Of the many grandiose projects that have emanated from the fevered brain of Muammar Gaddafi, perhaps the most ambitious was the United States of Africa.

Although dismissed by many as hopelessly impracticable, the project recently showed signs of life when African Union officials met at the AU’s headquarters in Ethiopia for preliminary talks around the establishment of the African Union Authority.

This institution would replace the AU Commission in its present form so that the countries of Africa could fall under a single unity government.

The timing of this decision is interesting, to say the least, considering that the architect of the “USA” is currently waging war against his own population while NATO warplanes circle somewhat impotently overhead.

However, analyst Francis Ikome has pointed out that the idea is not original to Gaddafi, but was first mooted in the 1960s.

“I would want to imagine that the message they would want to send is that continental integration will not stop all of a sudden just because Gaddafi is no longer there,” he was quoted as saying by CBS News.

Ignore for the moment the obvious difficulties that stand in the way of implementing the “USA”. The advantages that such a dispensation would bring are equally obvious: Harmonisation of regulations would at last be possible; the growing problem of cross-border fraud would become a thing of the past; overloading discrepancies between countries could be rooted out; and last but not least, waiting times at borders posts would be cut down drastically.

It remains to be seen whether the vision of unity will be achieved, whether in the form of the “USA” or a less grandiose arrangement such as a continental free trade and customs agreement.

Leaders have been known to say one thing and do another. But hope springs eternal.

Now may well be the time that the African Union decides to stop acting as a Dictators’ Club and fulfil its mandate to serve the aspirations of its stakeholders: the citizens of Africa.

Greg Penfold

Ed’s Note