By William Naggaga
In 1980, African heads of State and government, meeting in Lagos Nigeria, adopted the Lagos Plan of Action to galvanise the development and integration of the continent.
Negotiations for this plan took almost two years in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and I was privileged to be involved in the process as first secretary for economic affairs at Uganda’s Embassy in Addis Ababa.
The embassy was accredited to the Organisation of African Unity and the UN Economic Commission for Africa – the two bodies that provided the technical back up to the negotiations. The Lagos Plan of Action envisaged an economic integration process that would be completed by the year 2000, leading to political unity and the possible formation of a single continental government.
This, in retrospect, was too ambitious and unrealistic on our part as drafters of the plan. I don’t believe the leaders who committed themselves to the programme reflected seriously on what was required from them to realise its objectives.
The Final Act of Lagos, which was appended to the Lagos Plan of Action, was emphatic that by the year 2000, a new Africa would be born out of the disunity often blamed on colonialism.
There were stages African countries were to go through before the birth of the African Union.
They had to strengthen the various sub-regional economic organisations, leading to the creation of the African Economic Community. The plan also provided for infrastructural developments as well as the free movement of people and goods across borders.
Africa had committed itself to do in 20 years what has taken over 50 years for the European Union to evolve into what it is today!
There are many reasons why the Lagos Plan of Action went into ‘slumber’. Africa suffers a major governance and democracy deficit. It is a continent where most leaders are totally unaccountable to the people. Corruption is endemic and important national institutions, which would have been the bedrock for integration, have been turned into objects to serve the interests of the ruling regimes instead of the countries.
Elections in most countries leave a lot to be desired, as State machineries ensure that sitting leaders or their chosen successors are elected to office. Only roughly 10 out of 54 African countries have had truly free and fair elections in the last two decades.
Implementation of the Lagos Plan also required a lot of resources, which most African leaders hoped would come as aid from the donor countries; while they continued stealing their own resources.
In the case of the Lagos Plan of Action, aid was not forthcoming from the donors as the creation of an economically strong African bloc was not necessarily in their interest.
Africa was the only continent with huge reservoirs of raw materials, which the West (and now the East – in particular China) badly needed for sustenance of their economies. To help Africa exploit these resources for its own good is certainly not one of their priorities. Besides, they have seen a lot of the aid stolen.
The creation of a political union also suffered from the “two tendencies” in the late 1990s – with a group led by the late Col Muammar Gaddafi of Libya seeking immediate unification and another group led by President Yoweri Museveni advocating a gradual process of integration, starting with the sub-regional, and regional integration.
Gaddafi’s approach reflected his impatience with his colleagues who were moving deliberately slowly out of fear of losing their sovereignty. President Museveni’s approach was more practical, though when it came to the East African Community federation, he adopted the Gadddafi approach, calling for fast-tracking the federation.
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