Former deputy prime minister of Zimbabwe, Professor Arthur Mutambara, whose country is in an economic meltdown, has told a British audience that the mooted “ever closer African Union” was “despicable” and instead suggested that a “United States of Africa” would be more beneficial to Africans.
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Speaking at the Oxford Union Debate Society, University of Oxford in the UK, Mutambara said: “I stand before you in unequivocal and vicious opposition to the proposition that says: ‘This House would embrace an ever closer African Union’.
“For a start, we need the United States of Africa – a country – and not a union of sovereign states. We need to abolish national sovereignty and embrace continental sovereignty.”
“We must pull our individual national sovereignties into one indivisible and all-inclusive Pan-African sovereignty. In order to leverage Africa’s 1.2 billion people, massive natural resource base and potential $2.3 trillion GDP we need to operate as one country and not a union of sovereign states.”
Mutambara made his remarks on Thursday, 24 January 2019, amid mounting international criticism of Zimbabwe’s government which used the amy to put down protests sparked by astronomical fuel hikes.