United States of Africa a waste of time

From: Peter Otieno

I pity those who are dreaming that Africa will ever become one political entity. Alot of bad things have happened since the times of the likes of Kwame Nkrumah, and if they were to rise back to life today, they would faint at the level of corruption in Kenya and Nigeria; foreign induced poverty in Zimbabwe; conflict and hunger in Darfur, Somalia, Darfur, Chad and the DRC. They might even change their minds.

If the continent was to become a unified economy, with free borders and custom unions etc; it will mean that some countries who have struggled so hard to put their house in order will have to bear the burden of laziness, ethnic hate, religious intolerance, mungiki, hunger, corruption and raw ambition brewed outside their borders! If Somalis have destroyed their own country due to stupid clanism, who do they want to load that burden on? Look at Darfur, southern Sudan, parts of Ethiopia etc. that have suffered decades of neglect by their own greedy rulers.

A country like Tanzania that has managed to at least reduce official corruption, maintain peace amidst want will now have to shoulder the irresponsibility of the Nigerian oil wars?

Africa can do flourishing inter-country business with well negotiated trade tariffs and customs regulations as well as facilitative import/export tax regimes without necessarily becoming one political federation.

WADAGI. WATANG URU NE JIRENDEWA MA OSIKO CHANDOWAGI.