AU’s relience on EU unfortunate – Prof Bathily

The AU summit come up in a few weeks. Why do you consider yourself suitable for the position? My profile speaks for itself. I’m not a candidate of circumstances, or by accident. I’m a candidate because I believe in Pan-Africanism. For decades, I have been vocal about the unity and liberation of the African people. […]

The AU summit come up in a few weeks. Why do you consider yourself suitable for the position?

My profile speaks for itself. I’m not a candidate of circumstances, or by accident. I’m a candidate because I believe in Pan-Africanism. For decades, I have been vocal about the unity and liberation of the African people. As a leader of the youth movement in Senegal in the late 1960s to early 1970s, I fought for the unity of Africans. This is part of my life. 

When I became an adult, as a teacher, I researched on Africa and the history of its people. I wrote about contemporary Africa, I taught it in the academia focusing on a wide range of issues – be it security or democracy. On the issue of democracy, I have been one of the major actors of democratic process in Senegal for decades. It cost me to be sent to prison. I became a member of parliament from opposition platform. Beyond my national career, my engagement in international activities also speaks for itself. I was a member of ECOWAS parliament from 2001 – 2006. 

At the African Union itself, I was the special envoy of the African Union on the issue of pastoral migration. Also when crisis erupted in Madagascar in 2001, I was a member of the AU counter group in the country. 

I participated in the management of so many conflicts in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea and political crisis in Mali. I also worked for United Nations as deputy special representative for political affairs in Mali in 2003. From there in 2004, I went to Central Africa as special representative of the United Nations secretary general. 

For the last two and a half years, I have been in Gabon covering eleven countries of Central Africa. When you look at this, I can confidently say that I have the enough experience not just as a Senegalese citizen, or a member of ECOWAS country, but also as an African citizen. I think today, the African Union needs somebody who would not just do business as usual but who will be inspired by the Africans in their hope for democracy, regional integration, peace and security. More importantly, the African Union needs a more dynamic leadership that will make the organization more relevant to the Africans.

Insecurity and dwindling economy are among the major challenges facing the continent. How will you address them if voted as AU commission chair?

Issues of peace and security are not alien to me. Throughout four decades, I have been involved in the management of political and security crisis in Africa. Recently, when I was at the head of the United Nations Regional Bureau for Central Africa, I was in charge of managing the Boko Haram issue in the Lake Chad Basin Area. I started in May 2014 until October, 2016. 

I was instrumental with my colleagues from West Africa to convince the states of the region to come together to have a common position on the Boko Haram issue, up to the establishment of the Multi National Joint Task Force. And every six months, I used to present reports to the Security Council on the issue of Boko Haram. This is issue I know quite well and of course within the framework of the AU, I have been working with the organisation in my capacity as the special representative for security maintenance in the central African region. We had elections in most of the Central African region in 2015. I have been instrumental in managing the political crisis erupting from elections in Congo Republic. In Central African Republic, I presided over the forum of Bangui which led to the reconciliation and consequently organization of elections in the country. 

I did same thing in Gabon. Regional integration is very important not only at ECOWAS level but also at continental level. Usually when people talk about regional integration, they speak about building infrastructure. 

Though they are important but social infrastructure like education and health are more important. I think for the economy to grow on a sustainable basis, we have to have a social instrument for implementing programmes. You cannot develop African economy on a sustainable manner without having the entrepreneurs. 

I dream of having not only one Dangote or Elumelu, but hundreds of them throughout the continent, coming together to cooperate and build dams, roads and develop aviation industry for easy air transportation. When we pull financial resources and intellects together, there is a possibility of having good cooperation which will build Africa. I will have to persuade the heads of state and government to bring together African entrepreneurs and help them so that we can build a sustainable economy.  

There are no partnership within the continent. It is very rare for you to see one African country partnering with other. The Europeans have their own strategy about Africa, but we don’t have our own strategy towards them. It is the role of the African Union Commission to strategise to bring the heads of state and government to come together and to come with a common position vis-à-vis all the new partners. 

The AU depends on donor agencies to meet financial obligations. How do you plan to address the issue of financial independence of the union?

The issue is about implementing our decision. I have been following this issue of financing activities of the AU for the last decade at different levels and in different capacities. At a point, there was an audit that was made in 2007 about the financing and the restructure of the union. Proposals have been made to improve the financing but no implementation. Former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo was tasked to head a new committee. In his report, he proposed alternative sources of financing. This was not implemented. In the second before the last AU summit, President Paul Kagame of Rwanda was tasked to do it. He came out with a proposal that was adopted in Kigali, in the last summit – 0.2% of import outside Africa. Of course if this is implemented really this time, we will be able to finance not only the management of the day-to-day activities of the organisation but also to finance a lot of programmes, including the peace fund. 

You know, there are so many crises on the continent today. We, the Africans, should also contribute to the peace and security of the continent. In the last Security Council meeting, we accepted the principle of 75% of the peace fund will be paid by the United Nations and Africa will be in charge of the remaining 25%. But it is unfortunate that we have to look onto Europe to finance our own part. 

What’s your take on the Morocco occupation of Western Sahara, especially now that the country is moving to join the AU?

Morocco wants to join the AU but the Article 29 of the AU Charter is very clear on this. It is not the chair of the commission but the heads of state and government to decide who should be member. It’s up to them in their assembly, according to the disposition of Article 29. I’m sure if they consider this, they will take a decision. And whatever it is, it will be my duty as the commission’s chair to implement it. I have no problem with that because it’s a sovereign decision of the heads of state and government. 

I cannot speak from the point of view of an independent country; the chair of the commission is there to implement the decision of the majority, according to the charter of the constitutive act or the consensus. When you are elected as a chair, you should be neutral even if the position is not in favour of your country, in as much as it is the majority.  

Are there any specific targets you have set for yourself?

My main target is to make the African Union relevant to the African people. Today, one of the things you hear from the civil society and professional organisations and even the citizens on the street is that AU is not relevant to them. When you talk to the artists, the intellectuals and even the economic entrepreneurs, they say this organization is lying there higher on the hills of Addis Ababa, we don’t know what they do. So I will have to work very closely with African grass-roots organisations, so that they will be acquainted with the workings of the commission.  Secondly, we need to work on the democratization process, which is really developing in the continent and which has become unavoidable as the youths and women want democracy. We have to initiate proposals on how we will really implement the protocol on good governance. We will do this by engaging civil society and political organisations in the continent.