The AU and the plight of Africans (I)

I know that this supposed continental body is based in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital and lives in a 200 million dollars building built by the Chinese. But beyond this, what does that body do for Africa? Has it done anything to impact the real lives of Africans?I am asking this ‘stupid’’ question because I […]

I know that this supposed continental body is based in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital and lives in a 200 million dollars building built by the Chinese. But beyond this, what does that body do for Africa? Has it done anything to impact the real lives of Africans?
I am asking this ‘stupid’’ question because I think that an organisation that goes by such a lofty name should behave like similar continental organisations elsewhere in the world. It should do, say and stand for things that will promote development in Africa and protect the dignity and personhood of the African. But the AU does not appear to champion any real African cause. 
For years now, many African youth running away from the poverty that has become endemic in the continent have been perishing in their hundreds and in their thousands in rickety boats in the Mediterranean Sea. This ugly development has been a source of enormous concern to the world and especially to the Europeans. The EU has been holding series of meetings to find a solution to this shameful humanitarian disaster. Perhaps because of my ignorance, I have not become aware of any form of serious concern by the AU. Why?
Jacob Zuma, whose ex-wife is the head of the AU Commission, made a very very unfortunate remark at the height of the cannibalistic (not xenophobic) attacks against fellow African migrants in South Africa. Zuma wondered why other Africans will not stay in their own countries but choose to flock to South Africa. In other words, no one should blame the South Africans or their government for the sad fate that befell fellow Africans! The AU did not say even a tepid word in condemnation of that remark by a man who was in a position to know the sacrifices other Africans made in order to give South Africans freedom and equality.
One of the things that has made life and living in many African countries hellish is the proliferation of guns. Apart from South Africa and Egypt, African countries do not manufacture guns. A naïve person like me does not therefore understand why we who do not manufacture guns should have more of those deadly weapons in free circulation than even the countries which actually produce them. I expect that the number one agenda for the AU is to champion a guns-free continent. Africa’s number one enemy is poverty and underdevelopment. You do not need guns or other destructive weapons to fight this deadly and destructive enemy. Africans will continue to fight cannibalistic wars against brothers unless the AU wakes up from its slumber to fight the source of its endless wars and destruction- the guns that are freely available in the hands of its demented children and young adults.  Children in many parts of Africa are born into war; they live on war and die fighting one war or another.
We Africans do not also produce sophisticated drugs and other mind-bending substances. But one of the things destroying the lives of many young and old Africans is psychedelic drugs. These drugs are a companion to the meaningless wars that go on in various parts of Africa. A simple-minded me expects that if it were a responsible and responsive organisation, the AU would be in the forefront in the campaign against illicit and destructive drugs entering the continent. We must have a uniform, continent-wide response to a matter that is the source of destruction of the lives of many Africa youth. But what does the AU do? African leaders sit in that house built for them by the Chinese, drink tea, exchange banters and do nothing about destructive drugs. Perhaps they expect the UN, the UNDP and UNOC to come and help protect their children against the ravages of drugs.
There is another reason that makes me wonder what the AU does on behalf of Africans. For weeks now, Burundians have been dying in their numbers. Some have become refugees in neighboring countries. All of these are happening because a certain President Pierre Nkurunziza does not want to leave office after the expiration of his second tenure. Each time ‘’Attack News’’ stations such as Aljazeera, CNN and their fellow travellers beam news from that unhappy country, I feel so ashamed of my Africanness. There we go again, I tell myself about the foolish things happening in Burundi. Yet an organisation like the AU which is supposed to bark, counsel and admonish Africans to behave themselves seems mute and indifferent.
In fact, I think the full meaning of the AU is not African Union; it should more appropriately be ‘’Africa Uncaring’’ or ‘’Africa Unconcerned’’ or ‘’Africa Useless’’. The almost callous indifference to the plight of those African economic refugees dying in the Mediterranean Sea because they seek to escape to so-called greener grass in Europe disqualifies the AU from being known as African Union. Some four or five centuries ago, our young men and women were waylaid, kidnapped, chained and transported in slave ships, kicking and crying, to the New World. These days, our youth voluntarily decide to pay rickety boat owners and persons traffickers thousands of dollars to take them away from the continent to Europe for free slavery. This is something that I expect African leaders to think about and see what they can do to halt this new evil decimating the continent. But no one appears to be thinking in that Chinese-built house in Addis.
(To be continued.)