Dar es Salaam — After a long and strenuous tussle among 28 members of the Euro Zone on the economic bailout of their 29th member-state based in Athens, the people of Greece finally secured what can be equated to pulling a meat chunk from the Lion’s teeth.

Three months on, their economic life had come to the brink of total collapse. Bank doors had been shut leaving clients with limited daily ATM cash withdrawals. People had literally to choose between food and medicine. The banks are now open. Thanks to the European Central Bank (ECB) decision to provide the country with an additional Seven Billion Euro bailout after reaching an agreement within the zone.

Without having to recount the painful process that Athens had to go through, it would be proper for the governments and people constituting the current East African Community bloc to read the Euro Zone developments between the lines to enable their integration deliver the goods. For, what really matters at the end of the day would be the state of well-being of the people rather than the individual governments in power at the material time. Governments change but the people remain.

To the emerging economic blocs, particularly on the African continent, the EU has been something to model themselves upon. Some EU members have actually been supporting the formatting of these blocs, including the current East African Community.

Now here we were. The EU centre seemed could no longer hold. Athens reached the stage of not risking but rather facing a real Euro Zone exit. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) was virtually on the Greek people’s neck. Taxpayers of major creditor countries, like Germany, were feeling and saying enough is enough.

The Greek government found itself tempest-swept as Finance Minister quit. A referendum had to be made in which the people rallied themselves behind their Prime Minister. They accepted to suffer a little for their economic development. The Greek Prime Minister found himself having to reshuffle his Cabinet in order to carry the anticipated reforms through.

One leaf the Heads of State in the EAC should pick from this exercise is the question of making real consultations with the people. They should not lord it over. They should always seek the mandate of the people, who are the very beneficiaries of all that goes into policy and practice. But, in order to make good and right decisions, the people must be sensitized and educated on their economic grouping. How much of the usefulness of the EAC integration do the common people of Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda know?

On its integration roadmap, the EAC is looking forward to a common currency after having put in place a Customs Union and Common Market. This will not be the first time this is being done. Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda once used the East Africa shilling under the umbrella of the East African Currency Board (EACB). So, in a way, the region went a step backward.

The EU has already gone that far and has the Central Bank. What it is now lacking is the European Federal Government. For the EU to have full grips on the member countries’ socio, political and economic development policies and activities, it needs a government with binding laws. It is because of the absence of such an institution that the EU has failed miserably to act on issues like immigrants.

In this aspect, the EAC member countries must learn that to have the East African Legislative Assembly (EALA) in place is not enough. EALA should serve as a step towards rather than the end of law enacting in the sub-region. For this to have real meaning there is need for the Federal Government.

Short of that, this is why individual states still hold on to “illegal” immigrant cases alongside EAC provisions of “free movement of people, capital and labour.” Why are citizens of one member country finding themselves as refugees in another state? Why are refugee affairs involving people we could call internally displaced being forwarded to United Nations agencies before being tabled before EAC Heads of State?

If the original EAC (1967-1977) could have come to the level of a Federation, chances of its tragic death could have been warded off. The Federal Government could have dealt with malfunctioning social, economic and political developments in individual member states. This means the Uganda presidency could not have easily been toppled within the background of a Federal Government and a consequent Federal Army in place.

In a way, the people of East Africa must hold themselves to blame for some dysfunctional political developments that are taking place in their midst. It is in this aspect that one could recall and appreciate the late Mwalimu Julius Nyerere’s readiness to delay the independence of Tanganyika if this would have meant Mzee Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya and Dr. Milton Obote of Uganda coming on board for the formation of an East African Federation. More than five decades later we are now paying the price.

East Africans must remember that one of the reasons that killed the original EAC was the fact that The Authority could not meet. Which way are we going? Today, government ministers are already being trusted with Heads of State assignments, which they cannot, of course, carry through. What could have evolved out of the EU Finance Ministers worth the Greek bailout minus the Heads of State full involvement?

Source: All Africa

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