{{The summit of the African Union member states leaders ends on Monday in Ethiopia.}}<\/p>\n
Their communiqu\u00e9 will be scrutinised. If it includes \u201cWe\u2019ve come a long way,\u201d forget it.<\/p>\n
Anyway, the summit is unique. It comes at a time when optimism about Africa\u2019s future is, once again, high. It also marks two occasions when continental leaders defined its place in global economic and political sphere.<\/p>\n
The first time was the formation of the then 32-member Organisation of African Unity, OAU, 50 years ago.<\/p>\n
Ghana\u2019s Kwame Nkrumah summed the mood: \u201cSeek ye first the political kingdom, and all things shall be added unto you.\u201d In hindsight, \u201ceconomic kingdom\u201d would have made more sense.<\/p>\n
The second round marked the OAU\u2019s metamorphosis into the now 54-member African Union, AU, 21-years-old last Saturday. The theme of a symposium in weeklong activities at AU\u2019s headquarters in Ethiopia\u2019s capital, Addis Ababa, defines the mood: \u201cPan Africanism and African Renaissance.\u201d<\/p>\n
Well, anybody alive for more than 10 years has heard of Pan Africanism and the continent\u2019s renaissance.<\/p>\n
Both the OAU\u2014and its infamous tag as a Dictators\u2019 Club\u2014and the AU remain compromises. Some Africans wish a politically and economically United States of Africa. Others insist \u201cIt isn\u2019t time-yet.\u201d It\u2019s an accomplishment both sides are still talking. Unfortunately, one of the OAU\u2019s original member states, Morocco, remains absent. <\/p>\n
It pulled out of the OAU in a huff over one of the organizations\u2019 many failures to deal with continental issues. Three member states are suspended for failure to live up to the AU\u2019s rules. Hurrah!<\/p>\n
Also missing is former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, whose rule ended ignominiously in October 2011. A late convert to Pan-Africanism, Gaddafi advocated, some say bought supporters, for a United States of Africa. His unbridled ambition to be first head was obvious.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, the AU can boast of the lack of, in its midst, the likes of infamous rulers like the \u201cButcher of Addis,\u201d Mengistu, the \u201cButcher of Kampala,\u201d Idi Amin, and Gaddafi, whose contempt of some leaders worldwide was legendary.<\/p>\n
Of course, Gaddafi\u2019s idea of Africa\u2019s \u201cBig Man\u201d isn\u2019t dead. Zimbabwe\u2019s President Robert Mugabe re-championed it in January. He said, in part: \u201c\u2026we must also have an African head\u2026 Yes, we need one.\u201d<\/p>\n
A reading of the OAU and AU\u2019s objectives indicate common sense and achievable goals. Indeed the OAU succeeded in the fight against colonialism and apartheid. However, in most of other aspects performance and implementation deficiencies remained galore.<\/p>\n
What the African leaders at the summit should come up with are clearly defined nuts and bolts for reducing performance and implementation deficiencies that plagued the OAU and are creeping into the AU.<\/p>\n
What ails the continent and the remedies are already known. Pan Africanism and renaissance are hackneyed.<\/p>\n
Contact Author……cmbitiru@hotmail.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{{The summit of the African Union member states leaders ends on Monday in Ethiopia.}} Their communiqu\u00e9 will be scrutinised. If it includes \u201cWe\u2019ve come a long way,\u201d forget it. Anyway, the summit is unique. It comes at a time when optimism about Africa\u2019s future is, once again, high. It also marks two occasions when continental […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"archived_slugs":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[100],"byline":[641],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-8067","opinion","type-opinion","status-publish","hentry","category-opinions","tag-africa","byline-chege-mbitiru"],"bylines":[{"id":641,"name":"Chege Mbitiru","slug":"chege-mbitiru","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null,"twitter_handle":""}],"contributors":[{"id":641,"name":"Chege Mbitiru","slug":"chege-mbitiru","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null,"twitter_handle":""}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/opinion\/8067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/opinion"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/opinion"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/opinion\/8067\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8067"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=8067"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=8067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}