Popular Participation and Africa's Development Agenda: Projecting a Citizen-Based United States of Africa

Abstract

The discourse on the formation of a Continental union government and subsequently, the United States of Africa (USA) is the most contemporary regional agenda in Africa. This is rooted in the Pan-African idea, which sought to promote the unity, solidarity and integration of African states as a basis of facilitating their development and gaining voice and power in the international arena. However, a major obstacle in the consummation of any union government agenda or United States of Africa is the active involvement of the people in the continental initiative and their ownership of it, without which the project cannot be enduring, sustainable and people-driven. If people are the means and the end of development, they should be in the foreground of Africa's regional economic and political integration project. The paper takes both a retrospective and a prospective view on the issue of popular participation in Africa's development agenda especially regarding the current discourse on a union government and the United States of Africa. The paper argues that while popular participation and citizen involvement was a major cliché and rallying point in the anti-colonial struggle, this has not been a reality in postcolonial governance. In fact, the continent is witnessing disengagement between state and society in national as well as regional development projects. For meaningful regional economic and political integration to take place in Africa, people must be made the focus of the debate, institutions, processes and policy agenda of the evolving regional integration architecture. This needs to extend beyond the current superficial engagement through the advisory organ of the Social, Economic and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC) of the African Union.