CAN WE HAVE A SINGLE GOVERNMENT FOR AFRICA?

Kwame Nkrumah's dream of a single African government will not ever come about, for a number of reasons. I have listed what I think are some major factors which would prevent a single African government.

1) Cultural differences - cultural differences would play a huge role in preventing the creation of a single African government. For example, compare the daily life for the average Ghanaian citizen with that of the average South African, Togolese or Nigerian. Just that alone would make it almost impossible to impose a single government. Take into account religious differences, and a whole can of worms have just been opened. It's true that there are many multi-cultural countries exist all over the world today, but nothing today even compares to the scale of differences that would exist in a single African government.

2) Egos & Sovereignty - nobody wants to be swallowed up by a new or foreign sovereignty. The English speaking countries don't want to be French speaking countries. The Ghanaians don't want to be Nigerians. In fact, worldwide struggles like this occur even today. Just look at the Nigeria-Cameroonian conflict or, to a lesser extent, the move for independence within the state of Nigeria. After all this fighting for sovereignty rights, do you really think Nigerians would give up her right to rule as she pleases? Can Libya and Egypt really be ruled under the same government? Surely if peace has been so fleeting in the Middle East, single rule over the entire region would only prove to exacerbate it.

3) Nationalism - although this is somewhat the same as point 2, this has a different point altogether. Nationalism has proven to be a strong worldwide force. "Nations" generally wish to have their own state, for the purposes of promoting and protecting their cultural heritage, as well as deciding for themselves which laws and policies to enact. Nationalism over the past century has actually led to an increase in the number of nations worldwide. If this trend continues, there will not be a single African government, but quite the opposite in fact; there will be many more, smaller governments.

4) The Fall of Empires - all empires fall. It's been proven time and time again throughout history. Sometimes the empires fall into oblivion, such as with the Greeks and Romans, and sometimes the empires crumble into a much humbler entity, such as with the British Empire. Regardless, they all fall. A single African empire would have so many enemies within, it would be impossible to fight them all. No matter how strict and careful the government is to weed out extremist opposition, the state would never be safe.

5) Democratic Problems - representative democracy is the corner stone of the Western governments. That is, the West would refuse to enter an institution without a clear democracy set up. Assuming that the other nations in Africa were to agree to a single democratic institution, the West would still refuse to deal with the single government because it would give excuse that Ghana is not fully represented because Nigerians are ten times over populated than Ghana. Nigerians alone has 1.3 billion people, while Ghana is around 20 million people. These numbers would assure that the Nigerians would rule the state. Would Egyptians really give its sovereignty away to Nigeria? Ghanaians to the Zimbabweans?

These 5 problems are just some of the reasons why there will never be a single African government. And while we all try to increase the amount of global co-operation, the ineffectiveness of the United Nations, specifically, and other global initiatives more generally, have proven that the World is not ready, nor willing to accept, a single government on a continent especially in Africa.

Author: Paul Rex Danquah
East London
Development / Ghana / Africa / Modernghana.com