African Union (AU)’s functioning criticized

Courtesy - Harry Ndienla Yemti

Dysfunctional structures, misplaced priorities and scanty coffers as obstacles to continental
integration.

A panel of 13 eminent African specialists, assigned to evaluate the structures, functioning and management of various organs of the African Union (AU) recently submitted an unflattering report that casts a shadow on the effectiveness of the 50 year old continental union.

In the over 270 – page report, examined by heads of state during the AU summit at Addis Ababa from 31 January to 2 February, the panel gave a long list of examples of the inability of the AU to meet its objectives through structural problems, insufficient human and financial resources and serious managerial shortcomings.

According to the panel of specialists from diverse fields, chaired by Adebayo Adedeji, former executive secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), AU summits spend too much time treating topics that have nothing to do with Africa’s integration.

The panel criticized the absence of clarity in the objectives of the African Commission and other organs of the AU and condemned their poor management practices. There also seemed to be a lot of wasteful expenditures. In 2006 alone, the African Commission paid for 5241 airplane trips for staff members.

Most decisions of the AU, the panelists pointed out, are never implemented. For instance, the AU has taken 172 decisions in five years and the executive council has adopted 393 resolutions that have, unfortunately, remained paperwork.

AU projects, the panel said, are characterised by opacity, which is the converse of transparent
management that the union should be striving for.

Most African countries were also slammed for not regularly making their annual contributions to the AU. This has forced the AU to go cap in hand to Western countries to subsidize it.

After enumerating many other shortcomings, the panel made 170 recommendations amongst which include; a call for the construction of a new democratic and economic order in which African peoples and not states would be the focus of the AU; the institution of an air ticket
tax for the functioning of the AU; and ensuring faster African integration.

On the other hand the 13 panelists warned African leaders emphasizing that the choice was now between “progress” and “underdevelopment”.

While underscoring the belief that Africans are so disunited that they cannot solve their problems
without outside intervention, the panel urged the continent’s leaders to prove skeptics wrong by
implementing these recommendations rapidly. But the African leaders returned home from Addis Ababa as usual, with no concrete actionable decisions.