Accra, July 1, GNA - President John Agyekum Kufuor, Chairman of the African Union (AU), on Sunday challenged his colleague leaders in the continent not to fail the people of Africa and its future by taking unexamined decisions, as they gather in Accra for the grand debate on the Union Government.

"We have the unique opportunity to elaborate clear-cut modalities and signposts on how to achieve our collective objective of the Union Government.

"The task before us is enormous but exciting. We are at the crossroads and at the same time the threshold of a new era, with great opportunities but also many challenges and responsibilities for Africa," he said.

President Kufuor was addressing the opening of the Ninth Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the AU.

The AU, at its Eight Ordinary Session in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in January this year, decided to devote the Accra Summit to the single agenda of discussing the direction of the Union.

President Kufuor said given the high sense of responsibility to the cause of Africa, he was confident that the leaders would arrive at a common understanding on the sort of "Continental Government" they wanted for Africa and how to develop a roadmap with time lines towards its realization.

He counselled that they should enter the debate with positive attitudes, political will and confidence. They should all engage in the debate with mutual trust, respect, fellow-feeling and abiding faith in the great future that awaited the continent.

President Kufuor said, it was his hope that whatever the leaders put forward as their view points should reflect the views of their peoples.

"With this as our guiding principle, everything else should be secondary.

"Gender, religion, ideology and country should all be subsumed under the welfare of the peoples of Africa, who empower us as their leaders to meet at this summit."

He pointed out that it was only through such ownership of the debate by their peoples that the conference would be given legitimacy and sustainability.

President Kufuor said given the complexities and practical difficulties in the path of attaining the Union Government in one form or the other, it was important they acknowledged the necessity for shared values in terms of respect for human rights, principles of good governance and the rule of law.

These values, he said, should constitute the fabric of the Union's budding institutions like the Pan-African Parliament and the Union Court of Justice and Human Rights.

President Kufuor noted that with the passage of the Consultative Act of the AU and the adoption of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), the immediate challenge to the realization of its goals was "political will" and institutional development. He identified the various sub-regional groupings as critical building blocks for the integration process. Their co-ordination and streamlining to service the central institutions of the AU were therefore prerequisites for unification. He said it was unfortunate that over the past two decades or so of their establishment, these groupings had not performed to the degree of efficiency and purposefulness, which would assure an objective observer of hastening the day of the attainment of the Continental Government itself. global developments, the continent must leapfrog to attain a dignified and promising place in the globalization process.

Professor Alpha Konare, President of the AU Commission, suggested to the Assembly of Heads of State and Government to delegate some powers to the Commission's established institutions. He said competencies, power and resources should be placed at the disposal of the AU institutions to enable them to perform more efficiently. 01 July 07