parliament and the Union Court of Justice and Human Rights.

"Since it was agreed that this all important issue of Union Government should be debated upon within our various countries by our respective citizenry, it is hoped that whatever we the leaders would put forward as our view-points will reflect the views of our peoples. This should make our contributions human-centred and clearly owned by our peoples.

"With this as our guiding principle, everything else should be secondary. Gender, religion 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. Only our peoples' ownership of this debate will give this conference its legitimacy and sustainability."

The Accra Summit Meeting of the AU understood Chairperson John Kuffuor's message. It took historically important decisions that, certainly in our case, enjoy legitimacy and sustainability because they fully and faithfully reflect the will and the aspirations of the masses of our people.

The new President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Umaru Musa Yar'Adua drew our attention to the "more fundamental challenge" we face. He said: "As my predecessor and brother, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo declared at an earlier Forum on this issue (of the Union Government), is the presence of the requisite courage, vision, commitment, focus, and the political will to take decisions, abide by them, and implement such decisions diligently."

What now remains is that as South Africans we act together in unity, and as an integral component part of the African masses, courageously and diligently to implement the Continental Directive spelt out in the Accra Declaration. Yes indeed, as Tiyo Soga, Mangena Mokone, Langalibalele Dube and Pixley Seme foresaw, Africa must Unite!

What The Media Says

Izangoma ezingabathakathi

It is said that wonders never cease! The Sunday Times edition of July 1, 2007 confirmed the truth behind this popular expression. In this edition the newspaper carried a false front-page report of the decisions of the ANC Policy Conference under the bold headline, "MBEKI DEFIES ANC".

Consistent with this screaming headline, it manufactured a conclusion that the ANC Policy Conference never arrived at, alleging "overwhelming opposition from delegates at the party's policy conference this week" to Comrade Thabo Mbeki serving a third term as President of the ANC.

Determined to sustain its lie, the Sunday Times made the "prediction" that, "If he stands, Mbeki will be on a collision course with his own party's membership, who clearly stated this week that they would want the new ANC president to be the country's next president."

To sustain its campaign of lies, the Sunday Times said our Deputy President, Comrade Jacob Zuma, had "said the ANC has established procedures on how to elect its president and that the status quo - that the ANC president should be president of the Republic - should be adhered to."

The truth is that Deputy President Jacob Zuma made the simple and correct statement that the ANC has established procedures to elect its leadership, and has established procedures to select candidates it would present to Parliament for election to the post of President of the Republic. He advanced the view, which was accepted unanimously by the Policy Conference, that there was no need to change any of these procedures.

Specifically, the Conference decided that consistent with the Constitution of the ANC, all members of the ANC in good standing had equal rights to stand for and be elected to any position in the ANC. Thus it made the specific and concrete determination that the membership of the ANC is not prohibited from nominating and electing Comrade Thabo Mbeki for another term as our President, on the grounds that he could not serve as President of the Republic after the 2009 elections.

It went further to say that the ANC National Conference at the end of the year would reflect on the issue of the procedures the ANC should adopt to select its candidate for the post of President of the Republic. Naturally and correctly it made no suggestions in this regard, despite the fact that, as Deputy President Jacob Zuma had pointed out, our movement actually has tried and tested democratic procedures to select this candidate.

The question must arise - why did the Sunday Times feel both emboldened and driven dramatically to propagate blatant falsehoods! Part of the answer to this question is provided by the report on our Policy Conference carried in the "News & Opinion" section of the newspaper. The sub-title of this report says, "devoid of celebration and camaraderie, the meeting is a deadly serious power struggle."

In the body of the article, the newspaper says: "Their agenda (of some of the delegates) was clear: proposals on two centres of power, which would allow Mbeki to stand for a third term as ANC president, were to be kicked in the head; the popular movement supporting Zuma, which got ANC provinces to force Luthuli House to reinstate him to ANC office at the party's Tshwane National General Council in June 2005, was still on the march."

Thus, unashamedly the Sunday Times repeated the blatant lie that our leadership had taken a decision in 2005 to remove Comrade Zuma from his position as Deputy President of the ANC. This is despite the fact that all that had happened was that, as he himself had explained, Comrade Zuma had requested that he be excused from playing his role as Deputy President, pending the conclusion of the judicial processes affecting him.

Absolutely nobody had removed him from his elected position, and neither had he requested that this should be done. All our National Executive Committee did was to accede to his request. And all that happened at the 2005 NGC was that the NGC said it did not support the request Comrade Zuma had made, and therefore resolved that he should resume his work as our Deputy President, which Comrade Zuma accepted.

