Bravo! AU summit goes on despite Bush visit
Jul 16, 2003
The second African Union summit was concluded in Maputo last weekend. Despite the focus on Bush’s visit to Africa and the various bushfires it generated, the Maputo summit is of more direct relevance and significance for Africa
Tajudeen’s Thursday Post card
By Rahman Tajudeen
The second African Union summit was concluded in Maputo last weekend. Despite the focus on Bush’s visit to Africa and the various bushfires it generated, the Maputo summit is of more direct relevance and significance for Africa.
Leaders were able to juggle their itinerary to accommodate both the Bushman and the Summit. In the past they would have abandoned else to wait for the American President. I hope that next time they will even be more assertive in advising any visiting Western leader firmly as they would have done if the situation was reversed: I am sorry but this time is not convenient.
Can you imagine an African leader demanding to visit a European or American leader at a time when the European Union or Organisation of American states are having a summit?
If Bush had to come during an AU summit they should have used it as an opportunity to lecture him on African solidarity and internationalism, by asking him to drop by at the summit since he claimed he wanted to engage with Africa.
They should not have agreed to his unilateralist instincts and preference for one-way bilateralism where he can bully, cajole and pressure other countries into submission. Imagine if he had to deal with Africa as a whole, with one voice. That is what the new African Union should be about.
It is great news that the summit did not allow any Bush diversions to make it shy away from making decisions that will further enhance the Union. The most important of this is the election of a substantive chairperson for the AU commission and appointment of other commissioners, and agreement on some of the accountability institutions such as the Pan African Parliament and ECOSOC. The commissioners are very important agents of policy implementation in the Union.
The unanimous election of Alpha Konare, former Malian President, subsequent to the withdrawal of Amara Essy, the former interim chairperson and former Ivorien foreign minister, saved the summit from a divisive election as it happened in Lusaka in 2000.
The division paved the way for a less fancied Essy, as a compromise candidate after no clear winner emerged from several rounds of voting.
Konare’s chairmanship had been on the cards since the new Union started gathering momentum after the extra ordinary summit of Shirte in 1999. He was considered a dynamic, youngish leader with a clear Pan Africanist vision, a clean record in and out of public office, and above all considered a democrat without any qualification.
Unlike the bulk of the so called new leaders across the continent who fought their way to power and often forgot to sheath their armour once they entered the government house, Konare’s army were popular forces of civil society Organisations, CSOs, NGOs, women, youth, democratic political parties that combined to overthrow a military one-party state in Mali in the early 1990s.
He emerged from civil society and has remained loyal to it. Many CSOs engaged with the Union felt that if anybody could make the Union popular with grassroots people Konare was a clear front line candidate. And some of the critically important leaders and states in the Union also agreed. But there was a snag because Konare was still president of Mali then and could not resign to declare his candidature formally.
If Essy had used his fluke emergence at the helm of the transition positively, it could have been difficult not to confirm him. But it was clear in Durban last year that the majority of the states were not happy with his lacklustre performance. The man was overwhelmed by the task and because of this his performance in the last two years was ‘under whelming’.
No doubt he inherited an organisation that was in dire straits but his own lack of charisma, initiative and creativity made his task even more difficult. He approached it as though he was still foreign minister of a member state and could not use the discretionary leverage of direct contact with leaders to push things.
He became just another bureaucrat when what was needed was dynamism to persuade member states to put their money where their mouth is and at the same time inspire cynical Africans that things were changing for the better. He failed on both counts.
It is widely expected that Konare will (actually must) do better. He has the overwhelming support of the states and also goodwill of a broad section of Africans especially activists and informed opinion. His status as former president means that he can use more direct approach to get things done. He is known internationally.
The calibre of many of the commissioners appointed too, despite the horse trading between various blocs and sub regional interests, is generally high. In an important divergence from the past, they are mostly not bureaucrats who just want to cover their backsides.
Some of them have both personal and political confidence of their leaders. Rwanda’s Mazhimaka, the new deputy chair, and Commissioner Bience Gawanas of Namibia, are known to other leaders in their regions and therefore able to muster influence to make the new commission to deliver on its tasks and shame the many doubting Thomas’s who believe that ‘nothing good comes out of Africa’.
