Towards what manner of union? : by H.E. professor Wole Soyinka, Nobel laureate

Abstract

Whatever continental Organization replaces the outgoing must be built on a principle that is not yoked to the preservation or demise of any one individual leader. Indeed, it goes further: that a replacement must now take leave of the collaborative image of a club of personalities in perpetual mutual adoration, and restore the propulsion of the communities of this continent to the people themselves. This projected Union must come out boldly in favor of the secular state as a condition of membership. It must set its face resolutely against the very notion of theocracy as defining the nation ideal. Indeed, the African continent should define itself - wherever structured - by a repudiation of any nation that is theocratic in constitution.