Because these truths do not serve its agenda, as the decisions of the 2007 Policy Conference obviously do not, the Sunday Times decided that it should protect its true political intentions about our movement, and our country, by surrounding them with a bodyguard of lies, to use an expression coined by Winston Churchill during WWII.

Perhaps the Editor of the Sunday Times, Mr Mondli Makhanya, disclosed at least part of the reason why the Sunday Times is so determined to incorporate blatant lies in its armoury, as it continues its determined campaign to misinform its readers. We refer here to his article in the same July 1 edition, headed "Having trusted leaders too much, we are ready to take back our power".

In this article Mr Makhanya says: "Now the nation and the ANC seem ready to move and have developed a healthy suspicion of power. Ironically, the man who created the conditions for breaking the stranglehold on power is none other than Jacob Zuma, who has been a rallying point for those defiant of the centre.

"The Zuma camp's ability to stand up to the centre - albeit in defence of wrong - has prised open the edifice that used to be the ANC.It is a good space.

"ANC members need to protect this space, if only for their own sake. In doing so they will be accepting that democracy is sometimes ugly and its outcomes are not always desirable. But democracy has an amazing way of correcting itself.

"The rest of society needs to know that the space is there to be used and it is up to all South Africans to ensure that whatever leadership is elected in December (at the ANC National Conference), knows it can never close that space again."

From all this it is perfectly clear that what Mr Makhanya, and presumably the newspaper he edits, seeks most fervently is to weaken the ANC. For this reason, he argues that our principled cohesion and unity, which he falsely characterises as "enormous power and trust (given) to one individual" - the President - is inimical to the interests both of the ANC and the country.

In this regard, he writes that in 1997, "Most members (of the ANC) believed that there was no way an ANC president would misuse power entrusted him or her by the people. How wrong they were."

Thus does he amplify the obscene allegation once made that our President is a "dictator". We understood when this accusation was made that it was intended to weaken our movement, by discrediting its highest elected office. The fact that it has now been repeated by the Editor of the Sunday Times, who comforts himself with imagined decisions the Policy Conference never adopted, in no way changes the intention of the allegation.

Obviously, Mr Makhanya either does not know the ANC or overestimates his capacity to influence its membership, or both. As the delegates at the Policy Conference confirmed, our movement is unequivocal in its respect for the Constitution of the ANC and its rules, conventions and traditions.

Accordingly, our members fully understand the rights and responsibilities of the President of the ANC, as defined by the ANC Constitution and decisions of our National Conferences. Neither the Constitution nor the Conference decisions in this regard were taken in error, subject to correction by Mr Makhanya.

The ANC will continue to respect the principle and practice of democracy in its work. At the same time, it will continue to defend the democratic practice of respecting decisions taken by the majority. In this regard, together with our Deputy President, Jacob Zuma, it will continue firmly to oppose the disease of factionalism manifested as defiance of ANC decisions, which Mr Makhanya is desperately keen to encourage, precisely to divide and weaken our movement.

Being as old as we are, at 95 years, we are well-educated about the "Stratcom" operations of the apartheid and previous regimes, which saw the division, weakening and destruction of the ANC as a strategic task they had to accomplish at all costs. We will therefore never hesitate to act and speak out in defence of the principled cohesion and unity of the ANC, the Alliance and the broad democratic movement, unequivocally repudiating all lies in this regard, and opposing all hostile efforts intended to undermine or block the achievement of this objective.

For over nine decades the ANC has insisted on the principle that in the end, the truth must prevail. Our national history has consistently consigned to its dustbin all those who resorted to lies to advance their objectives. At the same time, the masses of our people, who have always refused to be deceived, have consistently understood that only unjust causes, opposed to their interests, fly only because they are borne aloft by a bundle of portable lies.

We trust that, in time, Mr Makhanya will learn the important lesson about his own people, our people, that these masses know that lies have short legs, and therefore cannot travel far. As he learns this lesson, he might also come to understand why the ANC, a product of generations of African and black hope, which is deeply embedded in the psychology of these masses, is accurately described as a parliament of the people. Our accession to political power has not changed this truly historic and extraordinary reality, which all members of the ANC have an absolute obligation to defend.

When he closed our Policy Conference, our President said: "Since (the) ill-intentioned "predictions" (of opponents of our movement that the Policy Conference would be "characterised by deep divisions and bitter conflicts among ourselves") failed to materialise, I am certain that these professional critics are already at work to invent new negatives to give life to their negative campaigns."

