Will AU regain face this time?

With elections at the African Union scheduled for Sunday and Monday, questions about the International Criminal Court (ICC), especially its ruling on the Kenyan post-election violence cases and the implication for other member countries in which a culture of impunity still obtains, are bound to arise.

The elections will be held ahead of the continental bloc’s 18th heads of state and government summit at its new, Chinese-built headquarters in Addis Ababa.

Long referred to by cynics as a club for dictators, the African Union, and its predecessor Organisation of African Unity, has over the years elected some questionable chairpersons, and it is not surprising that in recent times it has emerged with quite a lot of egg on its face.

Most of the organisation’s embarrassment has come about as a result of its official position on major controversies like those surrounding Sudan’s president Omar al-Bashir and former Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi.

The stand taken by the African Union on both cases, as well as the Kenyan one, left the organisation open to criticism from organisations like Nato on the one hand and the United Nations and the ICC on the other.

Now Col Gaddafi, a major patron, is dead, and President al-Bashir is a fugitive from international justice.

The organisation’s reputation as a dictators’ club is difficult to shake off, particularly in light of its choice of chairmen over the years.

They have proved to be a disappointment and have overall betrayed the ideals of the founding fathers of African nationhood.

Ironically, some of these founding fathers were disappointing in their own right, and many among them have gone down in history as some of Africa’s most disputed rulers.

With that kind of history, it was hardly encouraging that the AU elections have attracted the interest of the likes of eccentric Gambian President Yahya Jammeh.

Having seized power in 1994 at the age of 29, President Jammeh has proved his mettle as a megalomaniac and autocrat by ruling Gambia with an iron fist.
Add to that his studied aura of mysticism and the fact that he has been accused of many crimes, among them frequent disappearances and assassinations of critics and journalists, and you have the typical African dictator.

Public relations

With that kind of resume, President Jammeh is hardly a great prospect for AU’s public relations, and it is only fortunate that he dropped out of the race at the last minute.

On Friday, Gabon’s foreign minister Mamadou Tangara made the announcement on Radio France International from Addis Ababa.

Although no reason was given for the withdrawal, protests from civil society groups back home could have contributed to the decision.

The edge now lies with his Benin counterpart, the little known Thomas Boni Yayi, who has also offered his candidacy for the chairmanship of the 54-member organisation.

A banker by profession, Dr Yayi holds a doctoral degree in economics from Paris-Dauphine University.

Benin has long been an example of stability in West Africa with an absence of military in the streets, a parliament not in the pocket of the president and a relatively free press. President Yayi, 60, is serving his second term since March last year.