'EAC-mania' Obsession and haste towards a monetary/political union. Sentiments of a sceptic
When cautioning against the haste to
stardom, former British PM Tony Blair once said that: “ ... history [...] is littered
with [...] those who were supposed to be rising stars and ended up being
shooting stars"
I had a brief stint with the
Secretary General of the East African Community – Dr Richard Sezibera on
twitter a few days ago. Well it began as a polite fair response to what I thought
was an overly optimistic and misleading tweet, but it degenerated into a back
and forth that I honestly didn’t expect. Dr. Sezibera (rightfully) sought to ‘sex-up’
the morale of his constituency of ‘EAC-maniacs’ to accelerate the integration
process: the commitments and milestones towards a monetary union and political federation. My response was a patriotic
constructive piece of criticism that I hoped could jog the good Doctor’s mind.
However what ensued was a PR flair of defence and apologetics some of which
bordered sheer defeatism devoid of substance and reason; obviously away from
the object of my tweet. Dr. Sezibera went on to question my allegiance to the ‘East
African nation’, beating the EAC drum a tad bit too loud and irking my already
uncomfortable psyche and unsettled opinion about the ongoing EAC integration
process that he presides over.
Nonetheless as a student of
multilateralism and global governance, I elected to free myself of the yokes of
semantics and sentimentalism on social media and today I bare a few realities
about the East African Integration project that could benefit others willing to
listen.
Foremost, I am in principle
against the shuttling of East Africans into a monetary union and an even more
laughable political federation that they are largely ignorant about and have
not given their consent to. However, I favour the galvanization of the Common
Market Protocol and the Customs Union to promote more trade, greater movement
of goods, persons and services across the region which of course can thrive
without the sharing of a singular currency or existing within a common
political boundary.
Dr Ssezibera and Co. have failed
to lobby the ‘EAC-sceptics’ in the region (especially elements in Tanzania)
that continue to frustrate the implementation of the Common Market Protocol,
yet they are wetting their appetites for a monetary and political union. Indeed
folly is superficial to many yet not obvious as well to many alike. I mean you
cannot muster the muscle and apparatus to reign in states to implement a
customs union yet you yap so invariably about accelerating towards a more
onerous ‘United States of East Africa’.
Like a friend of mine brazenly puts
it: ‘There are a few people; a few tattered despots here in East Africa
threatened by the expanding democratic space in their states who sleep and
dream of controlling the economic and political trajectories of the region
without legitimate mandate.’ The sound of ‘President of the East African
Community’ must be music to their ears. These are the folks hell bent on
creating a union of East African States without substance, will or plan for the
regions prosperity but to gratify their perverse appetites for political power
and economic imperialism. The problem I have with folks in
Africa is the obsession with ‘ape-manship’. People are too fond of copying and
pasting things they stumble upon elsewhere across the globe without paying sufficient
attention to the contextualities (if there is a word like that) of sometimes
very noble initiatives – the East African Community is classic example.
There are pertinent issues
regarding the manner in which the integration process is being handled that are
not right yet are being effectively swept under the carpet by the secretariat
and the project’s other apologisers that I will not falter to point out:
I – Suspicion and Mistrust amongst partner states
It is suspicion and mistrust that
indeed hamstrung and sent the defunct EAC to its grave. Those ills are alive
today, and maybe even more pronounced by the recent oil and natural gas finds
in Kenya Uganda and Tanzania. If it is not Tanzanians perennially
scared of the ultra-capitalistic demeanour of Kenyan entrepreneurs and
investors, it is the worry of political instability and lack of a sufficient threshold
of commonality in political ideals (may be there isn’t any distinctive political
ideology anyway). If it is not the fear of marginalised constituencies in
smaller partner states concerned about their likely domination in the EAC it is
the more financially apt states whining about the likelihood of partner states
like Rwanda and Uganda with huge domestic debt portfolios transmitting fiscal
trouble.
The suspicions range from socio-cultural,
to economic, political and legal uncomfortabilties that the secretariat itself
already commissioned a study and complied a report with a plethora of fears
expressed by citizens yet so little has been done to address them. Nonetheless
in the words of Dr. Ssezibera ‘we must run where others are walking’ towards
the ultimate – the monetary and political union.
