• Main News
  • About Us
  • Contact
Premium Times Opinion
Tuesday, August 16, 2022
  • Home
  • Democracy and Governance
    • Bámidélé Upfront
    • Jibrin Ibrahim
    • Okey Ndibe
  • Economy
    • Ifeanyi Uddin
  • Issues of the Day
    • Adeolu Ademoyo
    • Aribisala on Tuesday
    • Dele Agekameh
    • Pius Adesanmi
  • Politics
    • Ebeneezer Obadare
    • Femi Fani-Kayode
    • Garba Shehu
    • Hannatu Musawa
    • Zainab Suleiman Okino
  • Guest Columns
  • Faith
    • Article of Faith
    • Sunday Ogidigbo
    • Friday Sermon
    • Elevated Sight
  • Home
  • Democracy and Governance
    • Bámidélé Upfront
    • Jibrin Ibrahim
    • Okey Ndibe
  • Economy
    • Ifeanyi Uddin
  • Issues of the Day
    • Adeolu Ademoyo
    • Aribisala on Tuesday
    • Dele Agekameh
    • Pius Adesanmi
  • Politics
    • Ebeneezer Obadare
    • Femi Fani-Kayode
    • Garba Shehu
    • Hannatu Musawa
    • Zainab Suleiman Okino
  • Guest Columns
  • Faith
    • Article of Faith
    • Sunday Ogidigbo
    • Friday Sermon
    • Elevated Sight
No Result
View All Result
Premium Times Opinion
Home Guest Columns

The Choices of Africa, By Owei Lakemfa

by Premium Times
February 4, 2017
Reading Time: 5 mins read
1

Moussa Faki Mahamat
– New African Union Commission Chairperson, Moussa Faki Mahamat

The new AU Commission chairperson had served incumbent Chadian President Idris Derby in various capacities in the 27 years the latter has been in power. Faki served as minister of public works and transport from 2002 and as prime minister for two years from 2003. In the last nine years, he served as foreign affairs minister.


It had been an hard choice; Africa electing a new Chairperson of the African Union Commission (AUC) to run the continental body. The option had been forced on her after the Chairperson, Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the former liberation fighter from South Africa resisted pressures to stand for a second term, opting to contest the presidential elections in her country.

African leaders had last July failed to elect her successor, as none of the candidates could poll the mandatory 36 votes out of the 54 voting member countries. So the 28th Heads of State Assembly this week was decisive not just in electing a new Commission Chairperson, but also AU Commissioners, including into its powerful Peace and Security Commission which locked powerful countries like Nigeria and Algeria in battle.

There were other potentially controversial choices to be made, for instance whether or not to admit Morocco. There are, of course, the serious issues of insecurity and implementing the Africa 2063 Agenda.

I found the AU Commission under former Chairperson, Jean Ping, a little bit uncoordinated, with a number of officials being quite lackadaisical. I did not have much confidence in it. But his successor, Dr. Dlamini-Zuma came with a lot of energy determined to move the continent towards clear Pan Africanist goals. She was decisiveness and operated a Pan Africanist agenda forged in the furnace of the liberation struggles. Zuma resuscitated the AU within months. I had the privilege of a few interactions with her in Addis Ababa. In January 2013, while leading the delegation of African Workers at the AU Assembly, I went to her office. I had thought that the best African to deliver the lecture at the Fortieth Anniversary of the Organisation of African Trade Union Unity (OATUU) slated for April 2013, was Zuma. I did not expect to meet her because the Assembly was the busiest period in the AU. I dropped a letter hoping to call back from my Accra base. To get the AU Commission Chairperson, who is a symbol of the continent, to attend the Anniversary would be a major boost to African Workers.

A day after I returned to Accra, I was jolted by a call from her office; the Secretary wanted more information about the occasion. I gave the necessary reply and asked if Zuma be present. I did not get a confirmation, but was informed that she was interested in forging an alliance with the continent’s labour movement. I had the privilege of playing host to her and she challenged the labour force to play a decisive role in the formulation of the continent’s 50-year Agenda. We met the challenge and produced the African Workers’ Agenda.

On January 30, 2017, Africa made its choice; after seven rounds of voting and stiff challenge from other candidates like Senegal’s Abdoulaye Bathily, Kenya’s Amina Mohammed, Mba Mokuy of Equatorial Guinea and Botswana’s Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi, Africa elected Chadian foreign minister, Moussa Faki Mahamat.

