Nigeria absent as AU tackles rift over 'African govt.'
- The Guardian
DIVISIONS over a proposed "African government" were being thrashed out yesterday at a summit in Sirte, Libya, where the continent's leaders again vowed not to cooperate with a global court in its drive to apprehend Sudan's Head of State over alleged war crimes against the country's black population at Darfur.
Leaders from nearly half of the African Union's (AU's) 53 members were in attendance, with Egypt, Nigeria and Angola among those most notably absent. The summit is scheduled to end today.
Libyan leader Moamar Gaddafi again pressed for a powerful new continental authority as the summit got under way.
The leaders agreed earlier in February to create an AU Authority that would centralize the executive powers of the 53-member bloc, but Gaddafi is pushing to grant the new body sweeping powers over defence, trade and foreign relations.
The continent's biggest economy, South Africa, as well as top oil producers Nigeria and Angola, are opposing Gaddafi and arguing for a more gradual approach to integration.
"Everyone is very angry. We're not sure how it will end up," an agency report quoted a diplomat as saying.
It was only the latest move by the Libyan leader to rankle the visiting leaders at the summit in his hometown of Sirte, which has been decked out in twinkle lights, lit-up plastic trees and laser shows for the occasion.
Gaddafi extended a surprise invitation to Iran's hardline leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to address the summit, only for Tehran to cancel the trip at the last minute without explanation.
Delegates complained they had not been consulted, did not all support the invitation, and feared the Iranian visit would overshadow the meeting's official agenda, which is supposed to focus on agricultural investments.
A draft of the AU resolution said the Pan-African bloc would not cooperate with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague over its indictment of Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and arrest warrant for him over atrocities in Darfur.
Gaddafi also unexpectedly proposed tough measures on the ICC that would limit cooperation with it for countries that already have treaty obligations to the court.
"Some countries that sympathise with Sudan say the ICC is targeting only certain people," said one southern African diplomat.
"We are saying, look at the merits of the ICC and each country can make a self-assessment," he added.
Bashir is at the summit, pushing for a suspension of the warrant.
The African leaders also must confront the political and armed conflicts roiling the continent, most dramatically in Somalia, where Islamist insurgents launched an offensive against the internationally-backed government nearly two months ago.
But in Ghana, former Lagos State Governor Bola Tinubu has pushed for the integration of African economies through the private sector, as recipe for development on the continent.
He spoke in Accra as guest of a Ghanaian monarch, Togbe Afede Agbogbomefia XIV, the paramount ruler of Asogli traditional area in the country's Volta region.
Both host and guest agreed on the urgency of linking the private sectors of African countries, especially Nigeria and Ghana, to drive the economy, open up employment opportunities and deliver prosperity.
The Togbe admitted Ghanaians were always uneasy about the size of Nigeria but cautioned that such fears were unwarranted, since a prosperous Ghana, with thriving industries, needed the giant African country's huge market. Nigeria too could do with the best in Ghanaian manpower, he stressed.
"What runs through the likes of India and China, two countries making huge progress in today's global economy, is that size matters in globalisation," he said, stressing that it was time Africans converted their huge populations into markets to service locally produced goods rather than depend on imports from Europe, Asia and America.
The monarch, who recently facilitated a U.S.$ 660 million 550 megawatt independent power investment in Ghana and secured a licence to build a World Trade Centre (WTC) facility on the Accra shoreline, said he looked forward to the day when the whole of the West African coastline would be a bustling tourism haven.
Responding, Asiwaju Tinubu congratulated the Togbe both on the WTC award and the power project. He told the monarch that he (Asiwaju) was a WTC award winner in the category of public enterprise.
He also recalled how he, as governor of Lagos, pioneered the independent power project (IPP) which he regretted was frustrated by politics. He said he shared the Togbe's dream but suggested the private sector should take the lead.
His words: "There are too many tariffs tailored towards growing government revenue rather than developing the economy, which is an irony. The mistake is to wait for the government to drive the integrated economy.
Tinubu called for synergy between Nigeria and the rest of West Africa. He said the economy would begin to boom when the private sector in various countries are able to collaborate on rail, road and electricity projects, adding that electricity was the most important invention in the last 1,000 years.
Nigeria absent as AU tackles rift over 'African govt.' 
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