II –
Deficits of democracy and national authority
Nigel Farage, Leader of UK Independence Party (UKIP) perpetually roars the ills of hurling
Britain into the EU in the European parliament and his fears are genuine. Fears
that East Africans are entitled to learn. He argues that with multilateralism comes
the cessation of natural authority; certain sovereignties are obviated and
critical autonomies curtailed. Yet the multilateral frameworks so created are
run by entities recruited outside the confines of conventional democratic processes
like universal suffrage. They are normally a construction of handpicked
technocrats with no public mandate whatsoever who wield dangerous perverse
authority, antagonistic and disobedient of the civil liberties and aspirations
of ordinary citizens. Such frameworks and their managers are seldom accountable
to citizens.
And true to his word: look at the
two institutions that the EAC secretariat has so far successfully presided over
their building: the East Africa Legislative Assembly and the East Africa Court
of Justice. At what point in the process
did any East African state hold a referendum or carry out meaningful public consultation
to seek the opinion of citizens or their representatives on the conduct of
these institutions? The East Africa Legislative Assembly is the classic exemplification
of multilateral dictatorship and cronyism (I can speak authoritatively for
Kenya). Political parties handpicked losers (political rejects who had lost
elections elsewhere) based on their allegiance and patron client relationships
who were then seconded by a hangovered parliament to the regional assembly.
These are the same folks that will soon be handing down legislations (and
policy material) to poor ignorant East African citizens who barely know them
and their credentials.
“If you rob people of their identity, if you rob them of their demoracy;
all that they are left with is nationalism and violence. I can only hope that
the Europroject is destroyed by the markets before that happens” ~ Nigel Farage
(UKIP leader)
Look yonder: Greece is now being
governed by a troika, a bunch of fellows, technocrats who fly into Athens and
preside over the auctioning of the destiny of a people who were once the inventers
of modern democracy. Helpless Greeks watch as they are lectured by foreigners on
the character of government to have, and as the European Central Bank
arrogantly thrashes down their throats fiscal policies that are obviously out
of touch with their plight and aspirations. Yet they are bungled, unable to
cope with the outrageous austerity prescriptions handed down by Eurozone
big-boys and scared of the consequences of exiting the Eurozone in order to
autonomously operate a distinct currency and reengineer the political economy
of their country.
That is another awkward reality
that East Africans might find themselves in someday (god forbid) yet it is effectively
concealed from the common mwanainchi.
III – Eminent inequalities and lack of sufficient commonality in key
integration ingredients
East African states exist within
very divergent democratic and governance trajectories. To mean that there those
that have made considerable progress towards good governance, constitutionalism,
rule of law, democratic space and there are those who still have an appreciably
long way to go. The duty of marrying these polities and conglomerating their
unequal trajectories demands enormous capacity, political will and obligation
that have been undoubtedly deficient and the situation doesn’t look like
changing in the near future.
Then there is the thorny issue of
access to natural resources, some that are spatially concentrated in some
states like the unresolved issue of lake Victoria. Clearly there are marked
inequalities in endowment with natural resources which will hugely determine
the economic and political muscle of different partner states and tip the
balance of power in the coveted union.
These are but snippets of the
realities that confront the ambitious integration process that should keep the
secretariat busy; working on how to address within the framework of the Customs
Union even before thinking of greater unions. The need to build social cohesion
across the region; to manage power relations among partner states; enhance
legitimacy/credibility of the process itself through greater and more
meaningful citizen engagement; and to forestall an effective conflict
management mechanism cannot be overemphasised. If the intentions of the EAC are
as noble and genuine as they should obviously be, then the project deserves a
threshold of patience, tact and reason which the secretariat must accord it.
Like in my tweet I reiterate that ‘we’ must be ware not to manufacture another Euro-like
mishap in East Africa. ‘We must interrogate the events that led to
the demise of the defunct EAC, learn from the EU, SADC, ASEAN, NAFTA.
Unfortunately when i possed this suggestion Dr Sezibera's response was that we
must not focus out there because EAC is awesome
