African Union should not leave the job half done

As if in sudden discoveries of the curious kind, the industrialised world decided to turn its attention on Africa. And as if on cue, Africa decided to jettison its old club, known more for its jaw-jaw and do-little style, for a spanking new outfit that looks fit, fervent, fathomable.

When the 53-nation African Union replaced the old Organisation of African Unity (OAU) last month, it served notice that, this time round, it was going to walk the mean streets of the Dark Continent with a no-nonsense attitude...with the requisite muscle to keep the peace and do what's right. If need be, it will simply step in whenever an adventurer in some dirt poor spot decides to wage war or precipitate a crisis.

After reading and digesting the manual of the European Union, the members of the AU propose to set up an African peace and security council, African parliament, common court of justice and central bank. With all these in place, the next logical unifying element will be a single currency.

A laudable difference in the AU, against the old grouping, is its power to intervene in the affairs of member states. This is pertinent and welcome in relation to cases of genocide and war crimes. Where non-interference was a central element in the OAU's rule book, the AU will have no problem in bringing its influence and power to bear when needed.

The voluntary "Peer Review Mechanism" is another development which will have the people of Africa, and Africa's well wishers everywhere, cheering. It is an undertaking that makes it mandatory for African leaders to not only be accountable to their people but their counterparts in the AU as well.

Better late than never. Pity such codes of governance, and policing, were not in place decades ago. It would have prevented sickening excesses of the kind that became routine under such despots as Mobutu Sese Seko, Idi Amin Dada and Jean Bedel Bokassa. And reined in the likes of Thomas Sankara, who started a war, of all places, in Burkina Faso, and the late Sonny Abacha, unrepentant looter of Nigeria.

But then, let's not forget the great power game called the Cold War that allowed such sorry excuses for leaders to even get away with murder. Now, as the sole superpower endeavours to enlist its allies in Europe, West Asia and elsewhere in balancing a new anti-terror equation, it is Africa's golden opportunity to get noticed. And wooed. And won.

This is the continent that, in the midst of all its pain and disappointment, produced leaders of the calibre of Jomo Kenyatta, Julius Nyerere, Kenneth Kaunda and Nelson Mandela. Africa's – and the world's – elder statesman is still around to inspire, cajole and even scold those who have come after him, to do the right thing.

Mandela's message to his fellow Africans last month has a wealth of meaning at this moment in time. In Cape Town to accept an award for his autobiography, Long Walk to Freedom, he had this to say to a gathering of African writers: it was time for Africans to stop blaming colonialism for their poverty and to take charge of their own destinies.

"No longer shall we seek to place blame for our position elsewhere or to look to others to take responsibility for our development. We are the masters of our own fate."

And mastering that fate is no impossibility. This is the continent with a literacy rate of 55 per cent (ahead of South Asia's 48 per cent) against 77 per cent in the developing world. In per capita income too, Africa is doing better than South Asia; sub-Saharan Africa's per capita income is $550 – ahead of South Asia's $309.

Looking at the larger picture, the G8 has many positive things to work with here. Which is why the disappointment voiced by some respected NGOs is not without reason. The G7's pledges of aid disbursements are nowhere near a Marshall Plan-type of development juggernaut that will finally put Africa's endemic poverty behind it. And deliver for the industrialised world another new, vast market for its products.

Inescapable part

This is an inescapable part of the reality of any aid initiative. And there's nothing wrong with it. Along with the altruism in some quarters comes hard-headed pragmatism. This works basically in two ways.

While an economically emancipated people go on to swell the ranks of consumers, such societies also offer much less fertile patches for the godfathers of terrorism. Conversely, the climate becomes more conducive to the growth of democratic institutions.

The AU's present crop of leaders are displaying every sign that they have what it takes to stay the course and become worthy successors to the few giants who have preceded them.

South Africa's Thabo Mbeki, Algeria's Abdulaziz Bouteflika, Egypt's Hosni Mubarak and Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, among others, have already shown their capacity to produce African solutions with international help. And a now moderate Gaddafi might still emerge as one of Africa's elder statesmen.

Given a major plank of American foreign policy – that the United States has no permanent friends and enemies – some of us won't be surprised if Gaddafi becomes an African leader the U.S. will be eager to support.

To be sure, this is no journey for the faint hearted. Thirty-four of the world's 48 least developed nations are in Africa. Still, the determined men of the AU have made a new beginning. And as they say, a job well begun, is one half done.