The African Union (AU) dubbed 2023, the “Year of AfCFTA: Acceleration of the African Continental Free Trade Area Implementation,” and anticipated the agreement to garner political support towards bringing its enabling policies to fruition. One of these is the Protocol of Free Movement of Persons which was originally signed by 33 member states, but only four have ratified the protocol so far. DevDispatch contributor Oluwatobi Ojo spoke with International Trade Researcher and Managing Consultant at Gleam Consultancy, Dr Levious Chiukira, on the challenges delaying the ratification.

Oluwatobi Ojo: Thank you for agreeing to speak with me. Can you introduce yourself?

Dr Levious Chiukira: My name is Dr. Levious Chiukira. I am an international trade researcher and the Managing Consultant at Gleam Consultancy. I hold a PhD in political studies, trade policy and regional integration.

Oluwatobi Ojo: Recently, the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) argued that the free movement of persons is critical to the success of the AfCFTA. What are your thoughts?

Dr Levious Chiukira: The AfCFTA stems from Agenda 2063 as an answer to the decimated economies of Africa due to colonialism. The Pan-Africanist idea of uniting Africa again is a magnificent effort which has to be embraced as renouncing the division in which Africans found themselves without their contribution. The greatest challenge remains that there will be no intra-regional trade without the free movement of persons across the continent as a greater part of African businesses are SMEs and they function effectively on the free movement of people across the borders.

Oluwatobi Ojo: How do countries maintain border sanity without compromising national security or infringing on the sovereignty of the state parties in an open-border economy?

Dr Levious Chiukira: National borders and national security- before we talk about national borders we have to acknowledge and agree that there is a colonial legacy which was inherited as newly created states got independence from former colonisers. We should understand the free movement across borders as a way of reuniting the decimated and divided nation of Africa. We should treat Africa as a nation, not as nations as we are one people and only consolidated effort can achieve this, as with SADC and ECOWAS. Cooperation among nations will increase information sharing and strengthen capacities as seen with ONE STOP BORDER CONCEPT (OSBP) case of Chirundu bordering Zambia and Zimbabwe. There is mutual cooperation and better working relations between states. So the answer is there won’t be any infringements on national sovereignty, as the opening of borders is not suspending security.

Oluwatobi Ojo: how is the protocol linked to wider regional integration efforts

Dr Levious Chiukira: The protocol on FMoP – we need to understand that the African integration discourse has to be differentiated from the common linear integration model typically of the European. The background of Africa makes it a special case and has to be understood in its own setting. We cannot move capital and goods in Africa without moving the people. We need the construction of ideology as to how best we can make African leaders understand the need to own the AfCFTA and implement the dictates of the Lagos Platform of Action (LPA) and the Abuja treaty. Tome, the free movement of persons is pivotal to the realisation of African integration and the success of AfCFTA.

Oluwatobi Ojo: How can civil societies and individuals contribute to ensuring swift protocol ratification by their respective governments?

Dr Levious Chiukira: On CSOS and individuals, the greatest challenge with African policy pronouncement is that we often regard it as a thing of the elites. The lack of participatory democracy in policy-making at both national and regional levels has been the biggest letdown in Africa. We need to answer whose integration is it anyway if the people to benefit are not included. We need strong linkages between the states and non-state actors for AfCFTA to be a success story. Without the CSOs and individuals participating in the design and formulation of these trade policies, they will miss the mark and intended goals.

Oluwatobi Ojo: Parting words?

Dr Levious Chiukira: Nationalism must die for regional integration to live in Africa

Oluwatobi Ojo is a Nigerian writer. You can reach him via email, oluwatobimojo@gmail.com