The AU should encourage African leaders to abide by its African charter on democracy (Part 1)
5 min readSolving conflict in the African continents, AU in position to help prevent many of these problems by encouraging African leaders to abide by its African charter on democracy (1-2)
By Lino Lual Lual, Juba, South Sudan
March 18, 2016 (SSB) — Following the popular revolts that toppled Tunisia’s Ben Ali, Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, and Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, many African affairs analysts have pondered on the reasons why these rebellions have not yet spread to Sub-Saharan Africa or are it because Sub Saharan Africa has not had the Islamic groups which have threatened the west.
The real question, therefore, is not why the Arab spring has not spread to Sub-Saharan Africa for the Sub-Saharan African spring took place much earlier-, but why so many analysts believe that this region is as ripe for popular revolts as North Africa. In other words, why is the quasitotality of African countries still gnawed by unaccountable political leaders, lack of justice, and democracy decades after African populations had started clamoring for better governance and democratic reforms?
This author argues that neither military nor financial weakness can adequately explain the AU’s inability to support the democratic aspirations of African citizens. This failure is mainly attributable to a primordial mistake of the type of Pan-Africanist ideology that permeates the AU, the misguided disregard and disrespect of Africa’s democratic past. The aforementioned error has led to an anachronistic betrayal of African people on the part of the AU, which is the tendency to overlook the mistreatment of African populations by autocrats on the basis of their African-ness and anti-imperialist stance.
Most of the coups, conflicts and social turbulences currently taking place in Africa are largely due to the grabbing of national wealth by unaccountable elites, disrespect of citizens’ basic human rights and civil liberties and gross abuses of power by the ruling classes. Just as the Organization of the African Unity was created in 1963 by Pan-Africanists like Julius Nyerere, Gamal Abdel Nasser, Nkwame Nkrumah and Leopold Sedar Senghor, the Impetus for the establishment of the AU in 2002 was the desire to accelerate the achievement of the objectives of Pan-Africanism, including the strengthening of Africa’s unity as well as its political and economic independence.
Though it shares Pan-African roots and objectives with its predecessor, the AU is operating in a different context as pointed out in the previous section, like the OAU, the AU has so far failed to,
(a) Avoid the marginalization of Africa in international affairs largely due to divisions amongst African states,
(b) Rescue millions of Africans from extreme poverty,
(c) Prevent the outbreak of wars in many African nations and solve longstanding conflicts, and
(d) Promote good governance and democratic accountability throughout Africa.
This does not mean that the AU too should be disbanded and replaced by another body for admittedly, it has been in existence for barely for many years. However, in order to preserve from the fate of its predecessor which was widely viewed as a toothless bulldog, this organization needs to rethink its Pan-Africanist policies to ensure that it does not repeat the mistakes of the OAU and is able to effectively tackle the challenges facing the African continent.
The response of the AU to the crises in Côte d’Ivoire and Libya shows that it has not yet completed the rethinking of its policies necessary for them to avoid incurring in the same mistakes as the OAU. In comparison with its predecessor’s tolerance of African autocrats, the AU’s suspension of Côte d’Ivoire’s membership following Laurent Gbagbo’s refusal to acknowledge Alassane Ouattara’s election victory in 2010 was a clear sign of progress. However, the fact that Gbagbo was ousted from power by armed rebels loyal to Ouattara and French forces highlights the failure of the AU to prevent and solve conflicts in Africa.
Instead of restricting itself to mere proclamations about the need for a peaceful and well governed Africa, the AU must urgently endow itself with the practical mechanisms required to avoid the occurrence of tensions and violence before and after the elections, as was the case in Côte d’Ivoire.
It was Nkwame Nkrumah’s dissatisfaction with the United Nations’ failure to save Patrice Lumumba and act decisively to solve the conflict in the Republic of Congo (now Democratic Republic of Congo) that led him to propose the creation of an African joint High Command that might intervene in future African crises in 1961.
To be continued————
The author is a master of strategic studies at Centre for Peace and Development Studies University of Juba, He can be reached via Linolual69@yahoo.com
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