With an emergency African summit in the offing, Egypt warns that Nigeria's apparent compromising on the UN Security Council's potential expansion may rupture the continent's unity. Magda El-Ghitany writes Less than a month after the African Union (AU) summit in Sirte, African leaders may feel obliged to convene another summit today in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit will represent Egypt at the summit. Nigeria, the current AU president, requested the convening of an emergency summit to garner support for modifying the African proposal, adopted at Sirte, on expanding the UN Security Council. "The summit aims at resolving the conflict over the African position on the UN Security Council with total transparency," Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit told reporters. According to high-ranking Egyptian diplomats, Nigeria claimed majority support for holding the summit although a two-thirds majority was actually required. The Nigerian request took place only days after Egypt said Nigeria was trying to thwart Africa's chances of winning two UN Security Council permanent seats. The diplomatic altercation centered on Egypt, backed by other African countries, rejecting Nigerian attempts to unilaterally modify the originally agreed upon AU proposal. Nigeria's new position was adopted following the London-based meetings between the G4 countries -- Brazil, Germany, Japan, and India -- and representatives of 18 African states including Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa, Algeria, and Libya. The G4 aimed at reaching a common proposal on the two groups' bids for permanent Security Council seats. Indeed, without the African bloc's support, the G4 cannot win the two-thirds majority of the 191 UN General Assembly votes needed to pass its proposal. The African proposal, which, according to Sirte's summit draft declaration, calls for an increase in permanent Security Council members from 15 to 26, and for securing "two permanent seats that enjoy all the privileges including the right to veto in Security Council, [in addition to] five other non- permanent seats" for Africa. The G4 proposal, however, entails the expansion of the Security Council to 25 seats, with two permanent African seats that do not have veto powers, and four non- permanent African ones. The fifth seat, according to the G4 proposal, would be shared by all developing countries. Without sufficient clout to "impact the world's events", the G4 offer was rejected by several AU member-states. "No agreement [was reached] whatsoever," Algeria's UN ambassador Abdallah Baali said. However, Nigerian Foreign Minister Oluyemi Adjeniji shocked African members when he announced that both groups -- the AU and the G4 -- had reached common ground. The seemingly unilateral attempt to modify the unified African position adopted at Sirte prompted Egypt to reject the Nigerian claim. Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit warned of the negative repercussions of Nigeria's approach. Nigeria tried to "manipulate the African position to serve [its] narrow interests in a way that does not reflect the required transparency in dealings between African states", Egypt's top diplomat told reporters. Abul-Gheit said Nigeria was ready to join the G4 and withdraw the African right to attain the veto power and the fifth non-permanent seat, just to improve its chances of joining the council. Egypt's stance was supported by around a quarter of the AU member states, a high-ranking diplomat who requested anonymity told Al-Ahram Weekly. "Egypt does not intend to enter a mere war of words," the diplomat emphasised. "Instead, it was making a clear point. It is urging all AU member states to respect and adhere to the AU decisions, laws and norms." Adjeniji, meanwhile, accused Egypt of being "isolated, [and trying to] undermine African interests for selfish reasons". The Nigerian Foreign Minister described Egypt's stance as an attempt to hinder any chances for Africa to secure two permanent seats unless it "is sure [it] will be one of the two to represent Africa". According to Egyptian diplomats, it is competition for the seat, and accordingly the attempt to marginalise Egypt's chances to win one, that is driving Nigerian actions. Although there are eight African countries that see themselves as contenders, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa are the main front-runners. "Competition is expected. But, the nature of the competition is what matters the most," the diplomat said. It appears that trying to marginalise Egypt's chances of securing a permanent place at the UN's top table "is not new", Ahmed Ibrahim, Africa expert at Al-Ahram's Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, told the Weekly. Indeed, according to Ibrahim, Nigeria and South Africa have been indirectly coordinating, for over two years, in order to strengthen their chances while weakening Egypt's. Such attempts became clear, however, following last month's Sirte summit. This is because, "contrary to Nigeria's plans, Egypt managed to prevent the summit from delving into the thorny issue of naming the candidates most eligible for permanent UN Security Council seats," Ibrahim explains. Other challenges however still negatively affect Egypt's bid for the seat. Unfortunately, Ibrahim said, there is a noticeable lack of coordination on the Arab front, as Arab countries "like Libya and Algeria, appear reluctant to give their support to their Egyptian counterpart". Instead of adhering to the decision adopted by the last Arab League's summit -- held in Algiers -- to support Egypt in its bid for the seat, Libya and Algeria are actually competing with Egypt, Ibrahim said. In any case, Ibrahim said, the current international context may threaten "the whole reform process". The United States -- a permanent member with veto powers -- is against new countries getting the veto. It primarily supports Japan, and perhaps India. Ibrahim said China's reluctance to admit Japan into the council is another complicating factor. The "United for Consensus" group -- including Italy, Mexico, Pakistan, and Argentina -- does not approve permanent seats for Germany, Brazil, and India either. These factors may "at least delay the UN Security Council reform process for quite some time", he said. In the meantime, the emergency African summit is "not well prepared", and "will make matters worse", warned Ahmed Hagag, secretary-general of the Cairo-based African General Assembly . "If it happens, it will lead to deeper cracks in the African position. It will create more fragmented groups, and more and more proponents and opponents of the Nigerian position, which will definitely be a bad day for Africa."
