The 30th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of African Heads of State and Government met in Addis Ababa recently. It was attended by President Muhammadu Buhari. At the meeting, President Buhari asked African nations to take more seriously the need for the establishment of a Continental Free Trade Area, otherwise called “For Africa By Africa”. Nigeria’s position was in favour of the Report on the establishment of a Continental Free Trade Area and related issues presented by President Mahamadou Issoufou of Niger Republic, during the Ordinary
Session.
According to Buhari, Nigeria’s position is based on the fact that Nigeria believes that the establishment of a single, unified market in Africa will increase trade, create more jobs for the people and reduce poverty in the continent. According to him, “It is Nigeria’s position that as African leaders and principal architects of our union, we must now speed up action to conclude the negotiations and establish the CFTA”.
African heads of state missed the timeline set by the African Union in January 2012 to establish the CFTA in 2017. However, another opportunity will knock at their doors to set it up by March 2018. Justifying Nigeria’s vote for the CFTA, Buhari said, “In a rapidly changing global economy, with much uncertainty, we believe that the establishment of a CFTA would provide Africa with tremendous opportunity to achieve significant growth driven by intra-African trade”.
There is no doubting that Nigeria, through President Buhari, has spoken the minds of millions of Africans across the world. With Continental Free Trade Area in place, there will be more trade in goods and services among countries in Africa. The European Union is an economic block, The US, Canada and Mexico has NAFTA, while there are many other trade blocks like that across the world. A single, unified market would lead to a comprehensive and mutually beneficial trade agreement amongst African Union member states.
The President’s spokesman, Garba Shehu, rightly observed, “If we integrate Africa’s market for trade in goods and services, we will not only double intra-African trade, but also negotiate with other regions or continents on trade matters,”
He argued, “If we increase our trade, we grow faster, create more jobs and reduce poverty. Thus, with CFTA, our continent will be more integrated, united and prosperous”. Buhari also noted that the “CFTA will carry significant welfare gains associated with increased production, consumption and revenue. It will generate more economic growth; enhance efficiency and support enterprise and innovation”.
Beyond its economic benefits, the CFTA will also strengthen the unity among African countries and create a strong bond among the nations. The sporting relationship among African countries has over the years created a bond, but a trade block for African countries will create a bigger economic relationship and promote healthy competition for better products among the nations. In Buhari’s words, it will “be another step in uniting Africa and consolidating the architecture of the African Union”. According to him,
“the establishment of the CFTA is also the first step for the African Union in the implementation of Agenda 2063 for the socio-economic transformation of the continent as well as being a building block in the achievement of the goals of the 1991 Abuja Treaty on the African Economic
Community”.
Nigeria has spoken. It is to be seen whether African countries can summon the courage and the much needed political will to rally together and create CFTA for the benefit of all countries and peoples of Africa. In politics, we are told that “Godfathers don’t sleep”. That is why the colonial masters of the various African countries will bring out all the arms in their chests to thwart the implementation of the economic block more so because they do not want African countries to
make any progress by uniting together for the purpose of trade and particularly because they want African countries and people of Africa to remain subservient to them forever. That is why they will always proffer the bogus argument that an African economic block for Africans or “For Africa By Africa” is not in the best interest of African
countries.
Even with the little efforts being made by the ECOWAS sub-region to forge a close economic unity among the countries in the sub-region, the French speaking West African countries are still seriously looking towards France and not towards their brother West African countries for most of what they need to import. The backing that France is giving to their CFA is enough to thwart any other economic attraction from any other sources and that is why the colonial policy of “French assimilation” of Africans is still holding the Africans tight till today and it will continue to be a magnet that pulls to itself all former French colonies towards Paris for a very long time to come.
With the increasing trading activities between China and African countries in the last decade or so, the Chinese have come to realise that they need a closer relationship with African countries. China needs abundant African resources such as crude oil, solid minerals, and agricultural products, among others, for its rapidly growing industries. Many Chinese state owned companies are now operating across Africa exploiting minerals or selling finished Chinese telephones and other hi-tech gadgets. The Chinese are in Africa constructing roads, railways, bridges and hydro electric dams, either as special assistance to African countries or as contracts won at competitive rates. They are also setting up manufacturing companies across Africa.
China will be too glad to enter into trade relationship with Africa as a trading block. That is why China will back Africa’s move to set up a free trade area so that more African products can be traded with China. However, whether African countries team up to set up CFTA now or later, it is a sure bet that African countries trading activities with China will continue to grow. With a positive end in view, a few African countries such as Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt must together take the lead in the struggle to set up a trade block for African countries. The time to do so is now.
