Freedom Mutanda Analysis & Opinion
Amid thunderous applause, the outgoing Chairperson of the African Union, President Mugabe, told delegates that the time had come for Africa to bite the bullet and pull out of the United Nations if there were no Security Council reforms that allow Africa and other marginalised parts of the world to have permanent representation status in the UN Security Council.

For years, the big five in world politics have continued to ‘bestride the whole world like a Colossus’ and all the little countries had to watch in awe at the veto wielding members as world politics revolved around them.

In the aftermath of the devastating Second World War, it may have been the right thing to do to have a collection of a few countries to direct world politics. At that time, the five belonged to the victorious side and they could afford to dictate terms that pleased them at the end of the war including implementing the Dumbarton Oaks agreement that culminated in the establishment of the United Nations Organization, a successor to the ill-fated League of Nations.

Times have changed.

Black Africa and Asia removed themselves from the shackles of colonialism starting in the late fifties. With independence, came responsibility.

Africa has more than a billion people and Europe lags behind in terms of human population. Yet, Europe has three veto holding powers in the form of Britain, France and Russia. In other words, Europe continues to be Africa’s spokesperson in the International arena.

Calls for Africa to have a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council are growing louder by the day. With her abundant natural resources, it is only fair for her to be accorded a status she richly deserves.

Politics of division entered the fray in the early days of the United Nations with a bi-polar world emerging. One would either be in support of Communism or Democracy. Russia represented Communism while the USA saw herself as the epitome of democracy.

Winston Churchill ominously talked about the ‘’iron curtain’’ draped across Eastern Europe that threatened to move war time allies USSR to be on a collision course with Western powers led by the USA.

It was a question of defending ideologies viz communism and capitalism.

The United States of America took it upon herself to be the defender of democracy; thus, she supported counter-revolutionary armies in an effort to stem the Communism expansion. Tellingly, the US does that with impunity.

Where the Security Council raises the red flag in terms of sovereignty violations, there won’t be a US ally involved. Saddam Hussein used to be a darling of the US during the bloody Iran-Iraq war but fell foul with the world policeman on August 2 1990 when she entered Kuwait and was immediately a subject of the Security Council and by January 1991, the so-called Allies with the USA at the helm bombarded Iraqi cities until she capitulated six weeks later.

Her thinking in that regard has always been a country is either or against the United States of America. She sees herself as the vanguard of democracy that must police the world and shepherd all countries to move in a ‘democratic’ way.

Remember the former US President, George Bush famously said, ‘’if you are not with is, you are against us’’ and therefore, he would fight that country that has spurned US overtures using the shock and awe method.

The second US –Iraq war was very devastating. The weapons of mass destruction were never found and no-one ever took the USA to task. Britain and USA alongside other Western powers bulldozed the UN to endorse their war to oust Saddam Hussein on the pretext that he hid weapons of mass destruction.Thus, when the French had problems in Indo-China, the USA saw herself as the wronged party and she took up the cudgel on behalf of the French, getting angry for the French as it were.

For the following decade and a half USA forces were enmeshed in a winless war against Communist Viet-Kongs who could have been lightly or poorly armed but their ingenuity proved difficult to beat them. Body bags went to the USA daily as the war reached fever pitch.Evidently, whoever becomes the President of USA does not do his bidding but has to toe the line of the Foreign Policy think tanks. There are several doctrines that guide USA foreign policy such as the Munroe Doctrine.

Therefore, Africa can never be an equal partner of the ‘’Free world’’ because of the difference in ideology. But can Africans really pull off the UN when push comes to shove?

Africans have allowed themselves to be divided whether by religion or any other reason but the bottom line is Africa is divided. It could be that economic considerations become the overriding factor when it comes to choice. Divide-and-rule has been an effective strategy used by the West since the time of the Slave Trade.

African slave traders were in complicit with the whites who transported Africans to the Americas. That policy has never ended. Maybe, the lure of the dollar is too much to ignore.

There are some leaders who believe that foreign aid is the sine qua non of development and strings attached to that help are secondary in their views. For long, Mobutu Sese Seko ruled the roost in Zaire (DRC) and the West looked the other side as democracy was alien in that country. He was their darling even when there were no elections there.Some African political analysts, estimate that his net worth stashed in foreign land could have been $5 billion and some people derisively said his son was a day scholar in a French school but went there by air every day. Did the USA launch a motion in the UNSC (United Nations Security Council)? No, she never did that. They say, kisses go by favour.

Africa has more than 50 countries and her total land area is second only to Asia; she doesn’t have a permanent member in the upper echelons of the UN. Asia has China, to its credit. Has the colonial legacy made Europe the continent to have more veto wielding powers than any other continent?

Sadly, Africa doesn’t shout with one voice. Some golden sons of Africa such as Kwame Nkrumah and Muammar Gaddafi have talked about a United States of Africa and many leaders have shunned the idea for fear that they would be made redundant in the event that there is one nation from the Cape to the Cairo. They are afraid they would be made governors and the perks that come with being a head of state will be lost to them forever.

One voice in Africa could derail any subversive machinations from any quarter.

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