The bellicose sounds coming from the northern parts of Africa were once emitted from the place more than 40 years ago. The place was Egypt under the late President Anwar Sadat, the subject of the matter was the Nile River, correction -- THEIR Nile River.

Sadat was sounding war drums, sending out intimidating warnings that no one was supposed to touch on the Nile, especially upstream countries where the waters emanate.

Now the current President Mohammed Morsi is recycling the old threats over Ethiopia’s building of a dam on the river.

Colonial treaties that gave Egypt and Sudan the right to monopolise the Nile have been overpassed by history and should not be the basis of deciding how the waters can be used for the mutual benefit of the riparian states.

The Cooperative Framework Agreement (CFA) of the Nile basin member states that was signed in Entebbe, Uganda on May 14, 2010, was a blueprint for the equitable and sustainable management of the river, but Sudan and Egypt refused to come on board claiming a "historical right” to the river failing to recognize other countries’ "natural right”.

Instead of sable rattling, the two countries would be best advised to sit down with other riparian states to find a way forward for the equitable utilization of the river which belongs to all territories it flows through. That is sound advice that should be taken seriously.