Given the hitches associated with visa issuance by African countries to other citizens in the continent, insurance guru, Mr Bode Emmanuel, has urged the African Union to erase the use of visas by citizens of member states.

Emmanuel, the Chairman of Sterling Assurance Company, in an exclusive interview with Sweetcrude, condemned the trauma Africans are made to go through to get visas from African member countries.

Speaking against the backdrop of the recent deportation by Zimbabwean immigration authorities of a Nigerian and four delegates from other African countries, who wanted to attend the just concluded African Insurance Organization, AIO General Assembly/Conference; Emmanuel argued that delegates should have been spared such an ordeal by an AU member country.

According to him, “I don’t believe that Africans need a visa to go to any other African country under the African Union. It is much easier to get American or European visas than for Africans to get a visa from any other African country. It is all nonsense as far as l am concerned.”

He further argued that Africa’s development will be achieved through the unity of its people, saying that the quest for unity clearly demonstrates the commitment, which gave impetus to the formation of Organization of African Unity, OAU, in 1963. The Africa Union Commission, AUC; the Economic Commission for Africa ECA; the African Development Bank, AfDB; and the Regional Economic Communities, RECs are among the key players for regional integration.

He reiterated that the free movement of persons, goods, capital and services across Africa should be encouraged and promoted to accelerate continental integration without compelling Africans to obtain visas to go to any African country.

“It is high time the African Union operated a visa-free regime within AU member states, he said.

The African Union consists of 53 African states, excluding Morocco. Established on July 9, 2002, the AU is a successor to the Organisation of African Unity, OAU. The most important decisions are made by the Assembly of the African Union, a semi-annual meeting of the heads of states and governments of member states. The AU Secretariat – the African Union Commission is based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

AU member states have various forms of government. The Constitutive Act of the African Union makes no provision for what type of government a member state may or may not have. Ho0wever, Article 30 of the Act states: “Governments, which shall come to power through unconstitutional means shall not be allowed to participate in the activities of the Union.”

This clause has only been applied on Mauritania after its 2005 coup d’état, and Togo during its political crisis in April 2005.

Several political systems of governance are represented in the AU, including stable, competitive democratic systems dominated by single parties (Botswana, Cape Verde), and even a failed state that exists in a de jure capacity (Somalia) and a government in exile (Western Sahara’s Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic.)

AU is the first step towards promoting continental unity, since Africa has comparatively few success stories to tell with respect to regional integration. The continent’s slow pace towards this goal has been largely attributed to Africa’s many extraordinary challenges, including inadequate financial resources, macro-economic instability, poor governance, conflicts and war, and a host of others.