Union Government of Africa

Abstract

This chapter captures the road map to date of the AU’s drive toward political and economic integration of the eight constitutive Regional Economic Communities (RECs) of the African continent into a Union Government of Africa. Following the Grand Debate on the Union Government that took place at the Ninth Ordinary Session of the Assembly of AU Heads of State and Government (or Summit) held in July 2007 in Accra, the AU Chairperson and President of Ghana, John Kufuor, appointed a High Level Panel of experts chaired by Adebayo Adedeji to review the state of the union. The prime purpose was to assess and chart the way toward this union government, with terms of reference chiefly to “evaluate the African economic and political integration agenda and existing ongoing reviews on political integration by the AU Commission as well as other AU Organs and the RECs.”¹ A June 2006 study² published on the subject by the AU had already laid sufficient groundwork for this High Level Panel to build on.