Okechukwu Emeh
26 February 2007
opinion
Lagos — REGARDLESS of certain defects of globalisation, it is notable that if the global interconnectivity process is fine-tuned, it could be a force for good for developing countries in Africa. This is for several reasons. One, globalisation could become a force for poverty reduction through integration of African markets into the competitive global economy and mitigation of the risk of marginalisation of weaker economies on the continent. Two, the new ideas of ICTs and bio- technology that have become part of the emblematic features of the brave new world of globalisation could offer greater opportunities for African states by enabling them to take a quantum leap to development. Three, through globalisation, African countries could modernise and transform their decrepit economies, after years of instability, mismanagement and corruption, and take steps to economic and political reforms, as forward - looking countries like Ghana, Uganda and Mozambique have done. Four, this post - modernist process could create external market for African products via the WTO treaty on untrammeled free trade.
Five, states on the continent could tap from the benefits of international solidarity and cooperation inherent in the globalisation process, because as Cicero (in Definibus) contended: "We are born to unite with our fellow men and to join in community with the human race". Six, African states could gain from globalisation through its spread of neo- liberal values like democracy, human rights, civil society regeneration, gender equality and so on. And seven, if the global interconnectivity process could be well channelled, it could be a positive force for growth of foreign direct investments in Africa, as well as multi - national corporations that would be in the forefront of job creation, poverty alleviation, industrial development, spread of advanced skills and expertise and environmental protection on the continent.
However, for African states to enter into the mainstream of globalisation and liberalised global economy, they have to nurture their unfolding regional trading and economic blocks like Economic Community Of West African States (ECOWAS), Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), Union of Maghreb Arab States (UMAS), Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA). Without doubt, these integrationist blocks, if well-harnessed, could yield dividends. What is only needed to realize these dividends is for them to coalesce and cooperate in order to actualise the much-expected African Economic Community (AEC), which was articulated by member states of the defunct Organisation for African Unity (OAU) based on the Abuja Treaty of 1991.
In fact, in this age of globalisation and globalised economy, Africa has no choice but to accelerate the pace of functional cooperation and collaboration based on the models of David Mitrany and Ernst Haas who envisioned a global system that would be restructured into administrative regimes that will usurp the sovereignty of nation states and enhance cooperation and integration among states. This kind of arrangement - which, apart from regional bodies like ECOWAS and SADC, includes continental outfit like the Africa Union (AU) - is overly necessary for the continent, considering the circumstances and realities of the global economic system of the post-Cold War order, as accentuated by international market competitiveness and formation of vigorous regional blocks like the European Union (EU), the North America Free Trade Association (NAFTA), the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN), the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and others.
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