What becomes of Africa five decades from now?

In 2002, most Africans became angry when the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) was being changed into the African Union (AU). The citizens of Africa described African leaders as members of a dictators' club for failing to protect the rights and liberties of African citizens.

Many Africans believed that the summit that African leaders were holding was useless and would never benefit the continent. Some believed that the meetings were held to express personal pride to fellow leaders.

The struggle to make Africa a united bloc has failed many times due to differences between leaders. Starting from way back before the formation of OAU, President Kwame Nkrumah, advocated for the United States of Africa; he faced resistance and his quest for the federation was shot down by President Félix Houphouët-Boigny of then Ivory Coast.

This created two blocs, one called the Casablanca Bloc, led by Nkrumah while the other one was called the Monrovia bloc.

Split into two blocs, total unity was difficult to achieve. The former French colonies, still dependent on France, had formed the Monrovia Group, and there was a further split between those that supported the USA and those that supported the USSR in the Cold War of ideologies.

The pro-socialist faction was led by Nkrumah, while Félix Houphouët-Boigny of the Ivory Coast led the pro-capitalists. Because of these divisions, it was difficult for the OAU to take action against states involved in internal conflicts because it could rarely reach an agreement on what was to be done.

Despite its differences, the continent later agreed to form a union for all African states. The formation took place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in the year 1963. The continental bloc was named Organisation of African Unity.

The OAU was mandated to do a number of things. The most obvious objective of the OAU was to combat racial discrimination. So its first resolutions were about combating apartheid and about the liberation movements.

Among the OAU’s missions are strengthening unity and solidarity between African states, coordinating cooperation for development, preserving the sovereignty and territorial integrity of member states and promoting international cooperation in the framework of the United Nations.

The African Union apparently, through its coordination committee for the liberation of Africa, the OAU supported the emancipation of African territories that were not yet independent. The aim was achieved in 1990 with Namibia securing its independence.

The mother continent also witnessed the crowning achievement of its fight against apartheid with the liberation of Nelson Mandela and his election as President of South Africa. Thirty years after the creation of the OAU, South Africa became its 53rd member during the Tunis summit in June 1994.

Though the OAU had promised to help other countries gain independence, it failed to conquer civil wars that were booming in the continent almost each year. Many countries in the continent were involved in civil wars that had claimed most Africans. The coup de tat that have frozen most countries, seem to overpower the OAU.

Hunger seems to have no clue to the continental bloc. Poor governance and the grey-load of seeing the continent get united seemed far from being achieved. The story remained untold.

In July, 1999; the Sirte Extraordinary meeting was held. It was by acclamation that the Assembly of Heads of State and Government in July 1999 in Algiers accepted an invitation from Colonel Muhammar Ghadafi to the 4th Extraordinary Summit in September in Sirte.

The purpose of the Extraordinary Summit was to amend the OAU Charter to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the OAU. The theme of the Sirte Summit was 'Strengthening OAU capacity to enable it to meet the challenges of the new millennium'.

This summit concluded on 9 September 1999 with the Sirte Declaration aimed at: Effectively addressing the new social, political and economic realities in Africa and the world; Fulfilling the peoples' aspirations for greater unity in conforming with the objectives of the OAU Charter and the Treaty Establishing the African Economic Community; Revitalising the Continental Organisation to play a more active role in addressing the needs of the people; Eliminating the scourge of conflicts; Meeting global challenges; and Harnessing the human and natural resources of the continent to improve living conditions.

To achieve these aims the summit, inter alia, decided to:

Establish an African Union in conformity with the ultimate objectives of the Charter of our Continental Organisation and the provisions of the Treaty establishing the African Economic Community.

Accelerate the process of implementing the Treaty establishing the African Economic Community, in particular: Shorten the implementation periods of the Abuja Treaty, Ensure the speedy establishment of all the institutions provided for in the Abuja Treaty; such as the African Central Bank, the African Monetary Union, the African Court of Justice and in particular, the Pan-African Parliament. Strengthening and consolidating the RECs as the pillars for achieving the objectives of the African Economic Community and realising the envisaged Union. Convene an African Ministerial Conference on Security, Stability, Development and Cooperation in the Continent, as soon as possible.

