Is President Yoweri Museveni itching to take over the leadership of the African continent? This was the unspoken question as the Ugandan leader assumed the chair of the East African Community on November 30, becoming the head of three influential regional groupings. {By Julius Barigaba, The EastAfrican}
<doc6524|left>He heads the East African Community; the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (Comesa), whose leadership he took over in Kampala three weeks ago; and the peace, security and development outfit — the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region (ICGLR), where he has been at the helm since December 2011.
President Museveni’s rise to these positions may have caused ripples of unease at the African Union, where there is a growing sense that the Ugandan head of state is positioning himself as the continent’s top dog.
At the helm of Comesa, EAC and ICGLR, President Museveni will influence security, trade and economic policies of 23 countries, with a population of nearly 540 million people (the 19-member state Comesa alone had 468 million people as at 2011).
Currently, the main architects of the United States of Africa project are no longer in the picture, with Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi dead, and (former Senegalese president) Abdoulaye Wade also out of power, President Museveni’s position as the continent’s most influential man is unchallenged.
“Where is all this leading? Is it just a coincidence that one man is chairman of three blocs all at the same time? President Museveni always makes a strong case for political integration,” a senior source from the AU told The EastAfrican.
The source added that currently no sitting African president rivals President Museveni’s credentials to lead the continent. His role in pacifying Burundi, mediating in the Congo crisis and fixing Somalia as well as the respect he commands among Western leaders are among the things that make him a giant among his peers.
“This is an opportunity for him to make his mark on these organisations and move their integration agenda forward. But President Museveni’s record on African integration is not encouraging. He opposed Gaddafi on faster movement to a United States of Africa,” argued Philip Kasaija, a lecturer of political science at Makerere University.
President Museveni’s challenge is how to use his position as the boss of three regional blocs to gain acceptance, and especially break the hegemonies in the other regions, notably those of South Africa in the Southern African Development Community, Nigeria in the Economic Community of West African States and the current North Africa powerhouse — Algeria.
Taking down the barriers
While addressing the Comesa Summit in Kampala on November 24, President Museveni made an impassioned speech decrying the balkanization of the African continent, and why it was important to do away with the small units of disparate states.
“The greatest disadvantage Africa faced at Independence, ever since 1957… was political balkanization. The foresight by the Lagos Action Plan, which pointed out the need to be organised into blocs for trade in different zones of Africa in order to tackle this balkanization was correct. Integration should have two dimensions — economic and, where possible, political integration.
