Is the African Union going off the rails, or is the Ivorian crisis just casting a shadow on the pan-African body, wonders Gamal Nkrumah As clouds continued to gather in Ivory Coast, those over Addis Ababa have been parting. The first extraordinary African Union (AU) summit, convened in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa ended on Tuesday, with African leaders dismissing critics' accusations that African summits have degenerated into ineffective talking shops. South African President Thabo Mbeki was confronted by journalists who had the temerity to insinuate that the AU was "toothless", pointing instead to continental efforts to resolve different African crises simultaneously. A thankless and Herculean task, the pan-African body's defendants say. Detractors, however, insist that steps taken so far toward African unity have been limited and timidly approached. They also argue that such procrastination poses prickly questions about Africa's will to unite. The Addis Ababa summit, attended by 28 heads of state, six prime ministers and nearly all foreign ministers, was dominated by discussions about resolving Africa's many ongoing civil wars. War zones, particularly in the Nile Basin and Great Lakes region were discussed. The Somali and Sudanese peace processes also got a mention and even Iraq was touched upon. But, it was the Ivorian crisis that overshadowed all else. It came as no big surprise that African leaders meeting in Addis Ababa agreed that it is better to nip the Ivorian malaise in the bud than to let the current rot spread. No representative of the Ivorian armed opposition groups, however, showed up in Addis Ababa, because the AU is very much like its predecessor the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), essentially an assemblage of states. There can be no going back when it comes to African continental unity. No global region is more desperately in need of solidarity and cooperation than the African continent. Yet, Africa's foreign ministers last month rejected a call by Libyan leader, Muammar Gaddafi for the creation of a United States of Africa. The Libyan leader flew to Addis Ababa a day before other African heads of state and government. However, the motion put forward by Libya, that a continental army must be created also received a lukewarm reception. A peace-keeping force at best, the sceptics argued. Rather than breakthroughs, there have been setbacks. Little has been done to harmonise African economies, most of whom are still oriented towards the West. There are understandable apprehensions about plans to speed up the process by some influential member states with objectors warning that a rushed job is destined to fail. The continent's largest and most powerful nations, such as Egypt, Ethiopia, Nigeria and South Africa caution against rushing headlong into African unity, counseling prudence and restraint instead. While the debate about the pace of African unity rages, the continents' leaders are trying to work out solutions to festering problems like the political impasse in Ivory Coast, an intricate problem that has had serious ramifications on the entire West African region. Ironically, at a time when Africa is moving towards closer unity, notions of petty nationalisms, such as Ivoirité in the Ivory Coast seem to be gaining momentum. The Ivorian economy is the third largest in Africa south of the Sahara. Ivory Coast is the economic powerhouse of French- speaking West Africa and accounts for no less than 40 per cent of the gross domestic product of the West African Economic and Monetary Union, a regional body grouping states. Many French-speaking West African countries are landlocked and a staggering 60 per cent of all imports to the region pass through Ivorian ports, including the commercial capital and largest city in Francophone West Africa, Abidjan. To compound the problem, many foreign nationals from neighbouring impoverished and predominantly Muslim West African countries work in Ivory Coast. Their families depend on remittances. Countries like Burkina Faso and Mali are especially vulnerable. Burkina Faso nationals working in Ivory Coast remit an estimated $120 million a year. Indeed, hundreds of thousands of Burkina Faso, Guinea and Mali nationals have been living in Ivory Coast for two or three generations. Many are systematically denied Ivorian citizenship. The most famous, perhaps, is Alasanne Ouattara leader of the Ivorian opposition Rally of the Republicans Party (RDR). Ouattara was denied the right to run for president because he was suspected of having non-Ivorian roots. One of his parents was said to have hailed from Burkina Faso. The divisive policy of Ivoirité, promulgated into law a couple of years ago, has exacerbated matters. According to the new law, both parents of an individual must be Ivorian in order to qualify for citizenship. Overnight, 30 per cent of Ivory Coast's residents were denied civil and political rights. It is in this context that opposition groups based primarily in the north and west of the country took up arms against the Ivorian government. Chief among these is the Ivory Coast Patriotic Movement better known by its French acronym (MPCI) -- the main armed opposition group based in the northern, predominantly Muslim half of the country. The MPCI demands the scrapping of the new Ivorian citizenship laws. It also calls for early elections in which all residents born in Ivory Coast will participate, whether or not one of their parents is Ivorian. It is against this chaotic backdrop that France, the former colonial master of Ivory Coast and a dozen other West African countries, invited government and armed opposition groups to sign a peace deal in Paris on 24 January. Smaller armed opposition groups in the west of the country, including the Ivorian Popular Movement of the Great West (MPIGO) and the Justice and Peace Movement (MJP), were also represented in Paris. The peace deal stipulates that Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo remain in office, that an interim coalition government be named, a politically neutral prime minister be appointed and that the interim government organise fresh elections as soon as possible. Ouattara's RDR is the only political group that has so far officially endorsed the French- brokered deal. However, protesters from the mainly Christian and animist south of the country took to the streets in a strong show of support for President Gbagbo. Pro-Ivorian government sentiment is strongest in the commercial capital Abidjan, where an estimated 200,000 pro- government protesters took to the streets demanding the scrapping of the Paris deal. Anti- French demonstrators have accused France of supporting Muslim northerners and foreigners and the French embassy was besieged. Furthermore, some demonstrators headed for the United States Embassy angrily demanding US intervention. In face of such popular discontent, the Ivorian government has remained silent, presumably fearful of upsetting its solid support base in the south of the country. As ethnic and religious rioting worsened, Kamara Yerefe, a popular Ivorian Muslim actor, and member of the opposition RDR was murdered by pro-government zealots. Yerefe's murder prompted the biggest demonstration by RDR supporters in Abidjan since the eruption of the Ivorian civil war last September. The demonstration proved that the opposition groups do have substantial support in the south of country as well as in their northern stronghold. Ivorian President Gbagbo's Ivorian Popular Front Party (PFP) is in limbo, unable to make a strong stand in support of the French-brokered deal. Armed opposition groups, however, warned that they will resume fighting if Gbagbo procrastinates any further in implementing the French-brokered peace deal. However, he appears to be unwilling or unable to tackle the confrontation over Ivoirité head on. Hitherto, the main point of reference was the person at the top, namely the president. Today, the voices of the opposition must be taken into account. The southern ethnic groups which previously called the shots now appear to be dangerously on the defensive. If a once flourishing example of regional economic integration is now floundering under the pressure of ethnic and religious strife, is there any serious hope for continental African union.? To this end, the build-up of diplomatic and political pressure is essential. "Right now the international community must bring Laurent Gbagbo to book over the implementation of the [French-brokered] accord," warned Guillaume Soro, chief negotiator of the MPCI. West African leaders, including Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, have flown to Abidjan and held peace talks with Gbagbo and other Ivorian government officials. Hopes have been dashed before. There is indeed a crisis of legitimacy in Ivory Coast and many other parts of Africa. Democracy and people power have made some impressive inroads in some parts of the continent. But, the more subversive threat to the nation state in Africa appears to come from its neo-colonial status. Peace deals, as the Ivorian example demonstrates, are still clinched in the old Metropolitan capitals of former colonial masters. Much of the trouble with the African Union is that, unlike its European counterpart, it is desperately short of proper funding. Even with the inclusion of the relatively poorer Central European nations, Europe is still essentially an exclusive club of rich and industrially advanced countries. Africa, on the other hand, is a hotchpotch of impoverished and underdeveloped countries. Whatever happens, the notion of a grand African union must never be consigned to the dustbin of history.
