The African Union is introducing a single passport to make travel on the continent easier for Africans

BORDERLESS

WRITTEN BYLily Kuo

When heads of state from across Africa arrive in Kigali, Rwanda next month for the African Union (AU) Summit, they will be among the first Africans issued the new electronic African Union passport. The passport is meant to make travel on the continent much easier for Africans.

“The scene seems to be set to realize the dream of visa-free travel for African citizens within their own continent by 2020,” the AU said in a statement announcing the launch.

Travel in Africa is difficult for most Africans. They are required to have visas for over half of the countries on the continent. Only 13 African countries (pdf) allow other Africans to enter without a visa or give visas on arrival. In contrast, Americans can travel to 20 African countrieswithout visas or with visas on arrival.

African travelers say they feel the same suspicion at immigration counters within the continent as they do outside of it. Aliko Dangote, a Nigerian businessman and Africa’s wealthiest man, was himself onceturned away by South African immigration officials as he struggled to locate his passport. Meanwhile his American staff sailed through border control.

Intra-African trade also costs more than any other region—as much as 50% higher than East Asia, for example. A truck serving supermarkets in southern Africa needs to carry as many as 1,600 documents, including permits and licenses, in order to cross borders, according to Anabel Gonzalez, senior director of a World Bank group on trade and global competitiveness.

The goal of the African Union passport, which Dangote said he is applying for, is to help turn Africa into a “continent with seamless borders” modeled after the European Union’s Schengen Area. Giving the passports to state leaders is a “symbolic and significant” step, according to Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, chair of the African Union Commission. The goal of the African Union passport is to help turn Africa into a “continent with seamless borders.” 

Officials have been pushing for increased freedom of movement ever since the Organization of African Unity, a precursor to the AU, was established in the 1960s. The idea has gained traction over the last few years, however, due to the continent’s improving economic fortunes and population growth. The AU wants to abolish visa requirements for all African citizens visiting African countries by 2018, and establish a free trade area across the continent by 2017.

Skeptics point out that creating a truly borderless Africa will likely be quite challenging. The continent hosts many refugees from conflict areas, not to mention militant groups like al-Shabaab or Boko Haram. Then there are public health crises like the Ebola outbreak, and questions posed by the nationality of those who have been deemed stateless.

The Seychelles, Rwanda, Mauritius, and most recently Ghana have all loosened travel restrictions on their fellow Africans, allowing visas on arrivals or entry without the permit. But the process remains slow. Currently, only AU heads of state and government, ministers of foreign affairs, and other AU officials can apply for the passport, which will be recognized in all 54 countries belonging to the organization.

“Countries have said that they are going back to look at the practicality of doing their immigration regulation,” says African Union Commission chair Dlamini-Zuma. “But there is a decision and it is up to all of us to hold our countries to that decision so that indeed Africans can move freely amongst other African countries.”

Senior politicians back EU membership: ‘We must reject division and isolation’

Tony Blair, Michael Heseltine and Nick Clegg among those signing joint letter calling for vote against Brexit in referendum

Michael Heseltine, Tony Blair and Nick Clegg are among signatories to the letter. Photograph: Katherine Anne Rose for the Observer; Features; Dave Thompson/Getty Images

Tony Blair and two former deputy prime ministers, Lord Heseltine and Nick Clegg, have launched a late plea to voters to reject “division, isolationism and blame” and vote on Thursday to stay in the EU.

After the tragic killing of Labour MP Jo Cox, they say the country is living in “worrying times” in which people must work together and unite, not pull each other apart.

Along with other senior politicians and figures from public life, they write that the country should seek unity, not division, remaining “a democracy where disagreements do not degenerate into incivility and where debate is not used to divide our communities”.

They add: “We have a chance as a country to reject division, isolationism and blame. To choose co-operation. For the future of our children, that is a chance we must take.”

