Daily Independent Online.
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Monday,July 19, 2004.
As Obasanjo leads the African Union
In a unanimous vote, African leaders,
Tuesday July 5, elected President Olusegun Obasanjo as the next Chairman of the
African Union (AU). This arguably
marks the end of an intense lobby effort, which reportedly commenced in Abuja last December when
Nigeria hosted the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM). Ordinarily, this would have been a
remarkable achievement having completed a series of diplomatic and intercontinental
events to re-launch Nigeria into the international community after years of a
pariah status caused by mindless military dictatorships and diplomatic
blunders. But coming at a time
when alienation is rife among the masses back at home here in Nigeria, on
account of misgovernment, massive
official corruption and pervasive hunger - the very factors that set the
populace against military rule -
Obasanjo’s new leadership of the AU is everything but cheering.
With his mop-up campaign tour of several African
countries prior to his official declaration as the new AU Chairman, it was
evident that President Obasanjo wanted the top-most position in the continental
assembly as an egocentric necessity. In fact, President Thabo Mbeki of South
Africa initiated the campaign for the Obasanjo candidature when he argued that
Africa needed the personality of the Nigerian President to consolidate the
issue of the New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD). He later aligned with the out-going AU
Chairman, President Joachim Chisano of Angola, to convince their colleagues on
the need to adopt Obasanjo as AU Chairman in order for Africa to address the
nagging issues of internal conflicts and economic reforms, given the Nigerian
ruler’s presumed clout in the international arena. That President Obasanjo will man the
two topmost AU positions, the Chairmanship as well as Chairman, Peace and
Security Council, shows the enormity of responsibilities he is entrusted with.
It is true that since the 1980s, African States have
been moving from one crisis to the other with some of these degenerating into
full-scale wars that have resulted in widespread carnage. Somalia, Angola, Mozambique, Sudan,
Rwanda, among others, have been theatres of one form of war or another. The mind-boggling loss of human lives
and properties in all of these wars has pricked the conscience of the
international community and has galvanised it toward mediatory and
peace-keeping roles. But the solution to Africa’s perennial problem lies
in the official character of its political leaders. The continent has long been inundated with lazy, even
wicked, leadership; predatory kleptocrats, military-installed autocrats,
economic illiterates, and puffed-up posturers who have shamelessly personalised
the abundant material wealth of their respective countries. Countries like
Nigeria, Cameroun, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zimbabwe are examples
of nations that have been run aground despite their huge natural resources.
While being anxious for acclamation from the
international community, African leaders are content with using power as an end
in itself, rather than for the public good. In the midst of plenty, poverty parades the continent in its
true nakedness, driving children out of the classrooms onto the streets to fend
for themselves, while African leaders loot the public treasuries and remain
indifferent to the progress of their citizens. They are often unswayed by reason and employ insalubrious
economic and social reforms which are designed by Western nations to further
emasculate the African. Under the
evil stewardship of these African leaders, social amenities like roads, water
pipes, electricity, etc, have fallen into complete disrepair, currencies have
been over-devalued and inflation has reached the roof tops, while profitable
employment, health care delivery, standard of living and life expectancy have
degenerated markedly.
The net effect of this leadership failure in Africa
is that the continent is ravaged by inexplicable and sometimes fictitious
foreign debts. Currently,
sub-Saharan Africa has estimated
foreign debts of $201 billion. Aside from Botswana, which parades the best
leadership in Africa, demonstrating a knack for entrepreneurship and the rule
of law since its independence in 1966,
most other African nations are still drifting. Bereft of an elementary knowledge of
economics, these self-imposed African leaders are constantly displaying their
dependency complex by relying solely on the Group of 8 industrialised countries
to dictate to them on how to move Africa backward. To view Obasanjo’s merit on the basis of these
parameters therefore is to argue that Mbeki got it wrong. It is preposterous that whereas South
Africa is developing in a geometrical progression, Mbeki is flattering Nigeria
as a generous donor and to pander our vanity to now shoulder Africa’s
multifarious problems while Nigerians are experiencing the worst type of
hardship at home.
As Obasanjo assumes leadership of the African Union,
we enjoin him to map out new priorities for the total advancement of the
continent. There must be
transparency and good governance, and the survival of the poor and needy must
be the ultimate goal of African governments. The era of wayward, unaccountable leadership must go for
good. African leaders must summon
the courage to end the charade of this endless and overbloated indebtedness to
rich nations. They must ignore or
abandon those debts and form trade zones among African economies and take over
the management of the African Development Bank as a buffer for solid industrial
development. Above all, they must hand over the leadership of the continent to
much younger, energetic and knowledgeable politicians as is the case all over
the world. It is only good
governance that can guarantee lasting peace and development in Africa.
