Delusional mind of candidates in AUC chair contest

Also, we don’t remember anything that previous chairpersons Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma and Jean Ping achieved. During their time in office, the continent’s human rights situation was as horrific as it is today.

The killing fields of eastern Congo were just as deadly as they are today. Large scale theft impoverished countries as it still does today. Civil wars and ethnic violence were as endemic then as they are today.

Regimes in Africa were either dictatorships or aspiring dictatorships then and now. In 2025, the continent is as politically and economically fragile as it was then.

And yet an illusion persists that the AUC chair is a consequential position. That is why there has been a flurry of TV shows discussing the merits and chances of this or that candidate. Kenyan and other media have sent reporters to Addis to report on the so-called election.

The candidates themselves have been gallivanting all over the continent, lobbying African heads of state ahead of the election. African governments, the candidates, the media, talking heads and opinion leaders have succeeded in creating a continent-wide delusional mania.

I wonder what goes on in the minds of the candidates as they cruise to their next meeting with an African president. As they drive through neglected neighbourhoods and chaotic city streets, do they see the poverty all around their limousines? Do they prepare for the meeting by reading up on the political and economic status of the country? Do they wonder why Vietnam, a country ravaged by war for decades, has surged ahead of most African countries?

Read: Why task ahead will be tough for the next AU Commission chairperson

Do they wonder how millions of unemployed youth will get jobs when GDP is stagnant? Do they see the futility, or the wastefulness, of their own frenetic campaigning? Do they ask why there are coup d’états and civil wars? As they stroll into presidential palaces, do they wonder how such magnificence can exist amidst so much misery? Do they talk to presidents Museveni, Ruto, Biya, Obiang, Nguesso and others about democracy , human rights violations and corruption in their countries?

I doubt that they, being establishment figures who see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil in their own countries, would take a moment for honest reflection and ask themselves whether the African Union serves any purpose.

Were the European Union disbanded today, it would have socio-economic implications for ordinary European citizens. If the AU were disbanded today, no one would notice except its bureaucrats in Addis and African presidents. If anything, ordinary Africans would feel an oppressive weight lifted off their shoulders.