In order to make the African Union (AU) real, Members of Parliament (MPs) in Ghana and elsewhere who do not speak French and Portuguese have been urged to learn those languages.

Today, Wednesday May 25 marks the AU Day commemoration. The Day is observed across Africa to mark the liberation of the continent and the formation of the then Organisation of African Unity in Addis Ababa in 1963 to bring newly independent African states together.

The continent is made up of French, Portuguese, and English speaking countries, and in order to unite all these countries, there is the need to understand and be able to speak each other's language.

It is in light of this that Ghana’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Hanna Tetteh, who is also the Member of Parliament for the Awutu-Senya West constituency, on Tuesday May 24, ahead of the commemoration of AU Day told parliament: “It is important for us to be a key part of that driver of creating the continental free trade areas so that we can also benefit from it.”

She added: “I will like to end by saying that in order to make our union real, we have got to look beyond our linguistic barriers and we have got to encourage ourselves to learn to speak each other’s languages.

“I think again for those of us in the West African region, it means we should be aiming to speak both French and Portuguese,” she urged.

The former Minister of Trade revealed that she was learning how to speak French and Portuguese as part of her efforts at helping to make the AU real.

“I don’t speak French and Portuguese yet, but I am working at it and I will encourage honourable colleagues to do same because I think that it is also an important part of the building block of creating an ever closer union, and it is my hope that as we take the day off and celebrate our African Union, we should think of ways we can work together to enhance this process of integration,” she said.