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African Union fails us yet again

Friday September 18 2020
AUPix

Delegates leave the plenary hall of the Africa Union (AU) headquarters, before the start of the 30th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the AU in Addis Ababa on January 27, 2018. PHOTO | AFP

By TEE NGUGI

Could the coup d'etat in Mali have been prevented by a more effectual intervention by the African Union?

For months, the country had been paralysed by street demonstrations against controversial parliamentary elections. The protesters also demanded an end to corruption and poor governance that had left the country vulnerable to terrorist attacks.

The Economic Community of West African States, to its credit, had tried to reconcile the protesters and President Ibrahim Keita. But the efforts of the AU, which has more diplomatic clout, and which has a peace and security organ mandated to prevent conflict, were tentative or nonexistent. Now that the horse has bolted from the stable, so to speak, we will see the AU rushing to close the stable doors.

The AU seems not to understand that instability, conflict and failing states are a consequence of a crisis of governance. In other words, conflict, political instability and economic collapse can be traced to poor governance, corruption and authoritarian rule. The AU, by applying diplomatic and economic pressure on governments to abide by principles of good governance, can prevent a majority of these crises.

What we see, instead, is the AU encouraging bad governance by coddling ineffectual leaders.

At the height of protests against Robert Mugabe’s authoritarian rule, for example, the AU made him chair of the AU Commission. And what did the AU think it was doing when it elected Teodoro Obiang of Equatorial Guinea chair of the Commission in 2011? Obiang has converted an oil-rich country into a personal fiefdom that benefits his family, friends and cronies while the majority of the population remains poor. Is it not plain to see that Equatorial Guinea is a crisis waiting to happen?

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It is odd that the AU will react strongly to Donald Trump’s reference to its members states as “shit hole countries” but will keep a studious silence as African governments steal from their citizens causing desperate poverty. Which is more demeaning to a people’s dignity: An insult by a failing president or desperate poverty that causes mothers to take their children on rickety boats across the Mediterranean sea?

Reports now indicate that the presidents of Guinea, Apha Conde, and his Ivorian counterpart, Alsassane Quattara, are seeking unconstitutional third terms in office. Now if these two had overseen spectacular growth in their countries, lifting millions of their citizens from poverty to prosperity, arguments for continuation of their leadership would make political and economic, if not constitutional, sense.

But the contrary is true; under their watch, the countries have stagnated or regressed. If the AU were committed to the welfare of African people, now would be the right time to intervene in these countries and ward off potential instability and possible collapse in future.

The AU should use a similar approach in crisis –plagued Central African Republic and dissuade François Bozize, a former failed president, from trying to run the county again. A stitch in time saves nine.

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