Why integration and federation are not easy projects

Regional integration and federation are not new concepts. However, they are not easy to realize because they involve heavy costs including psychological ones. The Central African federation of Northern and Southern Rhodesia and Nyasaland was unceremoniously abandoned after only ten years (1953 -63) because white settler Southern Rhodesia would benefit disproportionately. So the Africans in Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland rejected the project.

In East Africa the idea of a federation was mooted in the 1950s but the three territories were not comfortable with it. When it came up after independence with strong support of Nyerere the federation project failed to take off in 1963 because Uganda did not get on board (Chidzero and Gauher 1986). The cost of federation is very high. The nation-state such as Uganda is likely to be obliterated. Regarding Europe, it has been observed “That new Europe will abolish what Europe has been. Diversity has been the essence of Europe, but the EU abolishes all diversity that matters… [with Europe becoming] a purely geographical expression”(Judd 2005).