Diplomats attending the inconclusive 18th AU Summit on Tuesday said they were unhappy with the outcome of the meeting.
The correspondent in Addis Ababa reports that AU leaders on Monday failed to elect new executives to run the AU Commission and subsequently had to end the meeting abruptly.
This followed the inability of the leading candidate and incumbent Chairperson of the Commission; Dr Jean Ping to muster the required two-thirds of the votes to win re-election after his opponent, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma stepped down in the third round of voting.
The Summit ended without a communiqué as decisions on all other issues on the agenda were shifted to the next Summit.
Some of the diplomats said that the division had exposed the failure of African leaders to have a united stand on simple issues.
Mrs Martha Kennedy, a Kenyan diplomat said the division would drag Africa many years back.
“The continent is agitating for unity, the theme of the Summit revolves around? having a united Africa through trade, but unfortunately, our leaders were so divided to the extent that they could not agree on a single candidate,’’ Kennedy said.
She attributed the failure to external influence, especially from the Western countries.
Another diplomat from Nigeria, Mr Ayeni Oladipo, attributed the failure to elect new officials of the Commission to the absence of late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
He said both the Commission and the continent would continue to feel the absence of Gaddafi, who was determined to ensure the unity of Africa.
“If Gaddafi were still alive, this unfortunate incident would not have happened. He will make sure that all issues were settled before the Summit.
“There was no time the situation got worse like this time. I attended many AU elections but the trend was that before it got very hot, Gaddafi would always ask the candidate with the least votes to withdraw while he mobilised his colleagues to vote for the other candidate to enable him get the required number of votes.
“This was the problem we had with the elections. None of the heads of state could assume the position of Gaddafi. They allowed their individual interest to rise above the continental interest’’, Oladipo said.
He said it was unfortunate that less than one year after Gaddafi’s death, African leaders have failed to be united and conduct a simple election based on consensus.
An observer from the Organisation of Islamic Conference, Shiek Omar Al-Hicham, however, attributed the failure of the Summit to South Africa’s efforts to take over the control of the continental body which was resisted by others.
“You could see the division between the Southern African bloc, supported by Central Africa and the West African bloc which was supported by East Africa while North Africa decided to be on the fence’’, El-Hicham said.
He said with the death of Gaddafi, South Africa was all out to be in control of both the AU and the Commission, especially with the candidature of Dr Nsakozana Dlamini-Zuma, a former wife of Mr Jacob Zuma, President of South Africa.
He hoped that the postponement of the election would provide an opportunity to the leaders to review their actions and consider the unity of the continent as the most important issue at stake.
The tenure of the Chairperson, the Deputy Chairperson and eight Commissioner,s which will expire in April, has been extended to June when fresh elections will be conducted at a Summit slated for Benin Republic.
The three-man Committee of Heads of State would be established to review the candidature of Dr Jean Ping, the outgoing Chairperson and Dlamini-Zuma before the June Summit.
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