By Stephen Asante
Accra, May 19, GNA – African leaders have been advised to give priority to the ratification and enforcement of the African Union (AU) Protocol on the Free Movement of People.
This is necessary to engender integration, inter-African trade and investment, mobilisation and utilisation of the human and material resources to achieve self-reliance and development.
Africans Rising, a Pan-African movement, said the free flow of people, goods and services within the corridors of the continent without hindrances, was needed to enhance deeper engagements and cooperation.
This was contained in a statement issued by the movement, initialed by Ms. Ann Njagi, Communications and Media Specialist, Africans Rising, and copied to the Ghana News Agency (GNA), Accra.
In January 2018, the AU adopted a protocol supporting the free movement of persons between the countries on the continent.
According to the most recent status report, 32 countries have signed the Free Movement of Persons (FMP) Protocol, and only four of those countries have ratified it, and submitted their instruments of ratification.
The coming into force of the Protocol requires a minimum of 15 countries to complete and submit their instruments of ratification.
Africans Rising, in its statement, argued that there seemed to be little enthusiasm for the adoption and implementation of the Protocol, saying this did not augur well for the continent’s growth.
The statement said the movement had decided to embark on one of the biggest campaigns across the continent to rally the leaders to ratify and enforce the Protocol as it marks the African Liberation Week, slated for May 22 to 28.
Every year, Africans Rising mobilises thousands of people across the continent and the Diaspora under the banner of African Liberation Week (ALW), to commemorate Pan-African cooperation and solidarity.
The mass mobilisation is drawn from the African Liberation Day, which is observed annually on May 25, to mark the founding of the AU, created in 1963.
This year, the Day marks exactly 60 years since the formation of the Union.
The statement noted that this year’s milestone coincides with the African Rising’s campaign, dubbed: ‘#BorderlessAfrica’.
The campaign, launched during the 2022 All-African Movement Assembly in Arusha, Tanzania, is advocating the ratification and enforcement of the AU protocol on the free movement of people and goods on the continent.
The statement said the movement would also observe the African Liberation Week discussing other sub-themes, including the fight against inequality, food security, energy and climate change.
In his perspective of the Week, Mr. Hardi Yakubu, Africans Rising Movement Coordinator, said: “The geopolitical whirlwinds we see today demand that we build strength and prosper together, which can only happen through unity and Pan-African solidarity.”
“We must ask ourselves whether or not we are prepared to emerge from these as drawers of water and hewers of wood as we have been for the past centuries.”
Last year, under the theme, “Africa for Africans”, the African Liberation Week mobilisation engaged more than 500 actions across 46 countries in Africa and the diaspora.
Africans Rising is a global Pan-African movement of people and organisations working for unity, justice, peace and dignity.
Launched in 2017, the movement provides a space for progressive African civil society leaders and groups engaged in various civic struggles to convene, connect, collaborate, share knowledge and build solidarity among people and across issues.
African integration, addressing inequalities, human rights, peace and unity, as well as working towards a ‘borderless Africa’ remain prominent on the movement’s agenda.
GNA