Time is Ripe for East African Unity
Despite several attempts at cover-up, it is emerging clearly that Ethiopia is in the grip of a civil war. After several months of fighting secessionist forces in the Tigray region, the country`s economy has been battered, many people displaced and a looming humanitarian crisis is inevitable. Across the world, media pictures of thousands of government troops captured by the Tigray Liberation force amidst reports that the government has withdrawn its forces from the rebellious region have been beaming. This is shattering to the aspirations of a country that in the recent past has been one of the fastest-growing economies on the African continent. Recently while addressing parliament the Ethiopian Prime Minister Ahmed Abiy was blunt on the way forward. He came to power on a platform of reform, and courtesy of this, the country has witnessed liberalization in its economic policies and increased democratic space.
The Prime Minister said that the country had lost infrastructure worth about USD 2.7B and in light of the current realities several austerity measures have to be taken. Among them is that half of the over 60 embassies the country has abroad have to be closed down. His preference is that rather than have an ambassador sitting in say Nairobi Kenya whose work who will be required to meet the Kenyan foreign minister once or twice a year, then draw huge allowances, it was better to just keep a consulate and have the ambassador at home and only travel to the designated country when need arises. On the cabinet he says, as a poor African country, he would prefer cabinet ministers drive themselves around town. “Why keep a driver”, he posed? According to him the job requires one to roll up their sleeves, put on their mud boots and immerse themselves into the demanding job. He quips that as a poor country some things are a luxury. It is not the first time the premier has said it. Around the year 2019, he alluded to similar sentiments saying that if we have signed a pact with our neighbors not to ever go to war with them, then it is more economical to just have one army serving both countries ie, Ethiopia and Djibouti. This is to be despite his country, due to their communist background having one of the largest army in terms of personnel on the African continent. On the issue of diplomatic representation, Mr. Abiy says there is need for African countries especially those from one region to find ways of just having one shared office abroad at the same time keep one common ambassador as well. Earth-shattering statements from an African head of state.
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| The East African Community founding Presidents from Left; Dr. Milton Obote of Uganda, Mzee Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya and Mwalimu Julius Nyerere of Tanzania |
These sentiments are part of the thinking that informed the creation of the East African Community an organization founded with the aim of helping realize faster development of the region’s member countries and delivery of common services at an affordable cost. This dream however was curtailed due to the ideological differences between the then leadership towards the late 70s, a decision that was not driven by popular demand from the common citizenry. In any case, the citizens of the countries have continued to foster brotherhood, good neighborliness and closer ties in their own way irrespective of the opinion of the administration of the day. They have continued to intermarry, pay each other visits, carry out joint business ventures and generally trade with each other as though there are no boundaries despite the barriers being constantly erected by their governments. They have not been deterred by sentiments from their top leadership which appear to betray this spirit. The East African Community resuscitated in the early 90s remains an important cogwheel for the economic progress of the region`s citizens. The top leadership has realized that what binds their people goes beyond their rhetoric and is much stronger. Therefore, trying to protect each country`s nationalistic ideals leaves East African citizens too exposed to the vagaries of disunity in a very competitive world. The strong feelings of being one have remained. Whether the then polarized world of capitalism and communist ideas is what led to the breakup or countries feeling betrayed by the other remains a question for another day. What remains critical is that unity is needed now and not later.
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| East African Community Headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania |
Language, being a very vital uniting factor, could help accelerate this endeavor. The majority of the people in this region stretching all the way south from Tanzania to Somalia in the north and across from Kenya to DRC Congo can speak Kiswahili. As it is now, national boundaries appear to be barriers that are a nuisance to people who long for the day they will become a thing of the past. Not only have tribes been separated by these artificial divides but also families. One classic example to cite here is the case of a famous family whose members are settled on both sides of the Kenyan and Ugandan border. At one time, the two blood brothers, whose nationalities belonged to either country, served as cabinet members in their respective countries at the same time.
