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Isles chief minister agitates for ’people’s EAC’
2006-07-24 09:13:37
By Issa Yussuf, Zanzibar
Zanzibar Chief Minister Shamsi Vuai Nahodha has called for additional efforts to make the East African Community ( EAC) a people-oriented regional integration.
Speaking at the closing ceremony of the workshop on ’EAC retreat for executives and professional staff’ held in Zanzibar last week, Nahodha said the best way to achieve that (people’s union) is through public education.
Nahodha said people need to be well informed about the benefits of regional integration .
’’People’s trust to the integration is first and foremost agenda in order to achieve the anticipated good progress of the East African Community.
We will not reach far unless deliberate measures are taken to translate into action, agreements signed heads of the member states last year,’’ Nahodha said.
He said a strong political federation was possible if the people of EA owned the integration process themselves through effective and informed participation.
He called on each member state to solicit views and make consultations with all stakeholders including the civil society, academicians, religious institutions, private sector, and political parties to obtain their consent.
In order to strengthen the community, the chief minister challenged the EAC executives and professionals to establish the community’s organs and institutions sub-offices in partner states for easy communication with stakeholders.
He said under the current community arrangement were almost all its organs and institution offices are only found in Arusha, it has been difficult for many people in the regions such as those from Micheweni village in Pemba to travel to Arusha for the East African Court of Justice services.
Earlier on, the EAC Secretary General Juma Mwapachu said that the retreat meeting in Zanzibar was an indication that the community was determined to include all arerase of the member states in the community.
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