African leaders plot federation plan for continent

LEADERS of the African Union (AU) began mapping out plans to forge a closer federation of states at a summit in Ghana yesterday, acknowledging that the continent’s current system of governance had to improve.

Fifty years after it became the first African nation to free itself from colonialism, Ghana was the venue of an AU meeting devoted to working out how the world’s poorest continent can gain strength through unity.

Ghana’s President John Kufuor and AU commission chairman Alpha Oumar Konare told heads of state they can fulfil the vision of Ghana’s founding father Kwame Nkrumah who saw a unified Africa as an unstoppable force for good.