Gaddafi Stages another First at AU Summit

Henry Owuor (Daily Nation)--Whenever the 53-member African Union meets, there are surprises. This time, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi staged what is actually a first.

He arrived at the Addis Ababa UN centre, venue of the summit accompanied by seven kings who he claims support his idea of a quicker move towards a single government for the continent. Among the kings was His Highness Iguru G. Solomon of the Bunyoro kingdom, Queen Best Kamugisha, Mother of the Toro kingdom and King Tossoh Gbaguidi of Benin.

Colonel Gaddafi flew the kings to Addis and put on quite a good show as he marched in with his newfound allies in Addis this morning as the bevy of pressmen gathered here clicked their cameras. But, as is to be expected at any AU summit, Colonel Gaddafi was allowed to stroll into the session that was set to discuss what has been his main pet project – a single government for Africa but, his kings, with their flowing gowns did not make it beyond the door. To the organisers, they were total strangers.

At this summit, the AU is set to make history as it has set aside a whole day during which it will only discuss plans for a union government. The last time the AU had a special session dedicated to unity plans was at the Accra summit in 2007. But it was just one issue among others. Today, only the single government plan will be discussed before the summit is officially opened Tuesday.

At the last meeting in July in Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt, African leaders decided that the Addis summit would be dedicated to finding a solution to the long debate on the viability of a single government for the continent. The AU has, since 2005, dedicated a lot of time at all of its summits to the debate over unity government for the continent.

But, there are still a lot of questions over the project, says Ms Delphine Lecoutre, a researcher on AU issues and who is attending the summit. She tells of ‘a major conflict between the immediatists, led by Libya, Senegal, Mali, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.’ This group wants the union government formed now. There is also the ‘gradualists’ who favour a step by step approach. This group is for harmonisation of regional policies and integration of regional economic communities. This group is led by South Africa, Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya, Zambia and Cape Verde.

One of the strongest proposals for a single government was made by former chairman of the AU commission Mr Alfa Oumar Konare who called for the reinforcement of the executive powers of the AU commission. His question was: ‘Do we form a union government at the continental level with ministers of Defence, Foreign Affairs, Finance as Libya says? Or do we reinforce the executive powers of the AU commission on the model of the European Union which means a body with an executive based on the principle of subsidiarity?’

Many hurdles

The ‘Principle of subsidiarity’ means that what Africa can do best at continental level will remain at continental level but what can be done best at national level will remain at national level.

However, even as African leaders meet today in Addis, many hurdles remain on the path towards integration. Among the challenges are:

* Lack of clarity on the methodology used by the member states and the commission towards the goal of integration. The signs are that member states lack interest in the preparation of documents on integration a situation that leads to endless debates.
* There is lack of conception and high level expertise on the unity government plan a fact that leads to confused debates and political interpretations by member states.
* There is substantial divergence of views on the way forward, member states have failed to agree on how to start the project or even when to start the project.
* The setting up of the current African Union’s institutions is incomplete.
* There is regional disparities in terms of the integration process between the AU’s various trading blocs.
* The AU is still focusing on cooperation instead of coordination and its commission remains a secretariat without executive power.

Says Ms Lecoutre: ‘Many African leaders want to remain in power forever and cannot agree to surrender power. The establishment of a union government means African leaders must lose some of their powers a fact that is not welcome.’

Meanwhile, besides Gaddafi’s pet project of integration, this summit will also focus on the need to end the Zimbabwe poll dispute, the coups in Guinea and Mauritania and Somalia, especially the need for AU members to send peacekeepers to the troubled country. Another issue to be discussed will be the principle of universal jurisdiction, which is used by European and judges all over the world to try African leaders. The summit will denounce this principle

Addis Ababa 1/2/2009

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