By: Ollus Ndomu
The new generation of middle-class Africans both at home and abroad still feel attached to Pan-Africanism ideology which fosters the concepts of African identity and African unity. Founded in Africa’s pre-independence era, Pan-Africanism is an ideology that encourages and strengthens bonds of solidarity between all indigenous and diaspora ethnic groups of African descent. At the influence of globalization which continues to weaken boundaries of statehood, the Pan-Africanism ideology has transformed into an advocacy of a political alliance or union of all the African nations. Africans of the 21st Century have become increasingly aware of their own political and economic environment as the overarching need for democracy, good governance and economic development becomes vividly urgent.
A critical analysis of a modern African that is warring within itself, infested with repressive regimes, which champion institutionalized corruption, bigotry, tribalism and dictatorship, calls for the renewal of the Pan-African ideology, beginning with the African Union (AU). Africa stands on an almost inexhaustible veritable soup of mineral deposits, which its nations have failed to exploit for home-grown economic growth. Informed Africans have questioned the role of AU in accelerating economic development besides its failure to silence guns in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, Mozambique, Mali, Nigeria and the Central African Republic -CAR-.
Formerly called the Organization for African Union (OAU), AU is a 21 year-old organization which claims to champion Pan-Africanism while accelerating economic growth, alleviating poverty and improving access to healthcare and social services across the continent. The Addis Ababa headquartered 55-member organisation is noteworthy for shielding African leaders of questionable legitimacy and blood-spattered precedents. Pan-Africanism is a fading ideology in this institution whose laissez-faire approach to continental problems advances Anglophone and Francophone interests throughout Africa.
Commenting on AU’s lackluster lip-service and non-action oriented deliberations on Africa’s widespread gunfire and political repression, outspoken Ireland-domiciled AfricaWorld Newspaper Editor-in-Chief, Ukachukwu Okorie said:
“…when I say African Union is moribund, It looks as if I’m dressing them down, African Union is a toothless organization. I just spoke about the headquarters, Addis Ababa, it was built by the Chinese; you can imagine. If I come to build a house for someone, equip it, maintain it, what does it mean? It means I’m going to control it; I have the master plan of the house. I may have dug a tunnel under the house to a place that the occupant doesn’t know.”
The AU’s failure to build its own capital in Ethiopia’s Addis Ababa proves the body’s ineptness on the economic front. African leaders failed to build their institution’s modern-looking headquarters, thus the continent’s agile big-brother, China took responsibility to erect a $200 million glitzy building. Of course, anyone among many African rich dictators could have built the headquarters from his pocket. Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni alone, is worth an estimated $13 billion. Even Zambia’s fast learning, humble-mistaken dictator, Edgar Lungu could have funded the headquarters with his miraculously accumulating fortune of $400 million.
Also famous for holding kitsch annual summits, where Africa’s democracy-allergic presidents sip champagne and applaud their life presidencies, the AU has more often failed to enforce constructive disciplinary measures against oppressive regimes. With a continental body that is more concerned with publishing preposterous communiqués, declarations and decisions, Africa continues to grapple with the dwindling of all-inclusive multiparty democracies while internal struggles abound.
In Nigeria for example, the Fulani menace, a fast escalating crisis attributed to ethnic cleansing, border porosity and inept political leadership, is threatening the corporate existence of Africa’s most populated nation. Editor-in-Chief at AfricaWorld, Ukachukwu says:
“Everyday 100 people are killed in Nigeria; nobody reports, the African Union doesn’t do anything. They are moribund, they are toothless, they cannot act; because the people running it are neo-colonialists. They are interested in Francophone and Anglophone issues. France and England still control their former colonial territories. The same with Portugal; imagine a weak country like Portugal is still a colonial power.”
Nigeria is suspended between the Covid-19 pandemic and the agitation for Biafra independence. Amidst the increasing ethnic divisions, multiplying insurgencies and a biased national development agenda, the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) group led by Nnamdi Kanu wants to secede from Nigeria and create a state in south-eastern region. The Buhari repressive administration continues to clampdown on pro-Biafra voices as the AU’s most viable response to this worrying issue remains disconcerting silence.
The struggle for Biafra nationhood is the struggle for Africa as a whole. The emergency of Biafra is the recreation of the Berlin conference gangplank against Africa. Until the 1967-1970 civil war which Nigeria won with the help of USSR (Russia) and Britain, Biafra was a self-sustaining state. The Biafra uprising calls for rethinking the partitioning of Africa by Europeans. It is an urgent issue bodies like AU and ECOWAS ought to address with viable solutions. In its current state, Nigeria is way too big to have sustainable peace. A country of more than 300 strong cultures bagged together under a political system largely controlled by a nomadic tribe cannot co-exist eternally. Rifts and fights will always be inevitable.
The Biafra uprising amidst the under-reported Fulani menace is one among several political low points proving how toothless and exceedingly protective of colonial legacies the AU is. The AU has used deafening silence as response to matters as alarming as the sustained annihilation of democratic spaces and arbitrary jailing of political opponents and alternative voices in East and Central Africa. Despite having adopted several important new documents establishing norms at continental level, including the 2007 African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance, this organization has failed to strengthen a few existing democracies around the continent.
Early this year, Uganda’s longest serving president, Yoweri Museveni renewed his mandate through a dubious win against his closest rival, Bobi Wine. The whole electoral process was flawed, without any ounce of legitimacy and credibility. Museveni used police brutality, suppression and Covid-19 to destabilize political activities of his opponents. If the AU was not the best example of a collective democratic consciousness terribly gone wrong, this sham “election” could have drawn strong and unequivocal denunciation from the body’s top leadership. Alternatively, Uganda could have faced brisk suspension or even outright expulsion from the union. Even without considering any of these disciplinary measures, Museveni’s well-orchestrated sixth presidential victory should have prompted the AU to launch an urgent and comprehensive examination of democracy within its ranks.
With the death of Zambia’s founding President, Kenneth David Kaunda who until his transition was Africa’s last independence titan, the future of AU, particularly, Pan-Africanism is questionable. As an ideology constructed by Africa’s liberation icons, Pan-Africanism encourages strengthening of bonds among Africans both at home and in the diaspora. This ideology is the foothold of the AU. Pan-Africanism is fading within the ranks of the continent’s body which is seemingly advancing the cause of Neo-colonialism through continued dependency on foreign aid, grants and loans. Africa is chained in accumulating Chinese debt, which poses a threat to its independence. By implication, China, France and Britain are furthering there influence around the continent, and more often, their voices are louder than those of our governments. This is a cause for concern. The fast multiplying Chinese presence in Africa could threaten the continent’s sovereignty in future. Who knew that Europeans who came with Bibles could introduce colonialism?
Africans must rise with a unity of purpose and build a continent that they would be proud to call home. Institutions such as the AU should place highly on laying a foundation for an Africa which fulfills its immense economic potential with strong democracies that would replace our present lackluster crop of corrupt leaders. The current leaders cannot adjust the Pan-African ideology to solve problems troubling the continent because they are dictators and dictatorship is the biggest problem there is in Africa. You cannot solve the problem when the problem is your face; impossible!
