Rwanda’s recent announcement of visa-free entry for all Africans has been commended as a practical example which other countries on the continent urgently need to emulate to ensure quick realization of Africa’s economic integration.
Renowned Ghanaian-born international journalist, publisher and pan-Africanist Ben Asante made the assertion recently at an interaction with the media in Accra to mark his 76th anniversary. He also lauded Kenya which is also set to implement visa-free travel for Africans by next December 31.
President Paul Kagame, announcing the policy in Kigali at the 23rd Global Summit of the World Travel and Tourism Council, said any African can get on a plane to Rwanda whenever they wish and they will not pay a thing to enter the country.
“We should not lose sight of our own continental market. Africans are the future of global tourism as our middle class continues to grow at a fast pace in the decades to come,” Kagame said.
Similarly, Kenya announced that all Africans will be able to enter Kenya without a visa by next December 31.
“By the end of this year, no African will need a visa to enter Kenya. The time has come to understand the importance of doing trade between us. It is time we realize the importance of trading among ourselves and allowing goods, services, people, and ideas to move freely across the continent,” President William Ruto said.
Ghana and South Africa had last October also started a visa-free entry policy for citizens of their two countries.
The African Union introduced the African passport in 2016, promising to “unleash the potential of the continent” in a manner comparable to that of the European Union. However, up until now, the travel document has only been granted to diplomats and AU officials.
Asante said more of such visa-waivers, airlinks as well as the urgent construction of a network of fast-trains, or bullet trains, to criss-cross the continent, are the practical actions needed to actualise Africa’s economic integration.
He also congratulated Uganda on the start of direct flights to Nigeria by the Uganda Airlines.
Uganda Airlines made history last October 19 with its debut flight from the Entebbe International Airport to the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, MMIA, in Lagos, Nigeria’s commercial capital.
The airline shall operate three weekly flights to Lagos (on Mondays, Thursdays, and Sundays), with additional approval to connect to Abuja and Kano under the Bilateral Air Services Agreement, BASA, between both nations. The approval to fly to these cities aligns with the promotion of the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM), which aims to enhance air connectivity within the continent.
With Uganda Airlines’ direct flights, the journey time between Uganda and Nigeria is reduced from over ten hours to just four hours, providing a more convenient option for travelers. More importantly, the new route opens up opportunities for increased trade and tourism between Uganda and Nigeria; and, acts as a gateway for business, culture, and entertainment, fostering closer ties with the larger West Africa subregion.
Noting that the youth constituted the bulk of Africa’s population, the elder statesman who was the first regional secretary for Africa of the International Students’ Movement for the United Nations, ISMUN, expressed regret that not much was being done by continental leaders to create platforms to bring together and boost bonding of African youths from various subregions of the continent, and urged an immediate rethink.
A former war correspondent who has reported and commented extensively on politics and social development across the African continent for over fifty years, Asante’s works have been published within and outside Africa.
He was at the frontlines during the Liberian and Sierra Leonean civil wars, where he is credited with breaking many of the major news headlines from both wars, including the actual outbreak of the Liberian civil war in 1990. With his close friend and associate, renowned journalist Lindsay Barrett, Asante is recognised for his gallantry in Liberia and Sierra Leone civil wars, where his reports became very reliable sources of information on the war for the global press.
Born in Keta, in the Volta region of Ghana in 1949, he attended the Evangelical Presbyterian Primary School in Ho, also in the Volta region. He completed middle school at Mawuli Secondary school, In Ho. It was while in middle school that Asante had his first introduction to ideological politics when he joined the Nkrumahist youth mobilisation movement known as the Young Pioneers Movement. This was a period when the socialist/nationalist and pan-African views of Kwame Nkrumah was sweeping through Ghana and the African continent.
Nkrumah’s fiery personality, accompanied by his great oratorical skills, coupled with his animated expressions during public rallies made him an instant celebrity with the masses, Asante remembers about that period.
“Nkrumah’s genius for mass mobilisation witnessed the establishment of these movements that were aimed at enduing young nationalists with a broader appreciation for the philosophical foundations of nation-building. The Young Pioneer movement was made up of some of the brightest students across Ghana, and they were sponsored on trips across Ghana to spread the nationalist doctrine amongst their peers,” he said.
As a bright student in his secondary school, Asante became one of the leaders of the Young Pioneers Movement there. This offered him the opportunity to make his first trip abroad as a member of the Ghana government’s delegation of students to Czechoslovakia in 1965.
Involvement with the Young Pioneer also opener the door for Asante to membership of the International Students Movement of the United Nations, ISMUN. He was elected ISMUN’s first regional secretary for Africa in Ile-Ife, Nigeria in 1971. He subsequently left for Kenya to work at the ISMUN Africa regional office in Nairobi from 1972-1978, disseminating information on the UN and African issues like apartheid in the then South Africa, liberation movements and human rights. He also reflected the voice of African youth on such matters as the environment and population by organising seminars and workshops within countries and on regional basis; and, attended crucial OAU (now AU) summits and served on the OAU bureau for refugees, based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
It was while in Nairobi that Asante, in 1976, attended the School of Journalism at the University of Nairobi, graduating in 1978; and which milestone also commenced his gradual shift from student activism to professional journalism.
With his base in the United Kingdom, Asante was at different times political editor of some of the leading influential pan-African publications based in London, including Africa Now and New African magazines. He also wrote for West Africa magazine out of London. Regarded as a veteran and versatile journalist around media and political circles in Africa and Europe, he traveled around most African countries covering events and conferences. He is considered knowledgeable on Nigerian politics, having spent years in the country as well as working on ECOWAS issues, including the civil wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Asante is regarded in ECOWAS circles as one of two journalists whose writings shaped the bloc’s views on the civil wars, especially on Liberia.
Passionate about the Sudanese condition, Asante was, similarly, part of the first Southern Sudan resettlement conference, under the late Emperor Haile Selassie. Indeed, the plight of the people of South Sudan, and current conditions in Africa generally, remain some of the main reasons for his continued commitment to writing on African issues.
Asante is the author of the book, Social Security in Liberia.
By Martin-Luther C. King and Ejiro Barret
