The March to the United States of Africa

A Need or a Luxury Part 3

Kojo Tamakloe

It is said “United we stand , divided we fall”. In today’s world we see the power of the United States of America. It is the leading economy of the world . There are other strong nations like Canada, and the European Union . All have large land masses and people . Their rise to prominence was more through a foundation built out of slavery , exploitation or feudalism . On the other hand we have countries like the former Soviet Union and China of today that have emerged as powerful nations who at the beginning of the last century were poverty stricken and mostly peasants. Others emerging as well are Brazil, India, Russia , the leading member state of the Soviet Union is still strong and not very much affected by the 2008 collapse of the world’s economy

The question is how did they do it and are there any lessons to be learnt?

In Nkrumaism we have a philosophical but scientific ideology . The idea of the unity of the persons of African origin , proud of the heritage and hence thinking , acting, and “ being African” then takes center stage . In this we have a “ pragmatic approach” That way, Africans will free themselves from rigid ideological leanings to accept the principle of what works . We need to go back to the principle of “ non alignment” . “ What are Africa’s permanent interests and our allies should not be doctrinal but based on who or what can best be utilized to achieve our goals . That is the scientific aspect of it . Science is not based on ideology but on what, who, when and how things work . Through science we define our goals emanating from our vision

The vision , “The Better African “ can best be achieved through a Union . Fifty years on and we are still paupers . This is a scientific fact . Gambia with a population of 1.7 million has a land space of 10 sq miles , can they have an aircraft factory and can they compete with the USA with a population of over 300 million . Can they produce all their needs ? Is it possible for Gambia to industrialize? Multiply this all through Africa , Lesotho, Swaziland, Malawi, Botswana, Burundi, Rwanda, Benin, Togo , not to talk of countries like Chad and Niger . Even Libya with a large land mass of mostly desert but with a population of only 5 million and one can easily see the futility of our individualistic efforts

Africa has a land mass of 1,160,800 sq miles or 3,006,500 sq km . Its population is over 1 billion now and growing . It has the highest unemployment rate , which means there are resources lying idle . The question is how do we employ these to achieve the aim of our founding fathers ?

Africa’s Resources 1. Fertile Lands , from tropical forests to savannah with enough rainfall all year round

Sunshine most of the year round as most countries are around or near the Equator that should augur well for agriculture and crop diversity

2.Oil for energy Sudan of which 40% is owned by China . Then we have others like Nigeria, Libya, Angola, Gabon, Equatorial guinea, Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia, now Ghana and Uganda

3. Copper Uganda, Zambia, Congo

4. Diamond Sierra Leone, South Africa, Botswana, Angola,

5 .Bauxite Ghana and Guinea

6.Fresh water . There are Large rivers , the Nile, the Congo, the Zambezi, the Volta, and lakes and dams ,Lake Victoria, the Aswan dam and Volta dam

7.Large tracts of Forest with flora for medicine and others just to mention a few

8 Natural beauty habitats for Flora and fauna , water falls, different animals,

9 Beaches for tourism

10 Variety of cultures , with the music, dances, clothing

11 Human Resource 50 years ago we did not have this but now we have , from heart surgeons performing heart transplants on this continent before others and scientists like Prof Ahulu Konotey and the Kludjes of NASA .

I am sure all can see what a disgrace it is that we have to go begging and aborrowing

So what is our problem? We have identified external interference , ideological baggage but a lot depends on our leadership and corruption . They have failed us terribly. Fellow Africans , what could we not have done with all we have . Other countries and continents have far less but have done a lot better .

This is election year and we should look hard at our leadership profiles and the kind of utterances by their followers . Let us not put in people who have no forward vision but want to go back into their tribal enclaves , who preach xenophobia, and tribal division , utter gender incentives items , fill the columns with divisionism ,filling the airwaves with insults instead of solutions

The CPP and its allies must come up and use state resources to stimulate the economy and creating jobs and not be afraid to confront noise from the other side about social democracy . The so called free enterprise is on the rocks. It has not produced a single developed nation in the last 50 years . Africa needs to follow the scientific socialism as propounded by the progressives led by Dr Kwame Nkrumah

Forward ever , backward never . Osagyefo never dies

The writer Kojo Tamakloe is a Pan Africanist and Nkrumaist who believes the solution to Africa’s underdevelopment lies in the application of Nkrumaism