ZIVAI WARIKANDWA
It was Martin Luther King Jr who said: “We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.” More than ever, African states now need to pull together ideas and resources in dealing with the endemic challenges facing the continent.
When Greece fell into one of the worst economic crises of the modern era, many people probably felt that the end had indeed come. The intricate details of the crisis are perhaps not important now, but we must focus on how it was dealt with by the Greeks and the European Union in what was a great display of brotherhood and economic solidarity that SADC and the African Union may need to learn from.
The whole of Europe converged in Athens to rescue their ailing brother, and eight years on, Greece is officially out of recession and on a growth path.
It took a mammoth effort to save Greece. To date, the EU has advanced a whopping £227 billion (€260 billion) in recovery loans. In June, Klaus Regling, the managing director of the European Stability Mechanism, praised Greece’s strength and ability to endure austerity measures, and promised that the “EU won’t leave Greece alone. There is a long-term commitment to help more in the future, if Greece needs additional help.”
Humility pays
We must appreciate lessons from the words of Plato, the great philosopher, when he said: “There is no harm in repeating a good thing”.
The commitment made by the EU to save Greece must challenge the AU to consider using a similar model when dealing with similar situations in Africa.
Often at critical times, African states have failed to show a united front when dealing with conflicts and related challenges and this has led some people to query whether regional institutions such as SADC, Ecowas and others are indeed relevant after all.
It is high time that African states increased and strengthened integration and close cooperation.
There are currently six regional economic communities in Africa that form the “building blocks” of African integration.
The requisite platforms were set long back by the founding fathers of the African Union and it is essential that member states should implement what has been agreed on paper.
While the lack of resources is a hindrance in achieving the desired goals, a lot can still be done by the AU and the regional groups to reduce overdependence on foreign aid and ideas.
The migrant crisis in Libya and the Ebola outbreak in DR Congo should not be dealt with first by Brussels, but by Addis Ababa. Africa has the human resources and technical capacity to deal with its own challenges, but without increasing cooperation amongst African countries, little will be achieved.
It is therefore critical that we pull together and tighten the loose ends to ensure the African states overcome the various challenges they face. Africa cannot wait any longer, or continue to use the EU, America and China as economic and political consultants. By doing so the continent undermines its own capabilities and makes itself more vulnerable to “state” capture by foreign individuals and groupings.
Zivai Warikandwa is an Investment consultant at Towerscope Consultancy
Email: towerscopecons@gmail.com.
Disclaimer: this article is an opinion paper that simply expresses the views of the author and is not meant to replace academic journals or books.
