By JAINDI KISERO

It was time the Organisation of African Unity underwent re-engineering and had its mandate broadened to respond to the more pressing concerns facing the continent.

Indeed, in seeking to turn the organisation into an economic union, African leaders are merely responding to what is happening in the rest of the world.

The phenomenon now referred to as globalisation is forcing continents to group into unions, free trade areas, preferential trade arrangements and all manner of economic groupings.

The Europeans have the European Union (EU), the North Americans the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA), the Asians the ASEAN Free Trade Area and the South Americans, the common market known as Mercosur.

Africa is being marginalised and bypassed in the emerging trade arrangements. The EU is expanding eastwards, getting into preferential trade arrangements with countries in Eastern Europe, while exhibiting more interest in dealings with countries in the Middle East.

On the other hand, the Americas are keener on arrangements with countries in the Caribbean basin.

But, even as we celebrate the birth of the African Union, we must accept that the road towards transforming the OAU from a political organisation into an economic entity will be rocky.

The only saving grace for the new organisation is that the building blocks are already in place - in the name of the existing regional groupings. In the last few years, Africa has witnessed the emergence of strong economic groupings.

They include the Economic Organisation for West African States (Ecowas), to which Anglophone West African countries belong, the Union Economique et Monetaire Ouest Africaine (UEMOA), to which most of the francophones belong, the Common Market for East and Central Africa (Comesa), the East African Community, the Southern Africa Development Conference (SADC) and the Arab Maghreb Union.

The most daunting challenge and highest priority for the new organisation will be to co-ordinate the operations of these economic groupings.

They have mushroomed to the extent that there are now cases where countries have multiple memberships and where some of the economic groupings have overlapping mandates.

For example, Tanzania, Zambia, Malawi, the Congo, the Seychelles and Zimbabwe are members both of Comesa and of the SADC. Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania are members of both the East African Community and Comesa.

If the new organisation manages to stamp its authority as the apex organisation for all these economic groupings, it will be in the best position to referee differences among members of the various economic groupings.

It may have to take over the responsibility of rationalising memberships to the existing regional groupings. Indeed, the absence of an organisation to co-ordinate and rationalise membership in these regional economic groupings is already being felt.

Within the East African region, Tanzania has already sent notice that it will be withdrawing from Comesa. Dar es Salaam has made it clear it prefers to stay in the SADC.

Even more important, the new continental organisation will find itself playing arbiter over complaints by small countries that regional economic groupings are being dominated by the larger economies.

One of the main impediments to Africa's economic integretion has been complaints by smaller economies that economic groupings serve only to open their economies to domination by the stronger ones.

Within the East African Community, movement to a customs union and a common external tariff has been slowed down by complaints by Uganda and Tanzania that free trade within the region benefits Kenya most.

They have said a customs union would turn their economies into a supermarket for Kenya's manufactured goods and services.

Similar murmurs have been heard in Ecowas, with smaller countries in the region complaining of domination by Nigeria.

Member countries of the Economic and Monetary Union of West Africa (Uemoa), which groups six Anglophone countries, have complained of domination by Senegal and Cotre d'Ivoire.

Until now, there has been no forum where these complaints could be ironed out objectively and under the guidance of an independent body.

It could turn out to be the vehicle which will lead the continent into joining the World Trade Organisation as one large bloc.

But, at the end of the day, economic groupings will not solve Africa's deep- rooted problems unless we begin to tackle domestic problems seriously.

The rich and super-rich of Africa show little compassion for their own poor countrymen, but complain loudly about insensitivity by donors to the plight of the poor.

Aid goes into private pockets through corruption. Our governments are inefficient and make hopeless investors. Yet they still expect taxpayers in the North to finance their grandiose egoistic projects.

It is time our leaders realised that aid is no subtitute for self-help. The poverty of a nation has never been cured by a transfer of wealth from another country.

History will record that the greatest mistake of post-independent governments in Africa was to make far less investment in human resources - in education, family planning, nutrition, and public health - than in brick and mortar plants and factories.

We had quantitative growth without qualitative development. Our gross national product increased while our gross national happiness did not.

* Mr Kisero is the Business Editor, 'Daily Nation'.