Professor Patrick Loch Otieno (PLO) Lumumba has called on African leaders to remove unnecessary barriers restricting the movement of people across the continent.
He warned that the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) cannot achieve its objectives if Africans are unable to move freely to participate in the emerging single market.
Lumumba argued that Africa’s ambition to establish an integrated continental economy would remain incomplete if governments continued to facilitate the movement of goods and capital while treating the movement of African citizens with suspicion.
He spoke at the Bridge Club’s grand end-of-year event in Lagos on Thursday, where he delivered a keynote address titled ‘Africa Must Not Become Foreign to Itself: Xenophobia, Pan-Africanism and the Future of African Belonging.’
According to him, the success of continental economic integration depends not only on trade agreements and tariff reductions but also on the ability of entrepreneurs, professionals, workers and investors to move across national borders.
He said: ‘We cannot celebrate when Nigerian products enter another African market but become anxious when the Nigerian entrepreneur follows them.’
Lumumba maintained that goods and services could not independently drive economic integration without the people whose skills, knowledge and enterprise made commercial activities possible.
‘Goods do not manufacture themselves. Services do not provide themselves. Capital does not negotiate contracts, establish companies or cross borders without human agency,’ he said.
He noted that behind every commercial transaction were entrepreneurs, transporters, engineers, lawyers, bankers, technicians, traders and workers whose contributions were essential to the success of an integrated African market.
The legal scholar questioned the logic of promoting free trade while maintaining restrictive immigration policies that made it difficult for Africans to establish businesses, seek employment or pursue professional opportunities in other African countries.
He said the contradiction was particularly evident in the continent’s efforts to implement the AfCFTA while the African Union’s Protocol on Free Movement of Persons, Right of Residence and Right of Establishment remained unimplemented.
Lumumba observed that although the AfCFTA Agreement had entered into force, the free movement protocol adopted in 2018 had yet to enter into force.
He described the situation as evidence that African governments had made greater progress in agreeing to move commodities across borders than in facilitating the movement of their own citizens.
He, however, acknowledged that governments retained legitimate responsibilities to regulate immigration, protect national security, enforce labour standards and ensure compliance with professional requirements.
According to him, regulation should not be confused with exclusion, adding that orderly migration was compatible with national sovereignty and effective governance.
Lumumba cited the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) as an example of regional efforts to promote the movement of people, recalling that the organisation adopted its Protocol on Free Movement of Persons, Residence and Establishment in 1979.
He said the experience demonstrated that regional integration must be felt by ordinary citizens rather than remain an aspiration confined to presidents, government officials and trade institutions.
The scholar also argued that the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and its aspiration for an African passport should be treated as essential components of continental integration rather than ceremonial ambitions.
He said the success of the AfCFTA should be measured not only by the volume of goods traded or revenue generated but also by the opportunities available to ordinary Africans.
‘The success of AfCFTA will ultimately be measured not only by tariff schedules, customs revenues or the volume of goods crossing our borders,’ he said.
‘It will also be measured by whether an African entrepreneur can see the continent as a market, whether an African professional can see it as a field of opportunity and whether an ordinary African can cross a border without immediately being transformed, in the minds of fellow Africans, from neighbour into threat.’
Lumumba called for improved documentation systems, mutual recognition of professional qualifications and clearer residence and work arrangements to facilitate lawful movement across the continent.
He urged African leaders to move beyond the rhetoric of continental unity and demonstrate greater political commitment to building an integrated economic space.
‘We cannot build a single African market while maintaining 54 fortified mental markets,’ he declared.
He said Africa must embrace a system in which goods, services, ideas, capital and people could move within an orderly legal framework if the continent hoped to compete effectively in the global economy.
Earlier, the President of The Bridge Club, Abdulhakeem Mustapha (SAN), said the continued discrimination against Africans in other African countries represented a fundamental contradiction of the ideals of continental unity.
He said Pan-Africanism must be reflected in everyday conduct, institutional practices and the way African countries treat citizens of other African nations.
‘How can we preach Pan-Africanism while tolerating attitudes and practices that diminish the humanity and dignity of fellow Africans?’ he asked.