Jean Ping, the chairman of the African Union Commission,is on a West African tour which political strategists perceive as intended to woo west African leaders ahead of the next round of electing the Commission chief.
Ping is being challenged by South Africa’s Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma that already enjoys the support of the 15-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC).
The AU summit convenes this July to elect the AU Commission chairman.
The incumbent AU commission boss Ping ,met Sierra Leonean President Ernest Bai Koroma on Wednesday before leaving for Monrovia for talks with President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.
Earlier in January, a tight election last failed to come up with a clear winner with neither candidate able to secure the necessary two-thirds majority vote.
South Africa has also been lobbying African nations to back Mrs Dlamini-Zuma.
However, West Africa, under the leadership of regional power Nigeria, is said to be backing Ping from Gabon.
Ping has accused the continent’s largest economy of disregarding an unwritten agreement which bars it and other regional powers like Nigeria, Algeria and Egypt from vying for the presidency of the AU Commission.
It is understood that Ping has personally enlisted the support of Gabonese President Ali-Ben Bongo Ondimba in the lobbying campaign.
Leaders of the four-nation Mano River Union (MRU) comprising Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea and Ivory Coast, during their recent gathering in Conakry, agreed to adopt a common position on the AU Commission chairmanship election.
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