Regional unity and eventually becoming a federation comes with its own merits acruing from economies of scale. Currently, each of the individual countries cannot successfully set up certain enterprises which need a large customer base. There is much benefit to be enjoyed from the large population within the region. This can go a long way to aid in the setting up of strategic corporations like national airlines, railway corporations, energy supply companies, etc. which require large sums of capital and a huge customer base to offer affordable services while remaining viable. Each country bearing its smaller consumer base size has not been successful in setting up profit-making ones leave alone being able to break even. In most EAC countries, if not all, these important economic setups are either making losses or on the verge of collapse. If running, then offering services that are too costly to afford for the majority of the citizens, most of whom are poor and are either heavily subsidized by the government or frequently being bailed out. For a long time, the six countries have been importing fertilizer as a farming input that otherwise can be locally produced. Local fertilizer manufacturing cannot be sustained because it is on seasonal demand and a single country cannot provide a large enough market for profitable business. This necessitates the need for the establishment of a single plant to effectively and efficiently serve the entire region. It is this sibling rivalry and individualistic planning that frustrates such efforts or generates duplicated effort that results in resource wastage. As long as the suspicion and unhealthy competition among the nations is not abandoned and joint planning adopted instead, this vicious cycle will be in place for quite a long time.
Considering the now expanded region comprising of the countries; South Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya and now the Democratic Republic of Congo, a huge consumer market will have been brought together. Using estimates for the year 2020, this region is home to about 283 million inhabitants with a combined GDP of about USD 286B. The DRC boasts the highest population with 87 million inhabitants and South Sudan having the least at 11 million. In terms of economic size Kenya is the largest with a GDP of USD 106B, while Burundi has the least at USD 3B. Without considering the purchasing power parity index, the combined effect results in a regional per capita income that qualifies the whole region in meeting the minimum requirements for being in the lower-middle-income economy status set by both the IMF and the World Bank. These kind of statistics would make economic sense to external investors. Any manufacturer setting up base regionally would have some certainty of realizing profits and eventually able to compete on the international stage.
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| EAC Logo |
To the common citizen, not much progress seems to have been made towards a united East Africa beyond the creation of a legislature, a court and the traditional budget reading on the same day. One would wish to see some efforts towards joint economic planning since this would realize tangible results. One case in point is the instance of the recent discovery of commercially viable oil deposits in Uganda and Kenya while Tanzania has petroleum gas. Rather than have Uganda and Kenya each putting up its own refinery, it would save the region on costs if both countries pull in joint efforts and build one in a location to serve the region while Tanzania seeks to enhance its gas marketing and distribution efforts regionally and for export too. The current scenario where each is seeking to serve self-interests will soon haunt the region leading to a very expensive overhaul of the infrastructure. Currently, one can see individual planning and lone ranger efforts reflected in each country`s projects that include railways, sea-ports both on the Indian Ocean and Lake Victoria shorelines, construction of international airports and to some extent road construction. Just like the African Union has identified that jointly well-planned infrastructure is a key component for faster development on the continent, so should the EAC establish such a department that would help countries to also jointly plan for the benefit of all. This would greatly help in retracing the way back to what the founders had in mind when coming up with this grand idea of an East African community.
Nations working as a team is not limited to Africa alone. In the early 1970s, this EAC model was working so well that Europe borrowed a leaf from them to form their current union. In developed Europe, there is only one plane manufacturing plant — Airbus. This thinking would eliminate the need for each country to set up its vehicle manufacturing plant etc. The common citizens having led the way at the grassroots level can in some way push for their leaders to work towards faster integration. Our unity should not be dependent on what the personal opinion of the occupier of the highest office in the land is about the EAC, but rather on what the majority want to achieve. The answer to our faster growth lies in numbers which is what is making China experience the rapid growth we are witnessing. Without them, we cannot move as fast as we would wish even if we duplicated their economic model in our countries.
The ability to do better is there and the opportunities have been presented to us. Citizens are already ahead of the pack. Good examples are already in place. There is an East African Court, a Legislature, a Common chamber of trade and commerce, and a common-law society just to mention a few. Some home-grown businesses have already spread through the region doing business against all odds simply because of having a vision and determination. There is a lot of cross border trade that would even thrive further were it not for the many government barriers both legal and non- legal. Working as a bloc, the countries can have a shared representative office saving on costs of each deploying an ambassador in foreign countries such as Brazil, Russia and Spain but only keep skeletal staff in a shared office to serve matters that particularly concern that nation. The matter of a joint military can be explored further for the benefit of all. The more there is delay the more the countries will continue to draw apart rendering the unity agenda more challenging. Individually apart each is too weak to move fast enough towards the set development goals. Unity and formation of regional blocks is the answer to survival in this fast-shrinking world.
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