THE PROBLEMS OF THE CONTINENT ARE MANY AND VARIOUS. BUT THEY ARE ALSO OF A HOMOGENEOUS CHARACTER. That is to say, they issue from the same source throughout: psychological inconsistency coupled to cultural inertia.

When Mohammed "Mo" Ibrahim founded the MO IBRAHIM FOUNDATION in 2006 because, as he likes to put it, "good governance is crucial", the ground could've shifted from under our feet. This would have been a reality both in spirit and in letter.

Recently, the smart scholar and revered businessman spoke at the Nelson Mandela Annual Lecture in Tshwane. His whole theme was "social cohesion", and the lecturer explained that it "is really about really holding our society together".

It is about building a national identity that transcends ethnic[ity], religion, class and gender. It is more than just a passport or an ID, it is where we achieve common purpose as citizens and when we really feel that we have equitable access and participation in the political, economic, social and cultural life of our country.

The Sudanese-born mobile communications entrepreneur and billionaire, now a British citizen, came short of saying why Africa is still grappling with a unified identity. If accomplished, the it would be a humanitarian milestone--positive as a proton--never to be reversed.

That is what Mother Africa is in dire need of--a Unified Field Theory of Identity. She needs to imbue her children with a long-over-due sense of the United States of Africa. And this time to be willed in tangible words of African constitutionalism. This question can safely be called the "African sin of omission". If there ever was a thing "bright and beautiful", this is the one. 

Dr. Ibrahim has left Africa. He chose the UK to be his modern home and hearth. He needs to realize that pumping resources in to the continent of his birth and ancestors won't exorcize the demon of underdevelopment. The problem is looms larger than that.

When American Abolitionists created Liberia, a new day would have dawn. When Ethiopia rejected and defeated Europian colonialism, things could have turned for the better. When Ghana become the first African country to gain independence, the African specter of a Continental Congress would have taken in a vital breath of fresh air. And when South Africa emerged from the doldrums of Aparthied, the last one to do so; Namibia being the second last; the United States of Africa would've been a bewildering 360-degree turn. But that was never the case, as we all know.

It was actually another chance that went a-begging. In the last analysis, humanitarian aid on the continent of Africa will have to come in the form of the idea for Africa be to a US of Afric. The longer that idea is held out, the harder and uglier the solution will be. The "social cohesion" Dr. Ibrahim predicated his address on needs to be channeled in this direction. It's got to be the nucleus, not just gala talk by the moneyed, able to endear itself to individuals committed to "holding [the African] society together".

That attainment will, as Biko phrased it, give us and the world "a more human face".

Then the Ibrahim Prize could help galvanize the African society to invent new and sure ways as to how to go about, first, drawing the Articles of Federation, and second, the US of Africa's Constitution. 

Just incidentally, the Ibrahim Prize, to the tune of $5 million, a sump sum, and $200 000 for life awarded to a recipient, is estimated as the most generous ever received, trumping the $1,3 million awarded to the winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace. And the Nobel is a once-off endorsement.               
   
There must be initiatives worthy of such incentives, surely. We only now need to engineer programs to attract to themselves philanthropic goodwill. Initiatives that could delineate their sole business as "to elevate the condition of [the African People]--to lift artificial weights from all African shoulders--to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all Africans--to afford all [Africans], an unfettered start, and a fair chance, in the race of life".