The era of anti-colonial movement in Africa was in fact an era of African renaissance. The colonial and post-colonial periods saw to the rekindling of African values, ethos and mores that colonial psychological defeat dwindled. During this period, Western-trained African scholars, united by spirit of nationalism, started theorising on the best way to organise African states when independence was eventually achieved. Tom Mboya and Julius Nyerere talked about African socialism; Senghor poetised the philosophy of Negritude and his famous miscegenation theory; Zik talked about economic determinism and social regeneration; and Kwame Nkrumah talked about scientific socialism and consciencism, etc. The psychological liberation that these autochthonous ideas gave them nurtured their nationalistic fight against colonialism.
When Ghana (1958) and Nigeria (1960) attained self rule, their leaders thought of an organisation that would not just unite Africa against the nebulous tentacles of colonialism and neo-colonialism but that would also build up what Chinweizu dubbed ‘African Power’. This thinking led to the establishment of Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in 1963. OAU was African in spirit. It saw to the liberation of many African countries from the shackles of colonialism. And Nigeria, in living up to its declaration of having Africa as the centrepiece of its foreign policy, contributed significantly to that liberation movement.
OAU was on May 26, 2001 pigeon-holed into African Union (AU) for effective operation. The change was a product of the political engineering of Libyan leader Maummar Ghadafi whose project of United States of Africa had failed.
But in spite of the powers – such as direct intervention in the affairs of member states on grave circumstances such as war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity – granted to the AU as it metamorphosed from OAU, the organisation has failed to live up to its expectations. Africa is today awash with problems of statehood and crisis of governance which AU is expected to lead in solving, but the Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma-led AU Commission is behaving like the proverbial ostrich. The commission tends to bury its head in the sand when confronted with problems. In cases involving the leadership especially, the AU even goes the way of the three mystic apes – smell no evil, see no evil, and talk no evil.
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From the Central African Republic to Madagascar, from Libya to Lesotho and across Zimbabwe, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Mali, and Nigeria, Africa is really in trouble and the AU is doing nothing.
The African Union as we have today is as good as dead. It can’t even be described as a toothless bulldog for it never barks, let alone bite! Even in the era of the deadly Ebola Virus Disease, AU chooses to remain taciturn unlike what we had when Jean Ping of Gabon was in charge of the commission.
The AU, being the continent’s premier intergovernmental organisation, needs an urgent intervention for it to realise its aims and objectives. And Nigerian and South African governments need to see to its revitalisation and resuscitation.
Asikason Jonathan
