Why we must shut down Third Force

17 Jul, 2016 - 00:07 0 Views

The Sunday Mail

Insight
Howdy folks!
A lot has been happening locally and internationally, and those of us who ride horses can hardly pace up at times.

Shut your eyes for a minute, and you will wake up to an overwhelming catch-up. But some things are worth keeping one’s eyes glued on at all times.

Like the African Union Summit taking place in Rwanda, under the theme “2016: Year of Human Rights with a Particular Focus on the Rights of Women”.

Leaders from different African nations are discussing prospects of enhancing integration of the continent, partly through the establishment of a Continental Free Trade Area which will result in goods and services moving for free across any African border.

The AU passport will also be discussed as leaders aim to ensure free movement of Africans within the continent, without the barrier of a visa.

Just like it is in the European Union, a good devil’s advocate might quickly say.

And if the answer is yes; then the devil’s advocate’s likely follow up question might be: Why then did Britain deliberately exit the EU if that kind of integration is the perfect thing?

Well, enough of devilish overtones for now. The intention here is not to demonise African integration, but to humanise the people who may be negatively or positively impacted by it.

This Summit is happening at a time when members of the World Trade Organisation are rethinking this idea of regional trade agreements (RTAs) that result in the creation of trading blocs.

At its meeting last month, the organisation’s committee on RTAs discussed the impact of regional trade deals on the broader global trading system.

The Committee was apparently concerned about the proliferation of such RTAs, and how 72 of the RTAs currently in force have not been notified to the WTO.

However, the AU believes that the world is moving towards mega trading blocs that exclude Africa; and that the continent has to unite to form a common market to ensure the remnant preferential trade Africa enjoys at the moment is not further eroded.

But are we good to go just yet, or we have to get down to brass tacks?

Folks, the envisaged CFTA is a grouping of a number of existing trading blocs such as Sadc, Comesa and others.

And these blocs are still heavily dependent on “grants” from First World countries that rely on our raw materials to support their industrialisation agendas.

You see, there is a reason why former AU Chair President Mugabe emphasised that the continental body should be self-reliant. Comesa’s programmes, as a case in point, are 80 percent funded by co-operating partners.

It’s more or less the same with other trading blocs on the continent.

As you know that there is no such thing as free lunch, these funders always place conditions that only serve to achieve their selfish interests.

He who pays the piper, remember, calls the tune!

These funders are, therefore, the Third Forces that only exist to throw spanners in our quest progress.

We, therefore, cannot expect to successfully roll out a thriving CFTA without first shutting down and disinfesting ourselves from selfish Third Forces only seeking to milk African resources.

Africa has to first “emancipate herself from mental slavery”.

The problem with integration of this magnitude is the strong inclination and over-enthusiasm it imposes on implementing the future today, sometimes leaving us much poorer than anticipated.

We have countries that are at very different stages of development in Africa, and it may be different to impose common practices for 54 nations.

This is why Britons were compelled to vote against staying a day longer in the European Union.

Many citizens from poor EU members were proliferating to prospering Britain, until there was a lot of unsustainable competition for jobs and other resources in that country.

And Britain could not stop them from coming, given the commitments it had made under the EU protocols on free movement. Poor Britain had to get out of the EU at all costs.

If we are to bring that devil’s advocate again, he might want to know whether the same won’t happen once the AU passport is introduced.

Are we thinking beyond the impact of the likely floodgates in movements that might happen across countries on the continent? And won’t that result in conflicts that will further divide us, whereas we seek to simply unite?

We have had unfortunate incidents such as xenophobia in the recent past, and the nature of those conflicts is often traced right back to competition for resources amongst different nationalities in a certain locality.

Those painful questions were asked: “Why are you prospering in my country?”

“Hey, foreigner, why are you driving a better car, sending your children to elite schools, leaving in a leafy suburb in my country?”

Once questions of such calibre start to be asked by citizens of a certain country, then conflict will be only waiting to happen.

Other than that, we should also be well-prepared for the contagion effect that comes with integration that goes to the extent of adopting common practices.

When something bad happens in that kind of set-up, it affects everyone!

And the move to abolish duties and quotas may not be in the interest of many developing countries on the continent as they rely on them to protect their potential industries to grow and support their economies.

In Africa, much emphasis must be exerted on supporting the prosperity of nations, without interfering much with their sovereignty or the fundamentals that can support them to accelerate the growth of their economies.

They will have no problem in joining a TFTA once the levels of value addition within their economies are satisfactory and everyone is employed.

If Africa naively agrees to a CFTA without carefully interrogating the nitty gritty and giving further thought to its consequences to the peace and security of the continent, it might be walking into the subtle trap of the Third Forces.

The Third Forces will do anything to weaken us and we should be very aware of Trojan Horses at this point in time.

Is continental integration of this magnitude not a Western conspiracy designed to tear us apart, while they utilise the dust that conflicts raise to rob us, incognito, of our precious natural resources they so much envy and are willing to do anything to get?

Aspiration 6 of Agenda 2063 reads, “An Africa whose development is people-driven, relying on the potential of African people, especially its women and youth, and caring for children.”

Later folks!

Share This:

Survey


We value your opinion! Take a moment to complete our survey

This will close in 20 seconds