African leaders have again squandered yet another opportunity, a historic one, to lead decisively but instead go for the least common denominator, the line of least resistance by deciding not to decide.

The all important issues of a government of the Union that was billed as The Grand debate at the recently concluded AU summit has been referred to yet another committee of Foreign Ministers that will report at the next summit in January in Addis. The fundamental differences between those who desire a concrete road map to a Union government and those who only think of concrete road blocks were masked by the language of consensus and modalities.

We are all familiar with the saying that the best way to kill an idea is to form a committee about it. How many more committees do we need to make this decision? The so called debate itself was the result of a Study and report presented to the heads of state that has taken almost two years to reach. All the arguments for and against were contained in that report and the three options were clear. One, immediate formation of a Union government. Two, a gradual process leading to Union government by consolidation of regional economic communities and economic convergence. And last, the formation of a Union government that gives political authority to the AU in specified areas, align national policies to continental policies and rationalizes the RECS to become affective building blocs for the Union government. Wherever one stands on this debate deciding on these issues are vital to move forward. Too many decisions, agreements, protocols have been made, agreed or signed at the continental level without any implementation at the national level. The suggestion of a Union government was meant to give an effective legal and political framework to these agreements and mandatory enforcement mechanism.