By ABBEY MAKOE
Kenyan President William Ruto won over many of his colleagues during an address to the AU meeting of the heads of state when he made an impassioned plea for a return to pan-Africanism.
In the echoes of the founding fathers of the Organisation of the African Union (OAU), predecessor to the AU, Ruto ramped up the dire need for African solutions to African problems. He talked about the ethos of African unity of purpose, particularly in geopolitics.
Ruto’s encouraging words sounded like a breath of fresh air in a continent that has consistently failed to take advantage of its unique strengths in global affairs.
The blatant disunity of the AU member states on numerous fronts, including language, culture and geographic location, has set back a continent that has suffered the most under colonialism, Western imperialism that continues to this day as well as apartheid not too long ago.
Examples of the self-inflicted wounds among African leaders are too many to count one by one. But instead of wallowing in self-pity, let me return to Ruto’s illuminating words that give hope to Africa’s re-awakening.
Lamenting the blatant undermining of the individual sovereignty of Africa’s more than 50 states, Ruto gave an example of “summits” between Africa (a collective) and an individual power, for example the US. The Kenyan leader demanded to know why more than 50 African heads of state must fly to Washington to attend a US-Africa Summit when they can mandate a “troika” to represent all of the them and report back to them.
Ruto also revealed that the “invitation” from the US to attend the summit is signed off with threats of consequences for non-attendance. In other words, African leaders are required by Washington to drop any other engagement to fly out to America to meet with a sitting president like schoolboys and girls summoned by a headmaster. They are dined and wined in widely televised interactions that depict the power of the superpower in international relations.
Worst of all, according to Ruto, the African leaders – more than 50 of them in suits and costumes – are lined up in a long queue towards a single microphone where they are each allocated a minute-and-a-half to say their say. Most attend the meeting for nothing else except their fear of “blackmail. This is not okay. “What kind of an outcome are you expecting?” Ruto asked. “The best that you can get is photographs,” he said.
I liked the Kenyan leader for his forthrightness and readiness to thrash out a way forward. He said all AU heads of state have agreed that “from now on, any engagement with partners must be an engagement of equals.” He added: “For it to be meaningful, if we are going to meet the president of another country, we (must) have organised ourselves.” He complained that when “others” want to deal with African leaders they “they don’t want to deal with the troika”.
Ruto said, from now on, any foreign power that wants to engage with Africa “must first respect our architecture. Anybody who wants us to take them seriously, they must first respect our architecture. They must engage our continent in a manner that we can effectively represent our people and effectively discharge our mandate and articulate our issues. Not in a crowd!”
He added: “If you can’t respect our rules, it is a sign of a lack of goodwill.”
He said a troika representing the entire continent at any summit would ensure constructive engagement – “a meeting of equals” – unlike a charade that serves no good for the continent. Ruto said superpowers want to engage with Africa through crowds in order to avoid any commitment to their declarations.
“The AU reform agenda must become a priority,” Ruto said. The member states need to establish fit-for-purpose continental governing structures that support a worthy AU.
These are such refreshing reflections by a sitting African head of state. The continent was last collectively inspired and driven by former president Thabo Mbeki. His African Renaissance project effectively repositioned Africa’s role global affairs and fostered mutual recognition of the continent by others.
Africa has a population of more 1.2 billion with a GDP of more than $3 trillion. This is power but only if it is in the right hands.
As Ruto observed, AU member states must never default on their contributions to the body. There can be no wisdom in expecting the AU to become effective in words or deeds when key programmes of the organisations such as peace and security are funded by foreign donors.
The ongoing debacle in Sudan that continues to obliterate the country’s infrastructure and claim scores of innocent lives while displacing millions internally is a case in point.
The AU has been missing in action in the efforts aimed at brokering peace between the two Sudanese army generals who refuse to take their fingers off the revolver. As a result, non-AU member states such as the UAE have snatched the responsibility away from the continental body, hosting the warring army factions for talks away from the battlefield.
Africa is not a poor a continent, and has never been. Otherwise we wouldn’t have been colonised in the first place. Our riches in natural minerals have previously proven to be our curse. Blood-thirsty imperialists have ravaged the continent and stripped Africa of its riches. Francophone Africa, in particular, resembles France until this day, with the citizens in most parts of former French colonies stripped of their mother tongues and replaced by French as the main and official language. Indigenous cultures, traditions and practices have long been replaced by alien substitutes. Identity formulations have switched from African to European. The psychological scars of colonialism, imperialism and apartheid continue to wreak havoc.
Africa has had Steve Bikos, Thomas Sankaras, Patrice Lumumbas and dozens others assassinated by anti-African agenda-setters in their myriad formations.
The emergence of the new breed such as Ruto is a welcome development. Africa Agenda 2063 will not be achieved on mere words alone. We need men and women of substance who are prepared to walk the talk. Africa needs true pan-Africanists who recognise the available strengths and opportunities that can enable the African child to compete meaningfully in the global arena.
For far too long Africa has paid lip service to the overall development of the continent. The scourge of corruption caused by the mysteriously hidden corrupters and the usually exposed corrupted has loomed ever so large from Cape to Cairo, Morocco to Madagascar.
Mbeki did trigger a much-needed renaissance of the continent, with great strides achieved. It is the ability for continuation that we have lacked. But leaders such as Ruto show that not all is lost. We need to reboot and confront global challenges together as one. No more crowd-pleasing antics, as per the observations of the Kenyan leader. No more window-dressing where Africa is treated but as a curtain-raiser to hostile agendas that hamper her own development.
At any global forum, from now on, Africa must attend as one. There can be no wisdom in boycotting international meetings. As Ruto said, if you are taking up your seat at the table you could be in their menu.
That must be an adaptation from an African idiom. We have plenty of such enlightening literature inherited from our forebears. Never again must Africa attend any global meeting fragmented. Together united we will frighten our detractors. For every gathering Africa’s troika must be empowered about the collective continental mandate.
First to demand its reform must be the UN Security Council. The body is archaic. Formed more than 80 years ago when the imperial colonisers sat in the pound seat, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East were considered less human.
In a reformed Security Council, Africa must be guaranteed at least two permanent seats. And that’s a very reasonable demand. Henceforth, Africa must engage with the international community on truly African terms. Lest we all perish.