EU referendum: reject division, isolation and blame. Choose co-operation

There is a fundamental principle to defend – a democracy where debate is not used to divide our communities

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Among other signatories to the open letter, published in the Observer on Sunday, are Doreen Lawrence, the mother of murdered teenager Stephen; Caroline Lucas MP, former leader of the Green party; Sir Brendan Barber, former TUC general secretary; Shami Chakrabarti, former director of Liberty; Sir Richard Lambert, former CBI director general; and Craig Bennett, chief executive, Friends of the Earth.

In a reference to Nigel Farage and other Leave campaigners, they say that attempts to divide people into “us and them” have created the risk of a dangerously divided society. “That reached a new low last week when Nigel Farage posed in front of (and sought to make political capital from) a poster of desperate refugees, many of whom were children, stranded on the Slovenia-Croatia border,” the letter says. “But public life, whether in politics or elsewhere, should be about something else – something better.

“It should be driven by a desire to bring people together when it would be easier to tear them apart. A wish to build bridges rather than erect walls. A fundamental belief in the principle that we are stronger together than we are apart. This is the kind of Britain we all want to live in. Peaceful, tolerant, compassionate.” The cross party group says the country faces a “stark choice”, with Britain’s economy and place in the world at stake.

Yesterday France’s economy minister Emmanuel Macron said that Britain outside the EU would become “a little country on the world scale [that] would isolate itself ... at Europe’s border”. Macron told Le Monde: “Leaving the EU would mean the ‘Guernseyfication’ of the UK.”

But, the signatories write, the referendum will also publicise to the world what sort of country it has become: “There is something more fundamental at stake: the sort of country we are.”

Labour MP and Leave campaigner Gisela Stuart said a vote for Leave was not about dividing people but renewing the country’s democracy. In a statement on Facebook she writes that she too is determined to “eliminate extremism” but that this should not lead to the closing down of genuine debate.

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She writes: “We have to be scrupulous about how we treat each other. Politicians and voters must reflect on the hate-filled language that too often scars our debates and passes for discussion on social media. Short of this bile, we must take care before assuming that anger turned up to maximum volume should be the default way to hold a political discussion. It is a difficult balance to strike and we must be wary of retreating to the blandness and consensus that serve only to blur the outlines of the issues.

“For some time now voters have felt that there is little to choose between the parties. Since 1997, politicians have been tussling over the centre ground with often only nuances … to tell us apart. As someone put it to me: ‘There’s little change in the menu; they’re just arguing over who will be the cook.’ This referendum could not be more different.”

Stuart, MP for Birmingham Edgbaston, adds: “For me, the underlying question is clear: are the people able to choose the governments that make their laws and to throw them out when they fail? I believe leaving the EU is the way to safeguard this precious right. At the same time, I respect those who take an opposing view.

“I will not be the only person thinking of Jo Cox on referendum day. She paid with her life, working for her constituents. Whatever the result on Thursday, we will have had the privilege of exercising a hard-fought-for right.”

MAALIM SEIF AKHITIMISHA ZIARA YAKE NCHINI MAREKANI

Na Mwandishi wetu Washington 

Makamo wa Kwanza Mstaafu wa Rais wa Zanzibar na Katibu mkuu wa Chama Cha Wananchi (CUF), maalim Seif Sharif Hamad, jana alimaliza ziara yake nchini Marekani iliyochukua muda wa wiki moja.

Makamo wa Kwanza Mstaafu wa Rais wa Zanzibar na Katibu mkuu wa Chama Cha Wananchi (CUF), maalim Seif Sharif Hamad (Picha na http://swahilivilla.blogspot.com/)

Maalim Seif alikhitimisha ziara yake hiyo kwa mkutano wa hadhara ambapo alipata nafasi ya kuongea na Watanzania waishio nchini humu. 

