ON May 25 1963, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) was established to co-ordinate and enhance co-operation of African states in order to achieve a better life for Africans.
Its aim was to defend the sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of African states.
It was disbanded on July 9 2002 by its last chairperson, the then South African President Thabo Mbeki, and replaced by the African Union (AU).
In 2015, AU member-states adopted the Agenda 2063, a strategic framework for the socio-economic transformation of the continent over the next 50 years.
It builds on, and seeks to accelerate the implementation of past and existing continental initiatives for growth and sustainable development.
The laid down vision and ideals in the Agenda serve as pillars for the continent in the foreseeable future, which will be translated into concrete objectives, milestones, goals, targets and measures.
Having formed the Union to fight colonisation and achieved it, the Union is faced with the task of maintaining a peaceful and secure Africa.
The Constitutive Act guiding AU gives it the right to intervene in a member-state under grave circumstances, namely war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.
As per Article 13 of the Protocol relating to the establishment of its Peace and Security Council of the AU, the African Standby Force (ASF) is based on standby arrangements with Africa’s five sub-regions.
However, the ASF is not intended to be a standing army, but rather a standby arrangement that is constituted through pledges from AU member-states and Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and Regional Mechanisms (RMs).
There are five regional standby forces that comprise the ASF: East African Standby Force (EASF); Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Standby Force (ESF); Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) Standby Force; North African Regional Capability (NARC) Standby Force; and Southern African Development Community (SADC) Standby Force (SSF).
Kudos to Africa for having a plan in place.
However, the plan has loopholes that might hamper its quest to maintain peace.
A paper titled Peace Missions in Africa, Constraints, Challenges and Opportunities by Mulungeta Gebrehiwot Bertie and Alex de Waal highlights what Africa needs to address when dealing with its standby force.
“The political and military components of the APSA require review, both with regard to vision and their implementation,” they write.
“The AU should boldly articulate its own doctrine and strategy and should not succumb to external pressures to meet others’ priorities.”
External forces are given room to influence policy formulation in some of the regional forces.
For instance, the EU, the US, the UK, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany and Netherlands as ECOWAS’ P3 development partners played a critical role in producing the bloc’s SF framework document for its operations.
It is not surprising though that these development partners have a hand in the instability in some of ECOWAS member-states.
France sponsored rebel groups fighting over oil and gold during the recent civil unrest in Mali.
So much for a development partner.
In ongoing clashes in Nigeria, Britain has a hand.
It is not surprising as the country has large oil reserves which Europeans are exploiting.
ECOWAS’ Logistic Depot, still to be built, is planned to be established in Sierra Leone and the American Government is providing support for its establishment.
EASF has failed to deal with fighting in Somalia.
In Somalia, civil wars have been ongoing for decades with political analysts contending the West maintains instability in Somalia in order for them to control Somali ports.
According to The Business Insider, 10 of the fastest growing economies in the world are in Africa.
Studies go on to show that if sub-Saharan Africa was one country, it would already have ‘middle income’ status with a per capita income of circa US$1 500.
This information is encouraging as with the regional bodies SADC, ECOWAS and the EAC, Africa is integrating and progressing towards economic and monetary unions with common systems and policies.
In its latest report titled EY’s Attractiveness Program Africa 2017, Ernst & Young Africa says Africa is well on track to be a US$3 trillion economy by 2030 through economies of 19 countries that are expected to grow more than five percent in the process.
As reports indicate, Africa has bright prospects.
There is recognition within Africa that the continent needs to tap into its own wealth to finance its development agendas, most notably Agenda 2063, but this has not been the case.
Significant efforts have been made to map the untapped alternative sources of financing from within Africa.
These show that significant resources could be raised from within Africa, enough to cover about 70 percent of the development financing needs.
Reacting to an earlier draft of the Obasanjo Report on Alternative Sources of Financing for the African Union (AU), Namibia’s former President Hifikepunye Pohamba noted: “With respect to the levy on tourism and hospitality, I should hasten to point out that Namibia is still developing her industry to operate profitably and at international standards. I am of the view that putting levies to the tourism and hospitality industry would frustrate our on-going efforts and would have negative effects on it.”
In March 2014, African Ministers of Economy and Finance rejected an adapted version of the proposal that suggested levying US$2 on every hotel room and US$10 per plane ticket in order to finance the AU.
Such reactions speak to the issue of incentives that ultimately encourage or discourage actors from resourcing regional and continental initiatives.
Commitment to regional integration, as a political aspiration, is in itself insufficient to garner the needed financial support.
Unless actors see ‘what’s in it for them’, commitment to financing pan-African initiatives will be limited.
Some African economies continue to be driven by former colonisers with others relying heavily on donor aid which in most cases has strings attached.
John Perkins in his book Confessions of an Economic Hitman demonstrates how Africa, in the next 50 years, will owe thousands of dollars to Western governments as a result of loans from Bretton Woods institutions like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
An article by Mawuna Koutonin titled France Colonial Text says, “African countries continue to pay colonial tax to France 50 years after their independence.
“14 African countries are obliged by France, through a colonial pact, to put 85 percent of their foreign reserves into France Central Bank under French Minister of Finance control.”
France is not ready to move from that colonial system which puts about 500 billion Francs from Africa into its treasury year-in-year-out despite the EU denouncing the system.
African leaders aspire for an integrated continent politically united based on the ideals of pan-Africanism and the vision of Africa’s renaissance.
OAU founding fathers pushed Africa’s cause ahead of their own national agendas.
It is not surprising to note how former Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah rallied behind blacks who were being oppressed in the then Rhodesia.
President Nkrumah also wrote numerous letters to Harold Wilson and Sekou Toure of Guinea (in his capacity as one of the founding fathers of the OAU) lobbying for the freedom of Africans in Rhodesia.
In his letter to Wilson on December 11 1965, President Nkrumah highlighted that Ghana was contemplating withdrawing from the Commonwealth if Britain did not act to save the plight of blacks in Rhodesia.
This spirit of oneness was not witnessed recently when Africa failed to support its candidate during the United Nations World Tourism Organisation secretary-general elections.
Divisions have also arisen on issues of ideology.
Hopes of an Africa with a strong cultural identity, common heritage, values and ethics are hampered by this.
AU argues Africa is self-confident in its identity, heritage, culture as well as shared values and as a strong, united and influential partner on the global stage making its contribution to peace, human progress, peaceful co-existence and welfare.
Africa has clashed on issues of a common language, religion and notably the contentuous issue of homosexuality.
The US and Scandinavian countries, including Norway and Sweden, have in recent years threatened to curb aid to countries which do not recognise lesbians, gays, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights in their territories.
The aim is to coerce governments, especially in Africa where homosexuality is not acceptable culturally, to legalise it.
In October 2015, reports from Malawi indicated President Peter Mutharika had accepted a homosexuality deal with Global Fund to unlock donor aid.
Countries such as Zimbabwe, Uganda and Kenya have spoken strongly against homosexuality.