African Union must wake up from its slumber

Sudan. Congratulations were in order all round except in the case of Libya where representatives of the National Transitional Council took Libya’s chair in both the General Assembly and the Peace and Security Council with numerous questions hanging over their heads and outside the mandate of Libyans.
It was quite regrettable that the AU invited the NTC to attend the 18th Summit given what transpired in Libya, where Nato not only violated international law by invading a sovereign country but effected illegal regime change before murdering the sitting head of state, Col Muammar Gaddafi, in cold blood.

Not only that, the Nato powers also airlifted their man from the US and thrust him to the helm of the Libyan government.
By inviting the NTC, the AU – whose proposed roadmap to resolving the Libyan crisis was trashed by Nato – effectively endorsed Nato’s war crimes in Libya.
It blessed the cold-blooded murder of Col Gaddafi and the over 50 000 innocent Libyans who fell under the might of the Nato war machine.
What example did the AU set?

It effectively told Nato that its okay to effect regime change in Africa as whoever the West installs thereafter will receive the red carpet at the AU headquarters.
One would have thought that after failing to come to Gaddafi’s aid, the AU would have made amends by suspending Libya from its councils until the roadmap set by the Peace and Security Council was implemented.
The NTC would then only be allowed into the AU with a mandate from Libyans.

Sadc has shown the way by suspending Madagascar after Andre Rajoelina unconstitutionally deposed the government of Marc Ravalomanana.
Sadc appointed a facilitator, former Mozambican president Joachim Chissano, to help the Malagasy find each other at the table through the Sadc roadmap.
The predecessor of the AU, the Organisation of African Unity, showed character when Idi Amin overthrew – with British assistance – the elected government of Dr Milton Obote in January 1971.

The founding fathers of the OAU – among them Dr Kenneth Kaunda, Julius Nyerere and Seretse Khama – all boycotted the OAU Summit that was set for Kampala, Uganda in 1975 in protest over the coup.
Not only that, four years later, Nyerere was to go a step further by running Amin out of town under the aegis of the East African Community.
Milton Obote was restored to power thereafter.

If it is to gain respect, the AU needs to adopt clear parameters on what is expected of member states that sit in its councils.
Clarifying the parameters for democratic governance will enable the AU to reject or expel non-compliant members.
More so the AU needs to send a message to Westerners and any would be aggressors that it is not just an annual convocation of lily-livered men but principled, independent leaders ready to defend their continent and member states from any aggressor.

The need for this cannot be over-emphasised given revelations made by a US think-tank, the Council on Foreign Relations, that predicted in a report titled “More than Humanitarianism: A Strategic US Approach Toward Africa”, that ‘‘Sub-Saharan Africa is likely to become as important a source of US energy imports as the Middle East.”

We all know what the US has been doing in the Middle East to lay its hands on resources.
The setting up of the so-called US Africa Military Command (Africom) should be a wake up call to African leaders.

There is need for a standby force to help maintain peace on the continent, and to also act as a deterrent to the US war machine.
The time to wake up is nigh.