A cause for worry might be that Faki is foreign minister of a not too stable country that has been virtually on war footing for four decades. In its 57 years as an independent country, Chad has had five substantive presidents with its transition of power being through violence. Founding president, Francois N’Garta Tombalbaye was killed in a 1975 coup; Felix Malloum who ruled from 1975 to 79 was forced by armed conflict to resign and leave the country with a Nigerian delegation. His predecessor, Goukouni Oueddei was ousted in a coup, as was the successor, Hissen Habre.

The new AU Commission chairperson had served incumbent Chadian President Idris Derby in various capacities in the 27 years the latter has been in power. Faki served as minister of public works and transport from 2002 and as prime minister for two years from 2003. In the last nine years, he served as foreign affairs minister. Yet the Derby government is associated with the unending crisis in Darfur, gross human rights violations, use of child soldiers and running a country rich in oil, uranium and gold as one of the poorest on earth. When I last visited N’Djamena in 2014, it was swarming with soldiers, and there were audible complaints by people from the south of domination.

Morocco ate the humble pie; agreeing to sit in the same room with the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (Western Sahara) as equals. This was the basis of its admission into the AU brotherhood.


Despite his origins, Faki may well surprise Africa by providing the needed leadership for the African Union.

The AU’s choice of friends who addressed the Assembly showed the continent’s international position; the United Nations Secretary General, António Manuel de Oliveira Guterres, President Mahmoud Abbas of the State of Palestine and the Cuban government. Zuma, on behalf of Africa, paid tribute to former Cuban President Fidel Castro for playing “a critical role in the global struggle against colonialism and imperialism.” Africa also decided on a mass withdrawal from the International Criminal Court; it is a bold message, Africans want to manage their own affairs.

Morocco ate the humble pie; agreeing to sit in the same room with the Saharawi Arab Democratic Republic (Western Sahara) as equals. This was the basis of its admission into the AU brotherhood. I had joined a movement of Nigerians led by the Philosopher, Dr. Dipo Fashina which sent an urgent Appeal to the AU not to admit Morocco without conditions.

We drew the AU’s attention to the fact that “The Kingdom of Morocco almost compromised the smooth establishment of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in 1963 by its insistence that Mauritania, one of the founding countries of the OAU, is a province of Morocco and should have no right to membership.”

The Appeal urged the AU to admit Morocco only if it accepts without conditions the 1960 United Nations Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples which states that, “All peoples have the right to self-determination; by virtue of that right they freely determine their political status and freely pursue their economic, social and cultural development.”

We also insisted that Morocco accepts unconditionally, the OAU/AU African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights which provides that, “All peoples shall be equal; they shall enjoy the same respect and shall have the same rights. Nothing shall justify the domination of a people by another.” The Charter also states that: “All peoples shall have the right to existence. They shall have the unquestionable and inalienable right to self-determination. They shall freely determine their political status and shall pursue their economic and social development according to the policy they have freely chosen.”

Finally, we said Morocco must accept all the thirty three Articles of the Constitutive Act of the African Union with Western Sahara as a founding member. Morocco as a member, now accepts the AU Act which recognises African colonial boundaries and makes its continued occupation of Western Sahara illegal. Africa has spoken!

Owei Lakemfa, former Secretary General of African Workers is a Human Rights activist, journalist and author.

Image credit: National Post.

Share this:

  • Tweet
  • Email
  • Print
  • More
  • Pocket
  • Share on Tumblr

Related

Previous Post

Searching for Sustainable Unity Among Muslims, By Murtadha Gusau

Next Post

The Politics of Magu’s Confirmation, By Godwin Onyeacholem

Related Posts

Zamfara Gold As Commonwealth, By Zailani Bappa
Opinion

Sheikh Gumi, Governor Matawalle and the Sands of Time, By Zailani Bappa

February 2, 2021
June 12 As Democracy Day Needs To Be Reconsidered, By Bashir Tofa
Opinion

The Need To Act Now To Stop the Ethnic Conflagration!, By Bashir Othman Tofa

February 2, 2021
Kofi Annan: In Service of the World, By Ejeviome Eloho Otobo & Oseloka H. Obaze
Opinion

Biden’s Likely Policy Orientation Toward Africa, By Ejeviome E. Otobo and Oseloka H. Obaze