For their sake and ours, they must not fail to seize the rare combination of historical moment and goodwill to make a positive difference in making the long dream of African Unity closer to realisation.
Writer can be reached at Tajudeen28@ yahoo.com
By Rahman Tajudeen
The second African Union summit was concluded in Maputo last weekend. Despite the focus on Bush’s visit to Africa and the various bushfires it generated, the Maputo summit is of more direct relevance and significance for Africa.
Leaders were able to juggle their itinerary to accommodate both the Bushman and the Summit. In the past they would have abandoned else to wait for the American President. I hope that next time they will even be more assertive in advising any visiting Western leader firmly as they would have done if the situation was reversed: I am sorry but this time is not convenient.
Can you imagine an African leader demanding to visit a European or American leader at a time when the European Union or Organisation of American states are having a summit?
If Bush had to come during an AU summit they should have used it as an opportunity to lecture him on African solidarity and internationalism, by asking him to drop by at the summit since he claimed he wanted to engage with Africa.
They should not have agreed to his unilateralist instincts and preference for one-way bilateralism where he can bully, cajole and pressure other countries into submission. Imagine if he had to deal with Africa as a whole, with one voice. That is what the new African Union should be about.
It is great news that the summit did not allow any Bush diversions to make it shy away from making decisions that will further enhance the Union. The most important of this is the election of a substantive chairperson for the AU commission and appointment of other commissioners, and agreement on some of the accountability institutions such as the Pan African Parliament and ECOSOC. The commissioners are very important agents of policy implementation in the Union.
The unanimous election of Alpha Konare, former Malian President, subsequent to the withdrawal of Amara Essy, the former interim chairperson and former Ivorien foreign minister, saved the summit from a divisive election as it happened in Lusaka in 2000.
The division paved the way for a less fancied Essy, as a compromise candidate after no clear winner emerged from several rounds of voting.
Konare’s chairmanship had been on the cards since the new Union started gathering momentum after the extra ordinary summit of Shirte in 1999. He was considered a dynamic, youngish leader with a clear Pan Africanist vision, a clean record in and out of public office, and above all considered a democrat without any qualification.
Unlike the bulk of the so called new leaders across the continent who fought their way to power and often forgot to sheath their armour once they entered the government house, Konare’s army were popular forces of civil society Organisations, CSOs, NGOs, women, youth, democratic political parties that combined to overthrow a military one-party state in Mali in the early 1990s.
He emerged from civil society and has remained loyal to it. Many CSOs engaged with the Union felt that if anybody could make the Union popular with grassroots people Konare was a clear front line candidate. And some of the critically important leaders and states in the Union also agreed. But there was a snag because Konare was still president of Mali then and could not resign to declare his candidature formally.
If Essy had used his fluke emergence at the helm of the transition positively, it could have been difficult not to confirm him. But it was clear in Durban last year that the majority of the states were not happy with his lacklustre performance. The man was overwhelmed by the task and because of this his performance in the last two years was ‘under whelming’.
No doubt he inherited an organisation that was in dire straits but his own lack of charisma, initiative and creativity made his task even more difficult. He approached it as though he was still foreign minister of a member state and could not use the discretionary leverage of direct contact with leaders to push things.
He became just another bureaucrat when what was needed was dynamism to persuade member states to put their money where their mouth is and at the same time inspire cynical Africans that things were changing for the better. He failed on both counts.
It is widely expected that Konare will (actually must) do better. He has the overwhelming support of the states and also goodwill of a broad section of Africans especially activists and informed opinion. His status as former president means that he can use more direct approach to get things done. He is known internationally.
The calibre of many of the commissioners appointed too, despite the horse trading between various blocs and sub regional interests, is generally high. In an important divergence from the past, they are mostly not bureaucrats who just want to cover their backsides.
Some of them have both personal and political confidence of their leaders. Rwanda’s Mazhimaka, the new deputy chair, and Commissioner Bience Gawanas of Namibia, are known to other leaders in their regions and therefore able to muster influence to make the new commission to deliver on its tasks and shame the many doubting Thomas’s who believe that ‘nothing good comes out of Africa’.
For their sake and ours, they must not fail to seize the rare combination of historical moment and goodwill to make a positive difference in making the long dream of African Unity closer to realisation.
Writer can be reached at Tajudeen28@ yahoo.com