Katika Mkutano huo, mwanasiasa huyo gwiji nchini Tanzania alisema kuwa lengo la ziara yake ni kuuelezea ulimwengu kukhusu kile kilichotokea Zanzibar kufuatia uchaguzi wa Oktoba 25 na mwelekeo wa demokrasia nchini Tanzania kwa ujumla.

Aliielezea ziara yake hiyo nchini Marekani kuwa imezaa matrunda. “Sina budi kumshukuru Mwenyezi Mungu kuwa tumeeleweka na ziara yetu imezaa matunda” alisema Maalim Seif.

Sehemu ya hadhira wakimsikiliza kwa makini Maalim Seif

Kuhusiana na zoezi la uchaguzi wa mwaka jana Visiwani Zanzibar, Maalim Seif alisema kuwa, uchaguzi huo ulihudhuriwa na waangalizi wa Kimataifa na wa ndani kutoka pande zote za Muungano, Bara na Zanzibar, na wachunguzi wote hao walithibitisha kuwa uchaguzi ulikuwa huru na wa haki. “Waangalizi wote, wote kabisa, walikiri kuwa uchaguzi ulikuwa huru na wa haki”, alisisitiza kiongozi huyo na kuongeza kuwa “Ulikuwa uchaguzi bora kabisa kuliko chaguzi zote zilizotangulia Zanzibar”

Aliuulezea mchakato wa uchaguzi kuwa ulikwenda vizuri mpaka kufikia tarehe 27 Oktoba ambapo jumla ya Majimbo 34 ya uchaguzi yalikuwa tayari yameshatangazwa, na mengine 9 yakiwa yameshahakikiwa ikiwa bado kutangwazwa tu. Na kwa upande wa udiwani na Uwakilishi, uchaguzi ulikuwa umeshakamilika na washindi kupewa shada zao za ushindi.

“Kufika hapo vikashuhudiwa vituko vya Tume ya Uchaguzi hususan Mwenyekiti wake”, alisema Maalim Seif, na kufuatiwa na uamuzi wa Mwenyekiti wa Tume ya Uchaguzi Bwana Jecha Salum Jecha kufuta uchaguzi wote kwa ujumla hapo tarehe 28 Oktoba 2015.

Katibu Mkuu huyo wa CUF na ambaye pia alikuwa mgombea urais wa Zanzibar katika uchaguzi huo, alikielezea kitendo cha Mwenyekiti wa Tume ya uchaguzi kuwa hakikuwa cha kisheria, kilichokiuka taratibu za Tume ya Uchaguzi, na kusisitiza “Kwa kitendo hicho, Mwenyekiti wa Tume ya Uchaguzi aliingiza nchi katika mgogoro wa Kikatiba”.

Kufuatia mgogoro huo wa Kikatiba, Maalim Seif, mwenye uzoefu wa siasa za Zanzibar, alichukua hatua za kujaribu kutatua mgogoro huo, ambapo moja ya hatua hizo muhimu ni kuwasiliana na Rais wa Zanzibar Dkt Ali Mohammed Shein ambaye pia alikuwa akiwania kuchaguliwa kwa kipindi cha pili.

“Niliona mgogoro baada ya kufutwa kwa uchaguzi, na kwa hivyo nikachukua juhudi za kuwasiliana na kiongozi mwenzangu ili kuitoa nchi kutoka kwenye mgogoro”, alifafanua Maalim Seif, na kuendelea kuwa walikubaliana kukutana katika vikao vilivyowajumuisha viongiozi wa Serikali ya Zanzibar ya wakati huo, na wale waliopita.