February 2, 2021
Agenda for ‘Born Again’ JAMB and TETFUND, By Tunde Musibau Akanni
Opinion

Oyeweso, A Celebrated Historian, Ascends the Sixth Floor, By Tunde Akanni

February 2, 2021
Before Nigeria Burns, By Akin Fadeyi
Opinion

Is President Buhari Presiding Over the Last United Nigeria?, By Akin Fadeyi

February 2, 2021
On A Soyinka Prize In ‘Illiteracy’, By Biko Agozino
Opinion

Obasanjo: Only Those Who Did Not Do Well Went Into the Military, By Biko Agozino

February 1, 2021
Next Post
Portrait Of APC As The Right Party, By Godwin Onyeacholem

The Politics of Magu’s Confirmation, By Godwin Onyeacholem

Law Enforcement and Silencing the Nigerian Media, By Aisha Hashim

Law Enforcement and Silencing the Nigerian Media, By Aisha Hashim

Editorial

  • EDITORIAL: The Urgency of Tackling Nigeria’s Second Wave of COVID-19

    EDITORIAL: The Urgency of Tackling Nigeria’s Second Wave of COVID-19

  • EDITORIAL: Unearthing the Cogent Lessons In the NESG-CBN Economic Policy Imbroglio

    EDITORIAL: Unearthing the Cogent Lessons In the NESG-CBN Economic Policy Imbroglio

  • EDITORIAL: COVID-19: Calling On Nigeria’s Billionaires and Religious Leaders To Step Up

    EDITORIAL: COVID-19: Calling On Nigeria’s Billionaires and Religious Leaders To Step Up

  • EDITORIAL: Bichi Must Go; Buhari Must Halt Slide Into Despotism

    EDITORIAL: Bichi Must Go; Buhari Must Halt Slide Into Despotism

  • EDITORIAL: The Flaws In Governor Emefiele’s Five-Year Plan For Central Bank of Nigeria

    EDITORIAL: The Flaws In Governor Emefiele’s Five-Year Plan For Central Bank of Nigeria

Subscribe to our Opinion articles via email

Enter your email address to get notifications of new opinion articles as they are published.

Join 526,543 other subscribers

Most Popular

  • The Bad Consequences and Dangers of Adultery and Fornication (Zina) In Islam, By Murtadha Gusau
    The Bad Consequences and Dangers of Adultery and Fornication (Zina) In Islam, By Murtadha Gusau
  • Islam and the Conditions For Marrying More Than One Wife, By Murtadha Gusau
    Islam and the Conditions For Marrying More Than One Wife, By Murtadha Gusau
  • Are We All Biafrans?, By Abdul Mahmud
    Are We All Biafrans?, By Abdul Mahmud
  • You Will Be Held Responsible On What Happened To Your Children!, By Murtadha Gusau
    You Will Be Held Responsible On What Happened To Your Children!, By Murtadha Gusau
  • World Teachers Day and The Position of Teachers In Islam, By Murtadha Gusau
    World Teachers Day and The Position of Teachers In Islam, By Murtadha Gusau
  • Showing Gratitude To Allah For His Bounties, Blessings and Favours, By Murtadha Gusau
    Showing Gratitude To Allah For His Bounties, Blessings and Favours, By Murtadha Gusau
  • The Women Prohibited For Men To Marry In Islam, By Murtadha Gusau
    The Women Prohibited For Men To Marry In Islam, By Murtadha Gusau

Like us on Facebook

Like us on Facebook

Podcasts

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

  • Main News
  • About Us
  • Contact

© 2022 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Democracy and Governance
    • Bámidélé Upfront
    • Jibrin Ibrahim
    • Okey Ndibe
  • Economy
    • Ifeanyi Uddin
  • Issues of the Day
    • Adeolu Ademoyo
    • Aribisala on Tuesday
    • Dele Agekameh
    • Pius Adesanmi
  • Politics
    • Ebeneezer Obadare
    • Femi Fani-Kayode
    • Garba Shehu
    • Hannatu Musawa
    • Zainab Suleiman Okino
  • Guest Columns
  • Faith
    • Article of Faith
    • Sunday Ogidigbo
    • Friday Sermon
    • Elevated Sight

© 2022 JNews - Premium WordPress news & magazine theme by Jegtheme.

This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie Policy.
 

Loading Comments...