South Sudan matures
As news go, the installation of South Sudan as the African Union’s 54th member, is no big deal.
Its birth as the world’s newest sovereign nation was a lot more significant, for it marked the formal end of the longest civil war in history.
That South Sudan’s ascension to the African Union was a mere formality could have robbed it of some glory, were it not that the continental body has lost a great deal of its lustre.
The African Union was formed nine years ago to replace the moribund Organisation of African Unity, amid hopes that the lassitude that marked the OAU’s final years would be no more.
But Alas, the AU has proved to have no sharper teeth. Indeed, it proved its utter irrelevance during the peak of the so-called Arab Spring revolution that toppled two autocracies in rapid succession.
The AU never did a thing either way, nor did anyone pay attention when it attempted to arbitrate in the Libyan revolution that followed soon after.
However, it would not be fair to describe the AU as an aberration, but it would not be far-fetched to ask whether the continent cannot do without it.
We can only hope that South Sudan’s entrance will make a difference. At least, the move gives the new country some legitimacy, if nothing else.
http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Editorial/South+Sudan+matures+/-/440804/1220112/-/bw045x/-/
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