AU Should Work hard for Mother Africa

          Amen Teferi

“The children of any nation are its future. A country, a movement, a people that does not value its youth and children, does not deserve its future.”

I prefaced my piece with a quote from the opening remark of the outgoing AU commissioner Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma who has, in her speech to the 28^th AU Summit, quoted Oliver Reginald Tambo. The quote suitably is fits the subject of the Summit, i.e. “Harnessing the Demographic dividend through investment in the youth.”

The theme highlighted not only the “demographic dividend” of our continent but also recapitulates what Oliver Tambo tries to signify in his quoted speech. The newly elected AU Chairman, Idris Deby, is entrusted with the task of harnessing this dividend through investment in the youth. The new AU commissioner, Alpha Konde of the republic of Guinea is also expected to work hard in ensuring the “continent’s future” by giving due attention to the children and youth of mother Africa.

Hence, to strengthen the organizational capacity of the AU the Rwandese President Paul Kagame has brought a proposal to the consideration of the Summit. As we know the organizational structure of the AU is adopted from the European Union (EU). With the Assembly of the 54 heads of states, the administrative commission and the pan-African Parliament- made up of 235 representatives. 

Some have questioned whether adopting the EU model was the correct decision, given that the two continents face very different challenges, but still there is much they can learn from Europe. No doubt, the two continental organizations display acute differences but  given, the EU has strict entry requirements known as conditionality, which cover areas of human rights, economics and corruption among others, while seemingly the criterion for AU membership is geography.

As some observers suggested the AU would likely benefit from adopting tighter conditions, though perhaps some of the EU’s stringent measures would prove far too draconian if applied to African states. Article 30 of the Constitutive Act of the African Union, however, suggests that there are criteria for membership. It states that any “government which shall come to power through unconstitutional means shall not be allowed to participate in the activities of the activities of the union” but the rule is only enforced in high-profile coup d’états.

In her farewell speech the chairperson the AU commission Nkosazana Dlamini- Zuma has hailed the effort made by ECOWAS and as a token of appreciation has awarded Dr. Ellen Joseph Sirleaf. Thus, before she took her seat she made a decision to take the opportunity to respectfully call on President Johnson Sirleaf to join her on the podium and extended a heartfelt gratitude to ECOWAS that show courage to stand by the people of the Gambia and defended the values and principles of our Union. In fact, ECOWAS has set a good example by remaining steadfast in defense of the principles and values of the African Union.

The handling of election crisis in Gambia demonstrates the Western region’s determination to defend democracy. That was a clear gesture that would indicate AU’s political will to promote pan-African democracy. Sometimes it appears to be difficult to take seriously the union’s political will to promote democracy when some AU nations are run by autocrats themselves. But what ECOWAS has recently done in relation to the post-election squabble in Gambia has an inspiring element that should be duly acknowledged. 

For the promotion of “peace, security, and stability on the continent,” the AU allows for intervention, however, they have had very limited success in doing so. One of their few successes was in the deployment of troops to Somalia in 2007, and some analysts believe the AU, along with Kenyan and Ethiopian forces, to have done a better job of pacifying Mogadishu than any other outside force.

However, the AU has got a fair share of criticism for its failure to intervene earlier in the civil war in Libya as well as for its delay in recognizing the new Libyan leaders. In fact, some critics tend to be rather considerate and try to understand AU’s reluctance, for it would be difficult to the AU to recognize the rebels who overthrew a man who did much to found the union. Nonetheless, they never fail to censure the AU for failing to act decisively at a time when intervention of some form was needed.

To achieve the goals set in its constitutive documents the AU always strive to strengthen its organizational structure and sought to have reliable financial capacity by generating resources from internal sources. We know that a major challenge facing the African Union is funding.

Currently, only five countries contribute two-thirds of the portion from AU member states. From the so-called ‘Big Five’—South Africa, Nigeria, Libya, Egypt and Algeria For instance, in 2011, Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi withheld his country’s contribution, voicing displeasure at what he believed to be a lack of progress in a move towards a ‘United States of Africa.’ With such shortcomings as these in the area of funding, it is inevitable that the AU will fail to operate effectively. One important place to start in addressing this problem is to deal with corruption and the illicit flow of money from Africa. The continent possesses great wealth in its resources, but little of this wealth is used in the development of the continent. It has been estimated that Africa is losing close to $50bn annually with a large portion of this from the extractive industries, such as oil and gas exploration.

The Centre for Citizens’ Participation on the African Union (CCP-AU) reports that Nigeria alone has been losing $5bn of oil money per year. Former South African President Thabo Mbeki is currently leading a High Level Panel looking at the illicit flow of finances from Africa. More work in this area needs to be carried out.