Egypt and your African Union
As soon as the military took over in Egypt over two weeks ago, the African Union acted.
Many were surprised by this, but the AU has an uncompromising stance on any unconstitutional change of government. And this was not the first time the AU had brooked no nonsense from men in guns who tend to overthrow elected governments.
Mauritania was suspended in 2005. Guinea was kicked out in 2008, Niger in 2009, Côte d’Ivoire in 2010. While these were subsequently readmitted after showing signs of rehabilitation, Madagascar—suspended in December 2010—and the Central African Republic—kicked out in March this year—still remain sidelined until such a time when they are sufficiently reformed.
Yet the African Union, for all it does and for some reason, still suffers a severe crisis of perception from African citizens. I was in Rwanda in April this year, training the media there on Understanding the African Union, as part of the 50th Anniversary since the formation of the OAU/AU.
This training, conducted by The State of the Union (Sotu) Coalition and Oxfam International Liaison Office with the AU, brought together 37 journalists from across Rwanda. Sotu is a coalition of civil society organisations working together to hold African governments accountable for the ratification and implementation of AU decisions at country level.
So, in the first session, I asked what their understanding of the AU was and the journalists told it as they saw it: “The AU is a club of old men that is out of touch with reality”, one said. The other’s opinion was even less flattering: “Everything about the AU is a dream that will never be realised.”
And so the indictment of the AU went on all morning: “It’s a failure”. “It’s not relevant to us”. “What has the AU done for the people of Africa?”
Then came the most damning indictment of all: “Where was the AOU in 1994 when we needed it the most?”
The story of Rwanda in 1994, especially of the events leading to the genocide that left about a million people dead, is one for which the international community has to hang its head in shame for its inaction and complicity and for looking the other way as Rwandese slaughtered Rwandese in those 100 days of madness.
On this charge, the OAU—if it still existed today—would in all likelihood plead guilty as charged. The OAU was run on a principle (some say naively) of non-interference in the internal affairs of member states. But this is 2013 and the OAU has been dead for over 10 years now. If anything of that nature were to ever happen again, the AU has a policy of non-indifference and would most likely intervene to act.
This is part of the reason why Egypt was suspended from the affairs of the AU, until such a time when there is a restoration of constitutional order. Of course, for many, suspension alone cannot be said to be enough. That is a fair point. The AU did indeed bite Egypt, but perhaps it would be more significant if it went on to chew what it bit by putting demands and parameters for everyone to adhere to, especially on protecting the rights of the people and also ensuring that there is a clear roadmap to return the country to normalcy.
Anything short of that, then it just might perpetuate the perception by the people of this continent that the AU’s bark is worse than its bite.
But then not everything should be left to the African Union in the quest to enhance good governance and create success stories for this continent. We all have to play our part and as active citizens we have to embrace this role.
Maybe we could start by trying to understand the African Union better because, the bottom line is, we are the African Union. In particular we need to know AU structures, AU decision-making processes, key AU instruments that affect us as African people first and country citizens second. If we get to understand the organisation then maybe we will see that there is potential to influence what it does and how it acts.
In any case the mantra is that the AU is that it is a people-centred, people-driven institution; the people are presumably the ones who own and dictate the processes of the Union.
—The author writes from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