The reports and comments published in the July 1 edition of the Sunday Times confirmed the accuracy of the prediction made by our President, which was warmly applauded and acknowledged by the Conference delegates.

It is clear that Mr Makhanya and the Sunday Times were not listening and watching. But, to be fair, perhaps they did listen and watch. If they did, the only conclusion we can reach is that they saw the assembled delegates as being nothing more than a mindless rented crowd, hired to respond to a paymaster who calls the tune.

Indeed this was suggested in the "Hogarth" column in the same July 1 edition of the Sunday Times, which said the fact that our National Chairperson asked the delegates to sing a freedom song that would communicate a mobilising song to the nation, through the public broadcaster, the SABC, calling for positive action to address our national challenges, "was unusual"! Clearly the Sunday Times has a very perverse view of what is "usual".

The foregoing communicates the message that the Editor, journalists and sub-editors of the Sunday Times were obviously ready, and perhaps remain ready to throw the public credibility of the newspaper to the winds, provided this serves the political agenda of weakening and defeating the ANC. The stark reality, confirmed during a period of more than nine testing decades, is that they will fail.

The ANC centre will continue to hold. Nothing will fall apart. Democracy both within the ANC and in our democratic Republic will continue to thrive, including the guaranteed protection of freedom of the press, which also covers the Sunday Times, but which this newspaper has regrettably and seemingly decided to abuse by giving itself the freedom to operate free of any moral code and without any rules, except those that maximise commercial profit.

As has happened down the generations, the wilful dreams and "predictions" of those who hate the idea of a strong and cohesive ANC that unites the nation, and which is consciously supported by the masses of our people, will turn on the dreamers and soothsayers as a haunting nightmare.

The Accra Declaration

The Assembly of the Union, meeting at its 9th Ordinary Session in Accra, Ghana, from 1 to 3 July 2007:

RECALLING our decision Assembly/AU/Dec, 156 (VIII) adopted in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in January 2007 on the need for a "Grand Debate on the Union Government" with a view to providing a clear vision of the future of the African Union and of African unity.

CONVINCED that the ultimate objective of the African Union is the United States of Africa with a Union Government as envisaged by the founding fathers of the Organisation of African Unity and, in particular, the visionary leader, Dr Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana;

ALSO CONVINCED of the need for common responses to the major challenges of globalisation facing Africa and boosting regional integration processes through an effective continental mechanism;

RECOGNISING that opening up narrow domestic markets to greater trade and investment through freer movement of persons, goods, services and capital would accelerate growth thus, reducing excessive weaknesses of many of our Member of States;

FURTHER RECOGNISING that the Union Government should be built on common values that need to be identified and agreed upon as benchmarks; Acknowledging the importance of involving the African peoples in order to ensure that the African Union is a Union of peoples and not just a "Union of states and governments," as well as the African Diaspora in the processes of economic and political integration of our continent;

HEREBY DECLARE AS FOLLOWS:

1. We agree to accelerate the economic and political integration of the African continent, including the formation of a Union government for Africa with the ultimate objective of creating the United States of Africa.
2. We agree on the following steps to attaining the Union Government:
   1. to rationalise and strengthen the Regional Economic Communities, and harmonise their activities, in conformity with our earlier decision, so as to lead to the creation of an African Common Market, through the stages set in the Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community (Abuja Treaty), with a reviewed and shorter timeframe to be agreed upon in order to accelerate the economic and, where possible, political integration;
   2. to conduct immediately, an Audit of the Executive Council in terms of Article 10 of the Constitutive Act, the Commission as well as the other organs of the African Union in accordance with the Terms of Reference adopted by the 10th Extraordinary Session of our Executive Council held in Zimbali, South Africa on 10 May 2007;
   3. to establish a ministerial Committee to examine the following:
      1. identification of the contents of the Union Government concept and its relations with national governments;
      2. identification of domains of competence and the impact of the establishment of the Union Government on eh sovereignty of member states;
      3. idefinition of the relationship between the Union Government and the Regional Economic Communities (RECs),
      4. elaboration of the road map together with timeframes for establishing the Union Government; and
      5. identification of additional sources of financing the activities of the Union.
3. The outcome of the audit and the work of the Ministerial Committee will be submitted to the Executive Council, to make appropriate recommendations to the next ordinary session of our Assembly.
4. We agree on the importance of involving the African Peoples, including Africans in the Diaspora, in the process leading to the formation of the Union Government.

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