POLITICS: New AU Chief, Konare, is Africa’s Alpha

By Farah Khan Reprint | | Print |

MAPUTO, Jul 14 2003 (IPS) - The big men of Africa, its heads of state, dominated Mozambique’s port city of Maputo last week as their cavalcades careened through the small city’s roads.

The convoys of between seven and 15 cars apiece – the size depended on the importance of the man inside the Mercedes Benz at the centre of the convoy – scattered ordinary citizens in their wake, filling the sleepy seaside air with their blaring horns.

They raced not only to the official sessions, but also between meetings to lobby for the top executives who will take the helm of the union from Sep. 2003 in its commission.

The African Union and its development initiative, the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) is Africa’s 14th attempt at a political and economic programme to pull the continent from its quagmire at the bottom of the development pile – and to bridge the massive wealth gaps between the rulers and the ruled on the continent.

The United Nations Development Programme’s annual human development index report released in Maputo last week concluded that the continent is unlikely to meet the set of basic human development indicators called the Millennium Development Goals by its slated date of 2015. Thirty-four of the world’s least developed countries are in Africa.

Alpha Oumar Konare, the former Malian president, was elected unopposed this week as the chairperson of the AU commission. As his name Alpha indicates, he is now one of Africa’s first men and was sworn in on Saturday when the meeting ended.

As the equivalent of the chief executive, Konare’s position will be vital to ensure the union does not go the way of all the other plans which were well-intentioned but moved little beyond their paper versions.

”He is a committed pan-Africanist and a great son of Africa,” said Mozambican president Joachim Chissano at Konare’s induction. Konare will work with nine commissioners, five of whom are women. It is the first time that a governing body on the continent achieves gender parity in its top structure.

The five women also elected at the AU meeting are Julia Dolly Joiner of the Gambia who takes charge of political affairs; Gawanas Bience Philomena, the social affairs commissioner from Namibia; Saida Agrebe, the human resources, science and technology commissioner from Tunisia; Elisabeth Tankeu, trade and industry commissioner from the Cameroon and Rosebud Kurwijila, the rural economy and agriculture commissioner from Tanzania.

A South African diplomat described Konare as ”very charismatic”. Added another, ”He’s highly respected as an influential political figure.”

The former secretary-general of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) Amara Essy who also served as interim chairperson of the African Union from its formation in June last year, dropped out of the race when his home country, Cote d’Ivoire withdrew its support for his candidature.

Sources in the African Union said the heads of state wanted to elevate the position of commission chair to that of a head of state to give the Union gravitas. Essy was a former foreign minister.

Each of the nine commissioners are high-ranking public figures drawn from public life, the academe or the civil society sector. ”We wanted to lift the profile of the organisation. (World) Leaders will have no problem meeting Konare and we ensured that he will not be palmed off to co-operation and development ministers,” said a former UN envoy.

In his acceptance speech, Konare showed that his would have to be an outward-looking office to secure support. ”Africa cannot survive without a partnership with the rest of the world. Africa needs the support of the international community, the political and material support,” he said.

While his lobbyists are effusive about Konare, other reviews of the 57-year-old are mixed, with analysts pointing out that the former professor of history and archaeology failed to kick-start a discernible development programme in his native Mali. A BBC profile of him last year painted Konare as a ”master of spin”.

Konare was president from 1992 until June last year and previously served as sports and arts ministers from 1978. Between 1999 and 2000, he was chairperson of the 15-nation Economic Community of West African state (ECOWAS).

An ardent anthropologist, he is credited with being an energetic protector of Mali’s ample archaeological, academic and cultural histories. He takes up his post at the AU headquarters in Ethiopia in September. Konare is married to Adame Konare and has three sons and a daughter.

In addition to serving as chairperson of the African Union, he is also a member of the United Nations Millennium Project Task Force on Hunger and chairperson of the e-Africa Commission on New technologies.

His immediate tasks will be to ensure the Commission’s new structures start working properly quickly and to collect renewed funding for the African Union. Eight member countries are in arrears to the union.

The protocols or laws that will set the supranational standards for the union must also still be ratified by the required number of countries. These include the peace and security council, as well as a Pan-African parliament and the African peer review mechanism.