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No more quiet diplomacy: Open letter to Moussa Faki, Chair of the AU Commission

Wednesday November 22 2017
AU pic

African Union Commission chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat in a past event. PHOTO | FAROUK BATICHE | AFP

By TEE NGUGI

Dear Moussa Faki.

When you took over from Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma last year, some of us were sceptical whether you had, not so much the required academic qualifications and experience, but the kind of ideological outlook that would change both the tenor and substance of the AU Commission approach to respect to human rights, governance, citizen participation, and regional and international diplomacy.

When your predecessor took over in 2012, many had hoped that a woman would finally bring about the much needed paradigm shift in the AU’s attitude towards the thematic areas mentioned above.

It was hoped, for instance, that Dlamini-Zuma, having witnessed first-hand the horrific abuses under the apartheid system in South Africa, would emphasise the establishment of a human-rights culture on the continent. We also hoped that, having been a member of Nelson Mandela’s Cabinet that had the herculean task of transitioning South Africa from apartheid to a constitutional liberal democracy, she would bring to bear that experience and, therefore, moral authority on a programme to bring about constitutional, as opposed to whimsical, governance in Africa.

We overlooked the fact that, as South Africa’s foreign minister she, in conjunction with Thabo Mbeki, championed the disastrous see-no-evil-hear-no-evil-speak-no-evil policy towards the dictatorship of Robert Mugabe.

Additionally, we expected her to bring the AU closer to ordinary African citizens by engendering meaningful partnerships with workers unions, youth organisations, academic institutions, and so on. On all these fronts, we were disappointed.

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It was soon clear that Dlamini-Zuma was not going to bring in a new philosophy focused on human rights, good governance and citizen participation. Instead, she brought in an even more nationalist ideology than Jean Ping, her predecessor.

For Dlamini-Zuma, what was most important was the restoration of African dignity, not through invigoration of human rights and good governance, but through protecting the sovereignty of countries from what was viewed – explicitly or implicitly – as a resurgent neo-colonialism.

Thus, for instance, instead of being a powerful voice in support of the International Criminal Court, she argued for the immunity of African heads of state from ICC prosecution. She advocated instead for the establishment of an African human-rights court, an idea, not surprisingly, that has never taken off.

During her tenure, diplomatic efforts to solve volatile situations on the continent were a failure. The CAR massacres happened. Pierre Nkurunziza went rogue. Museveni continued on his quest to become life president. South Sudan imploded…

Dlamini-Zuma had forgotten what every analysis since the 1960s had established: The problems of Africa – political and economic – stem from bad government!

For long, the AU was thought of as a welfare organisation for African heads of state as opposed to an organisation for the welfare of the African people. Since its founding, it was unequivocal on whose side it stood.

As secretary-general of the AU’s predecessor body, the Organisation of African Unity, Salim Ahmed Salim would travel around the globe defending Africa’s human-rights record, even as thousands were tortured, killed or exiled by their own governments. Has this situation changed in any significant way?

Sir, a couple of months into your chairmanship, we have not seen any improvement on Zuma’s leadership. You have not used the authority of your office to address the deteriorating human-rights situation in Eritrea.

We have not seen you intervene to stop the killing of demonstrators in Togo or in Kenya. You have been quiet on Mugabe’s (ultimately unsuccessful) attempts to install his wife as his successor. Equatorial Guinea continues to suffer from dictatorship. There are massacres in the Central African Republic, in the DRC and in South Sudan.

As for citizen’s participation, the EU has a more significant presence in the lives of ordinary African citizens than the AU.

Dlamini-Zuma’s quiet diplomacy and her nationalist ideology left Africa where it was when she took over. What we need now is diplomacy and ideology that is on the side of human rights and the people.

And it must be public and backed by credible threats of diplomatic isolation, sanctions and even military intervention.

Sir, Africa has always been a continent poised for take-off. But the take-off has always aborted because of whimsical rulers.

The hundreds of Africans drowning in the seas trying to go to sweep streets in Europe rather than die of hunger in their own countries is a shameful indictment of the way we have managed our affairs.

The time for business as usual at the level of national governments and at the level of organisations such as the AU is surely over.

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