Mazungumzo kati ya viongozi hao yaliendelea na kufikia jumla ya vikao 8 bila kuzaa matumda, ambapo mada kubwa iliyojadiliwa ilikuwa ni iwapo Mwenyekiti wa Tume alikuwa na haki ya kuufuta uchaguzi. “Kubwa tulilolijadili awali ilikuwa ni iwapo Mwenyekiti wa tume ana haki ya kuchukua uamuzi wa kuufuta uchaguzi”, alielezea Maalim Seif, na kuendelea kuwa “Pili ilikuwa ni kurudiwa kwa uchaguzi, jambo ambalo mimi nililipinga”

Hata hivyo, Maalim Seif alidokeza kuwa hatimaye alikubaliana na wazo la kurudiwa kwa uchaguzi lakini kwa sharti la kusimamiwa na Umoja wa Mataifa, wazo ambalo lilikataliwa. “Niliposhauri uchaguzi urudiwe chini ya usimamizi wa Umoja wa Mataifa, walikataa”, alisema Maalim Seif.

Katibu Mkuu huyo wa CUF, aliamua kujitoa kwenye mazungumzo ya kutafuta suluhu ya mgogoro wa kisiasa Zanzibar baada ya kutangazwa uchaguzi wa marudio bila kufikiwa mwafaka kwenye mazungumzo yaliyokuwa yakiendelea. “Tuliendelea na vikao mpaka walipoamuru Tume kutangaza marudio ya Uchaguzi”, alidokeza.

Chama cha CUF kiliamua kuususia uchaguzi wa Marudio wa Zanzibar uliofanyika tarehe 20 Machi 2016, uchaguzi ambao wataalamu wa mambo ya kisisasa pamoja na wachunguzi waliohudhuria waliuelezea kuwa haukuwa wa haki, hususan ikizingatiwa kiwango kidogo cha watu waliojitokeza kupiga kura ambacho hakikuzidi asilimia 12 ya watu wote wenye haki ya kupiga kura.

Maalim Seif aliyaelezea yale yaliyotokea baada ya Uchaguzi wa mwaka jana kuwa yameirudisha nyuma Zanzibar na Tanzania kidemokrasia, hususan ikizingatiwa kuwa kabla ya hapo palikuwa na serikali ya Umoja wa Kitaifa Visiwani Zanzibar, kufuatia mwafaka kati yake na Rais Mstaafu wa Zanzibar Dkt Amani Abeid Karume ya mwaka 2009.

Alitahadharisha dhidi ya kauli za Wahafidhina wanaodai kuwa Serikali haiwezi kutolewa kwa vikaratasi, na kuonya kuwa hali hiyo inatuma ujumbe mbaya kwa vijana. “Ikiwa utawanyima vijana nafasi ya kuleta mabadiliko kwa njia ya kura, unawaambia nini? Alihoji Maalim Seif na kuonya “Lazima hii isimame.”

“Haki ya Umma na sauti zao lazima zisikilizwe”, alisisitiza.

Mkutano huo wa Maalim Seif Sharif Hamad ulihudhuriwa pia na Mwenyekiti wa Chama Cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (CHADEMA) Tawi la Diaspora Bwana Kalley Pandukizi.

Maalim Seif yupo nchini Marekani kwa mwaliko wa Taasisi ya Mikakati na Tafiti za Kimataifa ambapo Jumatatu iliyopita alihutubia kwenye Taasisi hiyo. Aidha yeye na ujumbe wake wamepata nafasi ya kukutana na viongozi mbali mbali wa serikali ya Marekani.

Katika juhudi hizo za kutafuta uungaji mkono wa Kimataifa kwa madai ya demokrasia Zanzibar, na Tanzania kwa ujumla, Maalim Seif ambaye anafuatana na Mkurugenzi wa Mambo ya Nje na Uhusiano wa Kimataifa wa Chama cha CUF Bwana Ismail Jussa, pia alifika kwenye Makao Makuu ya Umoja wa Mataifa jijini New York, ambapo aliielezea ziara yake hiyo kuwa ilikuwa ya ufanisi.

Maalim Seif na ujumbe anaofuatana nao unaomjumuisha pia Mkuu wa Watumishi katika Ofisi ya Katibu Mkuu wa CUF, Bwana Issa Kheir Hussein wanatarajiwa kuondoka leo kuelekea nchini Canada.