There's a New Columnist in Town!

Far be it for me to blow my own trumpet, but then I am used  to it: if having a blog is not an exemplification of that, I do not know what is!

On a more serious note, Wednesday 24 August saw me entering, once again, the folds of columnists -- this time as a political science columnist(rather than a Business one) for Ghana's "Business and Financial Times" paper. Here's the reason why I started it:

It is one of the reasons why this new column was thought-up: to respond to the dearth of analyses about ECOWAS and the AU by Ghanaian media practitioners. The real challenge now is to ensure readers begin to accept these challenges and be ready to respond to them. Secondly, ECOWAS likes to make a lot of noise about the sub-region moving from an ECOWAS of States to an ECOWAS of the people – as per ECOWAS Vision 2020. For it to be realised, it is going to take all of us to get there. Will you join me?

 Many people know my alter-ego to be one that has made considerable noise on regional integration. I just thought I'd get more serious and create the future I want: leaving a legacy and many column inches about not just a topic dear to my heart, but one I believe many more Africans and Ghanaians to take seriously in the next couple of years.

The ECOWAS and AU will not go away, and the only way to make them more accountable is by reporting on them. Until the reports transcend being ad-hoc, accountability is unlikely to happen. I know Ghana as a topic is more popular than regional cooperation/regional integration, but if the instrumentality of the Arab League in  the crisis in Libya tells us anything, it's that the tectonic plates are shifting from multi-polar to regional. So let's "shine our eyes!"

Read me on Mondays and Wednesdays in  the B&FT, or online at http://www.thebftonline.com if you can.

Kindly check out my latest piece: Why “Africa” is Lost in the “Abuja Treaty” Translation: http://www.thebftonline.com/bft_subcat_linkdetails.cfm?prodcatID=6&tblNewsCatID=63&tblNewsID=9224

Introducing...the AU Citizen Blog!

If there is one thing I admire about tehe Europeans, it is their sense of "european-ness". Sure, people feel nationalistic, but the Fortress Europe has ensured that the European project has been pretty much drummed in. I can say rather safely that generally, Europeans feel proud about their EU.

Africans on the other hand are stumbling; they don't seem to be united, or even always agree to disagree so easily. I don't blame them so much, but I do think the policy-makers will not change if we citizens do not force them to. Technological platforms have created no excuse whatsoever to propoagate the African message and the African personality.

If those at the top will not do it, I believe it behooves you, me, everybody to do their part.

To that end, I set up the "I am an African Union(AU) Citizen" blog--a project that had been one year in the making--to project not just African values (as enshrined in the AU constitutive Act or the AU's Peace and Security Council), but what I call the "AU-frican" personality.

Furthermore, I will use it as a platform to encourage discussions on what the African Union is doing all over the continent--be it peace & security or on crime prevention and drugs.

Long live ECOWAS, love live Africa, long live the AU!

Access the blog http://african-union-citizen.blogspot.com