25th AU Summit silent on migrants’ death

…African leaders’ corrupt lifestyle responsible for migrants’ plights – Analysts

The spirited appeal of Pope Francis of the Roman Catholic Church in St Peter’s square in April this year to the European Union (EU) leaders to urgently act to stem the loss of lives off Italy’s southern region following a record breaking migrant deaths appears not to have provoked enough empathy in African leaders as the subject failed to make the agenda of the just concluded 25th African Union (AU) Summit in South Africa.

In April this year, about 800 migrants feared dead after a boat smuggling persons from Libya to Italy sank, and the Italian coast guard said it rescued more than 600 migrants from rubber dinghies, and later found 28 survivors who were on board the same boat; most of whom came from sub-Saharan Africa, including Mali, Ivory Coast and Eritrea.

According to International Organisation for Migra- tion (IOM), 1,750 migrants have died trying to cross the Mediterranean Sea in 2015, more than 30 times the 56 people who died during the same period in 2014 and nearly 10,000 migrants had been rescued from boats travelling across the Mediterranean to Italy within four days.

The 25th AU Summit, which was themed: ‘Year of Women Empowerment and Development towards Africa’s Agenda 2063,’ saw the gathering of African Heads of State and Government who discussed among other subjects, the proposals for the continental free trade area and mechanisms to find new sources of funding for the AU operations.

There was however, no mention of migrants’ plight.

Wale Adedayo, CEO, Journal Communications Limited, blamed the non-inclusion of migrant crises on the agenda of the 25th AU Summit on corruption, saying most, if not all, African leaders are corrupt and explained that it was corruption that was causing se- rious economic problems, which was in turn forcing many young people to seek greener pastures in Europe through hazardous routes.

“The only solution to the deaths in the Mediterra- nean is to find a way of ensuring that leaders in Africa become accountable, which is not possible right now. When citizens rise up against misrule, they are killed, thus the International Criminal Court (ICC) interven- tion. Once a way to stop or reduce corruption in Africa is found, there will be less need for young people to seek greener pastures abroad. There will not be any need to try and make themselves slaves again, force- fully,” Adedayo told BD SUN DAY.

On the drama that stirred diplomatic row between the ICC and the South African Government follow- ing the participation of Omar al-Bashir, Sudanese president, who is being wanted by the ICC for alleged anti-humanity crimes, Adedayo opined that the ICC like other international organisations has less respect for African countries.

“Western countries are not treated the way they treat African countries. If former US President George Bush had been an African leader, he would have been indicted by the ICC for his role in the war against Iraq, and for what is happening in Iraq today. Claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction were not only false, millions of Iraqis have died because the West wanted to destabilise oil-producing nations to ensure that crude oil prices drop globally. They want cheap oil. That’s a story for another day,” he alleged.

He further explained that though, al-Bashir com- mitted crimes against humanity, it was only when he leaves his country that the ICC can arrest him, saying that a president cannot be arrested in his country un- less he has been removed from office.

“In theory, South Africa should have arrested the man. But issues like this have a lot to do with relation- ship between the two states – both have excellent relationship. And South Africa is not dependent on Western aid. So, arresting him or not is neither here nor there. Until the ICC can unilaterally pick up indicted persons no matter where they are hiding, situations like this will continue. The ICC has to take interest in petitions against Western leaders to assure the Third World that it is not meant for Africa alone, as it is sup- posed to be a global body,” he said.

Segun Adeleye, president/CEO, World Stage, told our correspondent that for the issue of Mediterranean migrant death toll not to be discussed at the AU Sum- mit could only implies that African leaders did not see it as an African problem, but that of the European countries who are at the receiving end.

According to him, “it pays African leaders well to ignore the subject because if they should start making it an issue, the question that will hunt them is, ‘why letting citizens go in the first instance,’ arguing that if they have jobs at home and things are not hard for them to survive, they will not risk their lives for greener pasture in Europe.”

“I don’t think the best or the right people are run- ning affairs at the leadership position across Africa. Our system of government tends to throw up what you can call mediocre leaders. Is it not abnormal that a country blessed with crude oil has to be importing petroleum products? You see African leaders shuttling between Europe and America seeking aids and foreign investment, when all they need to do is to look inward, approach industrialisation through the resources they have in abundance.

“African countries should not just stop at being the biggest cocoa producer, but should go out to be biggest producer of whatever cocoa can be used to produce. When we refuse to place limit to how far we can grow, then there will be no limit to prosperity, because coun- tries that are less endowed to produce what you have the advantage of producing will bring their foreign exchange to buy from you. That is what international trade is all about,” he further said.

“First, African countries must identify their own problems and resolve to solve them. They should also be careful about where or who to consult for solu- tion. Do you know that African countries, upon these their AU, ECOWAS meetings and all those stuff, they don’t trade with themselves? They still prefer to trade with Europe, America and China. What stops African countries developing their tourism industry to attract billions of dollars from all over the world? African leaders have responsibility to set development agenda. They travel to America and marvel at sky-scrapers and state-of-the-art technology. They were not brought from heaven, but human beings like them made them to happen,” he said.

Adeleye also agreed that the ICC was right to have asked South Africa to arrest Omar al-Bashir since it was signatory to ICC’s charter.

“I am aware that African leaders had earlier taken a position not to allow any Head of government from the continent arrested in their soil as directed by the ICC. South Africa won’t have let the arrest happen. What we are seeing now with a court ordering that the Sudanese leader should not leave South Africa was a natural way of the law trying to take its course. Nigeria’s legal system can respond like that too, but it will take the political will of the executive to allow the law to take its natural course,” he noted.

Kayode Ogunbunmi, editor-in-chief of a Lagos- based weekly newspaper, City Voice, said it was shame- ful and unacceptable for the organisers of the 25th AU Summit not to have included the migrant crises (a topic that has drawn global attention in recent weeks) on the agenda for the continent’s leaders to brainstorm on how they plan to tackle the issue.

He said the Nigerian Government was already ahead in its plan to tackle the problem with a recent signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the EU to combat illegal migration from Nigeria to Europe, and that other African countries should take the same step.

Since July 2013, Australia has refused to allow refugees who arrive by boat to settle on the mainland, and has been turning back boats carrying asylum seekers since the current government was elected in September 2013.

NATHANIEL AKHIGBE