Why Raila must shift from State House contender to peacemaker

What does it mean when the Addis Ababa-headquartered African Union appoints Kenya’s erstwhile opposition leader Raila Odinga High Representative for Infrastructure Development in Africa? It means the continental body is putting the Kenyan at the heart and centre of the foremost driver of development and therefore entrusting him with the continent’s engine room of propelling the development of Africa’s economies onto the global stage.

And that means Mr Odinga will have his hands full if he is to make a difference in the lives of 1.2 billion African peoples.

Despite its massive resources and large population, Africa contributes under 2 per cent to the $80 trillion dollar global economy.

Despite its wealth the continent still struggles to attract private investor capital yet as per the Africa Development Bank it needs to attract $90 billion annually to bridge its infrastructure gap.

VIABLE INFRASTRUCTURE

Forbes reports that the difference between what Africa has and what it needs, is estimated at around $170 billion.

The African Union, the World Bank and Africa Development Bank, all agree that the lack of dependable, reliable and viable infrastructure has been, and remains, a major impediment to the development of Africa’s economies.

Because all are agreed that infrastructure is the foundation and launch pad for the development of the continent’s economies and that Africa suffers a huge infrastructure deficit, Mr Odinga is tasked with finding new solutions to this old problem.

Where will he begin? Exactly where the AU has identified as the point of departure and that is the seven Regional Economic Communities which are envisaged to create large markets to boost the movement of goods and people between neighbouring countries and stimulate regional economies.

ECONOMIC BLOCS

It is these regional economic blocks that are to interconnect Africa and create the African Economic Community.

But before they can do that they need to develop infrastructure that connect them in terms of roads, airports and ports, cross-border waterways, power and information and communications technology (IT).

Quite apart from dealing with these regional bodies and of course coming to terms with their politics and tensions, Mr Odinga will deal directly with heads of state and governments.

Suffice it to point out here that the AU’s Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (PIDA) has assigned specific heads of state special projects to oversee in what is called Presidential Infrastructure Champion Initiative (PICI). Here Muhammadu Buhari is the champion for the Nigeria-Algeria Gas Pipeline; Macky Sall for Dakar-Ndjamena Road/Rail Project; Cyril Ramaphosa for the North-South Corridor Road/Rail Project; Paul Kagame for unlocking the ICT and fibre optic bottlenecks between neighbouring states; Tattah el-Sisi for construction of a navigational line between Lake Victoria and the Mediterranean Sea; Uhuru Kenyatta for the Lamu South Sudan and Ethiopia Corridor (Lapsett); and Sassou Nguesso for the Kinshasa-Brazzaville Road/Rail Project.

RAISING FUNDS

These projects are championed by heads of state because funding has been secured, may be secured or is partly secured and that brings Mr Odinga yet another new role — raising funds for Africa's infrastructure projects.

Hitherto funding has been mainly from rich states such as China which dominates the African landscape in this regard.

But Mr Odinga must turn increasingly to the private sector to invest in Africa’s infrastructure development. He will be aware that private capital regards Africa as risky because of political instability. And that will jolt him when he will be visiting with REGs, with heads of state and government because it will be evident to him that without unity regional integration cannot be attained and without this the dream of an African Economic Community will remain a dream.

PEACE BUILDER

Mr Odinga must, therefore, transform from left-of-centre agitator and presidential hopeful to continental peacemaker and builder of regional unity bridges; he must be a political diplomat to deal with progressive leaders and dictators alike; and a negotiator of financial deals for Africa’s prosperity.

He must bring his experience in government as prime minister and corporate experience as private sector investor to his new role in terms of setting clear and focused objectives and targets and timelines to a leaden-footed AU bureaucracy.

That must change because, as the late Prof Calestous Juma wrote in 2015, a large swathe of Africa cannot feed itself or stimulate rural entrepreneurship because it lacks infrastructure (transportation, energy, irrigation and telecommunication).

Mr Opanga is a commentator with a bias for politics. [email protected].