by E K Bensah Jr
In November 2024, while reflecting on Africa’s freedom of movement debates, I began writing Jazz Nights at Jupiter (JNJ) as a series of fictional letters from Mendacity — a continental operator — to his uncle, a retired Pan-African civil servant.
The format was deliberate: humour as diagnosis; satire as policy critique.
Episode 2 was titled “The Curse of Ratification”.
In 2025, as the African Visa Openness Index (AVOI) marked 10 years, and following my invitation to the AfDB commemorations, the questions raised in that letter feel even more urgent.
This article launches a short reflection series on why Africa agrees on integration, but struggles to implement it — and what freedom of movement really tells us about political will, institutional fear, and continental ambition.
Episode 2: “The Curse of Ratification”
Dear Uncle Kwame,
PS
The African Visa Openness Index (Avoi) is 10 years old this month.
Hooray for visa reciprocity!
I am surprised the celebration is more of a muted affair. I want to believe it could be because the curse of the ratifications is still impacting the FMP.
Maybe we should find a priest at the Vatican to exorcise the spirit of some of these protocols. That is if they even have spirits at all.
Uncle, you studied theology. Maybe you can help us understand this curse of ratification.
The African Minerals Development Centre is stuck at 4 – after Nigeria ratified back.in 2024; the AU FMP remains at 4 since 2018! Let me not give you a heart attack by softly notifying you that the African Audiovisual Cinema Commission (AACC) has the most terrifying statistics: zero ratifications and just one signature from Kenya.
I would have thought Nigeria and Nollywood being spoken in the same breath would encourage that West African neighbour to at least sign the cursed protocol –considering how critical the creative arts remain to the continent.
But it has neither signed nor ratified!I truly think something is seriously amiss – and has nothing to do with the verbosity of the names of the Protocol. Could it be that the names are too long?
Could that be the curse? Your beloved AU has some of the longest names for protocols I have come across!
For all its challenges, what I love about what my South African godmother and you proposed is that it is so simple for everyone –Agenda 2063.
If it is true that complexity is simplicity in disguise, then I want to believe that the simplicity around the concept is on point: 7 aspirations; 14 flagship projects and more.
I almost forgot: it’s already two years since the Secretary-General of the African Civil Aviation Commission (AFCAC) Adeyemi was re-appointed and the SAATM is gaining more steam than in an African kitchen on a weekend! The SAATM PIP has more airlines subscribed and there are more airlines running 5th freedom rights. Which means more African routes opening up.
While I continue to run around East Africa for an unnamed law enforcement agency trying to get more East Africans to drink so much milk they forget to engage in milk wars, I cannot help thinking about your maiden boat trip.
You never missed the boat on creating opportunities for Ghana and the continent. It’s time we take our continent’s bull by the horns – and make that flight to our continental destiny!
Please extend my greetings to Auntie.
Always your loving nephew,
Mendacity
Over the coming weeks, I will publish a series of short reflections inspired by AVOI@10 — on freedom of movement, ratification paralysis, institutional incentives, and why Africa’s integration story often advances fastest where treaties are weakest.Some pieces will be policy. Others will be fictional. All will be grounded in lived continental experience.
