South Sudan’s War Threatens AU Credibility "As of now, AU has no cue on how to end this war, all eyes are on the West, USA and UN whereas, China and Russia have no desire to get into such mess traditionally". 24 May 2017 By Benny Gudo
African Union face enormous challenges to restore peace and tranquillity in all her member states for quite some time, as peace stays on the brink from Cape to Cairo as a result of innumerable factors. This commentary seeks to lay bare the sources of current political ills on the continent as well as how it ran away from the principles of pan-Africanism. For starters, African Union had deviated from the ideals of pan-Africanism, a product of Kwame Nkrumah's valued wisdom which gave birth to Organization of African Unity (OAU) on 25 May 1963 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In it, pan Africanism was against kleptocracy, nepotism, stereotyping, corruption, fascism, chauvinism, tyrannical rule, monarchies, and many more. Yet the latter invaded our land without the white man's hand, by then, since he was not welcome in Africa because of the same despicable systems aforesaid. We (Africans) fought the liberation war in unison till we attained our precious independence not only in Ghana or Zimbabwe, but in Africa as a whole. Unwillingly, the white man relinquished power to the then poor 'Blackman' afterwards. However, our black- led governments' entrenchment to the precepts, cannons and aphorisms of pan-Africanism was short lived because of the Blackman's avarice and love for power. To mentioned a few, the one-man one vote mantra was abolished and substituted by monarchy rule, while on the other hand imperialist-like system of governance resumed, this time, without the white man on the forefront but the Blackman. Abductions, ethnic cleansing, arbitrary arrests, torture, let alone poverty and unemployment, is the order of the day in many African states. Of which, such was not the wishes of pan-Africanists. In this commentary, I will use South Sudan and Uganda as examples to illustrate the discrepancies and weaknesses of our new child, AU, compared to OAU. Why using South Sudan and Uganda? Some questions of that nature may arise in other people's cognition but let me put the record straight that in my commentary South Sudan will represent war-torn nations whereas Uganda stands for perceived peaceful nations. By that order, I shall forgo one by one. South Sudan war: First South Sudan, a young nation which started to see the light of this earth on 9 July 2011, after decades of civil war with the North, went for tough times since war broke out in 2013 between President Salva Kiir's Dinka tribe and the Nuer tribe led by Dr Riek Machar. Hundreds of thousands of South Sudanese lost their lives in this on-going war and it's deplorable to note that there is no end insight to the war save for threats, condemnations and isolations of parties to the conflict by peace guarantors. Yet the war intensified across the breath and width of the new nation for the reasons that: 1. peace guarantors took sides. 2. The ruling party violates the agreement willy-nilly. 3. Some regional leaders have a stake in this war. 4. The warring sides dare not care about the people's lives. In that light, achieving peace remained a pipe dream in South Sudan. As of now, AU has no cue on how to end this war, all eyes are on the West, USA and UN whereas, China and Russia have no desire to get into such mess traditionally. In the end, the barrel of the bullet gets the leeway in the meantime. However, the daunting task lies ahead because we are not so sure the bullet will find peace. Events unfolding in Syria are a clear testimony that the latter cannot bring peace in our backyards. So, why repeating failed ideas? Uganda: The country, which shares the border with South Sudan, feels the heat through conduction. Troops of South Sudanese refugees flood into Uganda everyday amid famine and gun battles back home. As such, her security is now at risk. Besides that, it's economy showed signs of illness as demand ballooned rapidly compared to the supply. Also, as a result of war in her neighbouring country, its export earnings whittled down, thereby paralyzed her revenue collection targets. On the body politic, President Yoweri Museveni fast became a dictator in his native Uganda. Some view him as another Idi Amin in the making because of his iron fist rule. He hates opposition figures big time. As of now, his long-time challenger, Biesege, wallows in prison on trumped up charges- treasonous offense. That was the trend in Uganda for many years. But is this what we call pan-Africanism? l don't know, perhaps President Museveni knows better than myself. Burundi. The winds of monsterism haunted Burundi, another East African nation. Honourable Nkurunziza vehemently refused to handover the throne stick to another bona fide Burundian on expiry of his two terms in office as spelt by the supreme law of the land. Instead, HE Nkurunziza manipulated the constitution to extent his rule in spite of internal and external criticism. In the wake of that, war erupted in his nation though the security sector came in his favour, thwarted the 'dissidents' to maintain the de facto. However, that was not enough since EU and USA imposed tough sanctions against Nkurunziza's administration and I am sure these sanctions have a bearing on Burundi economy for, of late, its huge budgetary support came from EU and USA. In the aftermath, it’s the ordinary Burundi who is now suffering because government is failing to pay its workforce meaningful salaries and wages. However, my concern is not on the economic side but rests on how AU member states responded to the latter situation in Burundi and I cited from the state paper, Herald of Zimbabwe on 23 May 2017, to avoid mistakes: Dar es Salaam. — Presidents of Tanzania and Uganda launched a presidential campaign calling on the European Union (EU) to lift sanctions against neighbouring Burundi. Tanzania’s Magufuli and Uganda’s Museveni spoke on Saturday in the Tanzanian capital, Dar es Salaam, where leaders of the East Africa Community (EAC) met for the 18th Ordinary Summit of Heads of State. The Ugandan leader who was voted new chair of the EAC said in his speech that the summit had tasked him to lead a delegation to Brussels — seat of the EU — to discuss the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) and ‘‘the matter of sanctions over Burundi.’‘ They (Europeans) are taking sanctions against Burundi when they are also facing difficulties at home like the Brexit. He added that the group firmly objected to threats by the EU to harm Kenya. He said the failure to sign the EPA was partly because of sanctions on Burundi. Is this pan-Africanism? In my view, our leaders want to do everything in their disposal wantonly without any hindrance from anyone-to kill, arrest, rape, steal, or abduct at their own pleasure. None should question. Last year there was stampede to withdraw from ICC amid bias on the African side. Fine, we all agreed with them but that should not be a problem only if the fate befell on them as leaders, rather a non-issue on the generality of Africans. No. We are all humans despite differences on colour, gender, tribe, economic background, political affiliation, etc.; therefore we all deserve fair treatment as well. Lastly, it is pertinent to note that on the eve of Ghana's independence on 6th march 1957, President Kwame Nkrumah declared loudly that “the independence of Ghana is meaningless until it is linked to the total liberation of the African continent”, meaning to say that our independence, be it in Zimbabwe, Zambia, or Senegal, is worthless if the likes of South Sudan, Somalia and Libya are at war. Let's all share and embrace Nkrumah's wise leadership for the betterment of our God given continent, Africa, otherwise AU credibility remains questionable. Together we make a difference. 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