Accountable Pan‑African Governance Mirroring Nkrumah: Comparative Institutional Analysis of Continental Unity, Public Sector Performance, and Pathways for Reforms

Purpose: This article conducted an institutional examination of Pan‑African governance and public sector performance by remodeling Kwame Nkrumah’s fundamental principles in Africa Must Unite. Methodology: The study employed comparative institutional analysis and documentary triangulation as a robust qualitative research method to appreciate the way rules, norms, and organizational structures vary between contexts and to validate findings via diverse, autonomous documentary sources. This approach was adopted in order to reinforce the validity, reliability and rigor of findings, transcending sole-source bias to appreciating the intricate dynamics of continental integration. Findings: The study found that the logic of “reserved powers” as postulated by Nkrumah is moderately incorporated into contemporary architecture of governance in Africa via the organs of the African Union (AU), acknowledged Regional Economic Communities (RECs), and AfCFTA initiatives. However, these arrangements are largely inhibited by contestation of authority, coordinate regionalism, —but remains constrained by legitimacy contestation, overlapping regionalism, variable domestication of continental norms, and uneven administrative capacity. It also established that modern accountability instruments exist but are not yet sufficiently integrated into a continent‑wide performance regime that can credibly sustain deeper sovereignty pooling. Unique Contributions to Theory, Policy, and Practice: The study made significant contribution with a sequenced propositional reform —“accountable pooling of sovereignty”, a concept which links concrete milestones of integration to quantifiable integrity within the public sector space, thereby enhancing efficiency and delivering metrics, but at the same time, foregrounding digital governance as a contemporary integration “spine”.