Three years later, Organisation of African Unity was transformed into African Union following the meeting that was held in Durban, July, 2002. The leaders had wanted to change the face of OAU with a new vision. They felt they would bring sanity into the continent with their ‘vibrant’ exclamations.

Thirteen years down the line since the establishment of the African Union, the continent continues to struggle. Wars are gushing in most countries of the continent. Democracy which most countries adopted has become a hide out for political thieves, who by voting them into power; they abuse the rare resources the citizens crave for.

Most countries in Africa are struggling to adopt good governance hence many conflict on elections. The recent political inferno in Burundi undermines the power the African Union has over its members. There is a broad indication that the voice of the mother body can be challenged without any sanction.

Coups are still whirling in the continent and the continent seems to struggle to enforce rule of law and putting democratic values in place. The issue of some disc-jockey, who overthrew a legitimately elected leader in Madagascar, was a very challenging one to the continent as it showed how weak it has been.

There are many positives we can draw from the African Union, In pursuit of prosperity in the region, the AU has in place declarations and institutions to promote and support economic integration among its 54 member states as the pathway to sustainable development.

Progress has been made by the AU commission, in collaboration with international partners and the UN, towards better coordinating and harmonizing development policies and programmes with the 5 Regional Economic Communities (RECs) representing the various geographical regions of the continent. Some of these RECs, such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), have been quite active in exploring possibilities to harmonize budgetary and fiscal policies and for a monetary union on the basis of a common currency.

Proposals for an African central bank and an African monetary union at the continental level are still on the drawing board, as vested interest and concerns about sovereignty hold back the necessary political will to drive the process.

The African Union has now created an agenda 2063 which is a benchmark of vision for the continent in the next 50 years. The agenda looks at the following: Changing global context.

Globalization and the information technology revolution have provided unprecedented opportunities for countries and regions with the right policies to make significant advances and lift huge sections of populations out of poverty, improve incomes and catalyse economic and social transformations.

In addition, most African economies now have in place sound macro-economic and market-oriented economies which have spurred growth, trade and investment expansion.

Building on the NEPAD experience: National, regional and global efforts made to implement NEPAD, unseen during the LPA and AT, have enabled AU to build institutions (e.g., APRM, etc.), demonstrate unprecedented commitment to implement agreed agenda, generate valuable lessons that present strong foundation for Agenda 2063. Indeed, Agenda 2063 is a logical and natural continuation of NEPAD and other initiatives.

A more united and strong Africa: Africa today is more united, a global power to reckon with, capable of rallying support around a common agenda and speaking with one voice with demonstrated strong capacity to negotiate and withstand the influence of forces that would like to see it divided.

Strong and well-functioning regional institutions: Africa’s sub regional institutions have been rationalized and the eight officially AU recognized Regional Economic Communities (CEN-SAD, COMESA, EAC, ECCAS, ECOWAS, IGAD, SADC and UMA) are today strong development and political institutions that citizens’ can count on and Agenda 2063 can stand on.

New development and investment opportunities: Africa today is faced with a confluence of factors that present a great opportunity for consolidation and rapid progress. These include: Unprecedented positive and sustained growth trajectory of many African countries resulting from sound macro-economic policies and strategies bolstered by high commodity prices; significant reduction of armed conflicts, improved peace and stability, coupled with advances in democratic governance.

A fast rising broad based African entrepreneurial and middle class, coupled with the youth bulge, which can act as catalyst for further growth and technological progress.

Much as we appreciate the vision our leaders have in the next fifty years, the citizens are pessimistic with the snail pace the continent attains on issues; instead of heading towards development; Africa most of the times continues to slides backwards.

We want a vibrant Africa with visionary leaders. With zeal and its mandate from the people on the continent the AU can resolve recurring conflicts that are suffocating African countries. The AU must promote education for all; bring economic empowerment, and find ways of dealing with youth unemployment in the continent. The union has capacity to achieve most of these goals in the short to medium term so that in 10 years Africa becomes the place the world wouldn’t ignore anymore.