1. Africa Day; Ghana Decides 2012 and Ghana’s place
in it
By E.K.Bensah Jr
At the beginning of May, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration issued a release to the
Ghanaian media, which sought to underscore the sector-Ministry’s continued engagement with African
integration initiatives, such as those of ECOWAS and the African Union, which will be celebrating its
tenth anniversary this September.
One of the objectives of the release was to equally-emphasize how committed the ministry continues to
be in its engagement with the sub-region, through ECOWAS, and the AU. That Africa Day and ECOWAS
Day are celebrated on 25 and 28 May respectively made it timely and necessary to remind Ghanaians
about the symbolism behind the declaration of May as “Regional Integration Month.”.
What has happened since the release
Since the statement, there has been scant regard to ECOWAS and AU matters in the media. Much has
happened within and outside Africa, including the election of President-elect of France Francois
Hollande; the dispatching of 300 UN observers to Syria; a G8 meeting to which both the AU Chair—
Benin President Yaya Boni—and President Mills were both invited. Also in the news was the rise of the
dollar and how that negatively impacts the cedi. Finally, there was a call by the Minister of Trade and
Industry Hanna Tetteh on EU day for Ghana to sign the Economic partnership agreements—despite the
fact that she has publicly supported the establishment of an ECOWAS Solidarity Fund. Regrettably, even
news of Mali has fallen off behind the headlines—all prompting speculation about the lack of a
coordinated response by the media in general and ministry of foreign affairs and regional integration in
particular around ECOWAS and AU matters.
In my view, here’s how the aforementioned developments could have played out.
First the election of Hollande as French president could have brought out the media-shy and Accrabased ECOWAS agency –tasked with the oversight of criteria for the six West Africa Monetary Zone
countries (Ghana; Guinea; the Gambia; Nigeria; Sierra Leone; and Liberia) and the establishment of the
“Eco” common currency – also known as the West Africa Monetary Institute (located at the TettehQuarshie interchange, on the Gulf House compound) to intensify its engagement with the media on
what the election of Hollande might mean to Francophone African relations, especially the CFA, which
the WAMZ countries have planned to merge with the CFA by 2015, when Hollande will still be in office!
Even if the media might have had their attentions deflected by all the usual politicking, the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration could have facilitated this. After all, these are very topical issues
that merit thought, consideration, and some long-term thinking and planning by this Ministry!
Second, the dispatching of 300 UN observers to Syria might have prompted the Ministry to come out
with some significant latitude to beef up ECOWAS and AU matters. Whether we like it or not, the fact
remains that ECOWAS was able to mobilize and send a standby force to Guinea-Bissau—as per its
resolutions, and delivered even on a defined date of 18 May. While not all ECOWAS member states
contributed, that there are no less than five countries speaks to ECOWAS’s resolve to nip the GuineaBissau conflict in the bud. Conversely, both the Arab League and the Gulf Cooperation Council have not
had the testicular fortitude to deal with the Syrian crisis in the manner in which ECOWAS has done by
1

2. sending troops. UN observers are a far cry from a standby force comprising civilian police and military
elements. The ministry seems to have forgotten that the AU has an African Peace and Security
Architecture(APSA), through which regional standby forces, such as ECOWAS, are able to deploy troops
totalling 6500 troops in total. The Arab League was established in 1945—some thirty years before
ECOWAS—yet has not been able to establish a similar structure for its grouping. These developments, in
my view, are the kind of developments that ought to serve as fodder to the naysayers of African
integration to chew and mull over.
Third, the G8 meeting to which both the AU Chair—Benin President Yaya Boni—and President Mills
were both invited. Elsewhere, a suchlike meeting might have prompted reflections on why Ghana and
the AU was invited—but not the AU. There are groups in this country, such as the Ghana Trade
Livelihoods Coalition that are working with the grassroots to promulgate the ECOWAP, or regional
agricultural policy for ECOWAS. The AU has its own NEPAD-supported Comprehensive Africa Agriculture
Development Programme—which Ghana signed to in October 2009, becoming the 10 th country to do so.
The Ministry, surely, could have used the opportunity to raise awareness of the impact of CAADP on
Ghana’s agricultural policy, long before Farmer’s Day in December!
In 2009, in his capacity as a “Do More Talk Less Ambassador” of the 42 nd Generation—an NGO that promotes and
discusses Pan-Africanism--Emmanuel gave a series of lectures on the role of ECOWAS and the AU in facilitating a
Pan-African identity. Emmanuel owns "Critiquing Regionalism" (http://www.critiquing-regionalism.org).
Established in 2004 as an initiative to respond to the dearth of knowledge on global regional integration initiatives
worldwide, this non-profit blog features regional integration initiatives on MERCOSUR/EU/Africa/Asia and many
others. You can reach him on ekbensah@ekbensah.net / Mobile: 0268.687.653.
2