South African President Thabo Mbeki sought to inject urgency into the building of the African Union (AU) as the fledgling organisation kicked off its second summit in the Mozambican capital Maputo on Thursday.
”To achieve what we want to achieve we have to dedicate more time, energy and resources to the AU,” said the outgoing chair of the 53-member body that has yet to set up institutions designed to turn the impoverished continent into a European Union-style bloc.
Mbeki said institution-building ”must receive our urgent attention”, in particular the setting up of a conflict intervention council, a continental Parliament and peer review mechanism to allow African nations to evaluate each other’s status of good governance and democracy.
”We must decide that the Peace and Security Council should be in operation before the end of the year. We must decide that the Pan-African Parliament must be in operation before the end of the year.
”Those of us who are delaying with the ratifications of the protocol must please deal with that question so we can move ahead,” Mbeki said.
The AU, inaugurated in Durban a year ago, also envisages a common court of justice, an African Central Bank, African Monetary Union and a common African currency in the long term.
Mbeki has in the past lamented the lack of cash for the AU to function properly. Eight countries are being threatened with exclusion for being two or more years behind in paying their membership fees, including to the AU’s predecessor the Organisation of African Unity (OAU).
Five countries — South Africa, Libya, Algeria, Egypt and Nigeria — are currently providing most of the AU resources.
”We have to place our individual national interests within the context of our continental and collective interests,” Mbeki said.
The summit is expected to focus on a social and economic recovery plan, dubbed the New Partnership for Africa’s Develoment (Nepad), as well as about 10 conflicts currently raging on the continent.
Mozambican President Joachim Chissano, who will take over the revolving AU chairship from Mbeki, stressed the importance of Nepad in fostering economic independence during his opening address.
”We must help each other to improve our governance on the basis of friendship and mutual trust. It is only in this way that we can diffuse or dissipate the negative image of our continent as an incapable Africa without a future,” Chissano said.
Notably absent from the Maputo summit is embattled Liberian President Charles Taylor, who has accepted an asylum offer from Nigeria to end a four-year conflict in his west African country but refused to leave until an international force arrives.
The former warlord also has been indicted for war crimes by a United Nations-backed court in neighbouring Sierra Leone.
On the other hand, Madagascar, which was barred from the AU’s inaugural summit last year because of doubts over the legitimacy of its president, has been re-admitted.
The AU succeeded the OAU, born in May 1963, which did not have the clout to intervene in political crises. The Constitution of the AU, on the other hand, allows interference to ensure good governance and peace and stability.
This second summit will elect the chair of the AU Commission, tasked with the day-to-day running of the organisation. The former president of Mali, Alpha Oumar Konare, is the only candidate since the interim chair, Amara Essy of Côte d’ Ivoire, abandoned his election bid on Monday.
Many African heavyweights, including South Africa, Egypt, Libya, Nigeria and Senegal, were said to have favoured Konare, bringing most of the smaller countries in their wake and prompting Essy to announce his withdrawal.
Mbeki said at the opening: ”We owe a great deal to the amount of work he [Essy] put in to ensure the organisation moved forward. The interim chairman has given us an indication of what has happened and what has to be done.” – Sapa-AFP