This week's African summit in Abuja is seen by some as a milestone on the road to political reform and economic recovery. Others believe it is part of a process to facilitate Western penetration of the continent, writes Gamal Nkrumah Most African initiatives lack persuasive commercial logic. The New Partnership for African Development (NEPAD) promises otherwise, its advocates argue. To this end, the African summit met in Nigeria this week with the aim of making NEPAD the continent's overriding priority. NEPAD was officially adopted by the fledgling African Union (AU) as a blueprint for African economic and political survival. The first summit of the AU was convened in July in Durban, South Africa. NEPAD, if and when fully implemented, will impact all aspects of African economic, political and social development, including democracy and good governance, human rights, conflict resolution, peace, security, sustainable growth and economic development. However, NEPAD's critics contend that it is overly dependent on Western approval and largesse. The critics believe that Western powers are bound to dictate terms of reference for NEPAD's political and economic agenda. One critic likened the NEPAD framework to the gnu asking the crocodile to help it across the river. The idea of banding together to create a common market and free trade area is fast gaining salience among African nations. But, the notion of monitoring fellow African countries to see to it that there is no going back on the democratic transformations and political reform is a novel, and apparently unpalatable, exercise. It is still not entirely clear what monitoring procedures will be followed or installed. What is, however, abundantly clear is that the "African Peer Review Mechanism" is strongly advocated by a core group of African leaders led by Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo. By entering the game with such gusto, Obasanjo is inviting other African leaders to climb onto the bandwagon. Obasanjo vehemently denied that African leaders solicited charity from the West. In an unprecedented development, the leaders of 12 African countries met in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, and signed an agreement to monitor each other's progress in implementing sweeping political reforms and instituting good governance. Most African countries are reluctant to take the plunge, and only 12 signed the peer review agreement. In attendance were the presidents of Algeria, Mozambique, Rwanda, Senegal and South Africa. Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zennawi and the vice presidents of Gabon and Ghana. Angola, Botswana, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Egypt, Mali and Mauritania were represented by their foreign ministers. Perhaps, the most controversial of NEPAD's initiatives is the peer review mechanism whereby African countries monitor their progress in advancing good governance, human rights and democracy. These are pivotal elements in the NEPAD plan with many Western leaders predicting that certain African leaders were bound to reject the so-called "peer review principle". Naturally, the peer review process will be opposed by African leaders who do not run their countries democratically. Others feel that it will sow the seeds of discord, pitting some African countries against others. It is also feared that some countries will use the "peer review" process as a means of meddling in the domestic affairs of rivals. Champions of the concept say its rulings are not binding on African governments. The executive secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa, K Y Amoako, argued recently that, "the peer review process envisioned under NEPAD can take place only when a country volunteers to be peer reviewed." The Paris-based, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has a 40-year-old peer review mechanism which is widely touted as a model upon which to base NEPAD's own peer review mechanism. The OECD is composed of some 30 industrialised, mainly Western, countries with peers having no power of enforcement other than persuasion. Nevertheless, there are considerable differences between African countries and the OECD countries. Africa is saddled with a huge debt burden and an acute shortage of accurate data and information. Even Western leaders admit to the differences between the two. "Every cow in the OECD countries is subsidised by $2 a day, while the African human being lives on less than $1 a day," British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on a tour to West Africa in March. The European Union's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is widely perceived as detrimental to Africa's interests. "Farming subsidies in the OECD countries amounts to $322 billion a year, or equivalent to the total annual value of the African economy," by Blair's own admission. Then, of course, there is the potential of gross interference, the application of diplomatic pressure and economic sanctions by Western countries on African countries deemed to be violating human rights, such as the pressure currently applied by Britain against Zimbabwe. In a similar fashion, the United States has stepped up pressure on Sudan. On 21 October, US president, George W Bush, signed into law the Sudan Peace Act that the Senate unanimously passed and Congress approved by 359 to 8. Bush ordered a one-year extension of bilateral sanctions against Sudan. The sanctions were first imposed on Sudan by the Clinton administration in 1997. Needless to say, Sudan and Zimbabwe were conspicuously absent at the NEPAD summit in Abuja. Still, NEPAD supporters argue that the peer review mechanism is not a tool to punish or discipline African states which violate political good governance practices as espoused by the West, but rather must be viewed as a powerful impetus for political reform and democratisation in Africa. One of the main criticisms leveled against the moribund Organisation of African Unity, the predecessor body to the AU, is that the OAU did not permit interference in the domestic affairs of one member state by other member states. Under the AU, constructive criticism by fellow member states is encouraged. NEPAD's peer review mechanism is a prime example of how that process is supposed to work. "We simply want to be able to be in charge of our economy and social destiny and participate on an equal footing in the global economy. We need assistance to build capacity in all the priority areas contained in the NEPAD framework document and programme of action," Obasanjo said. "Our development partners and the entire international community should endeavour to continue their support as we embark on the implementation of this initiative," he added. The Nigerian president said that the process of NEPAD was anchored to the support and active participation of African peoples and pronounced the Abuja summit "a successful meeting". Conspicuously absent from the Abuja summit, however, was Cameroonian president, Paul Biya, who dispatched his foreign minister instead. Nigeria's relation with its Eastern neighbour Cameroon has soured in recent years because of a border dispute which threatens to degenerate into armed conflict. The 10 October ruling of the International Court of Justice that awarded sovereignty over the disputed oil-rich Bakassi Peninsula to Cameroon has failed to ease tensions. Nigerian officials played down differences with neighbouring Cameroon. These are the very tensions, such as border disputes and civil wars, that threaten to derail the democratisation process in Africa. Obasanjo conceded that the current conflicts in Ivory Coast, the DRC and Sudan "gave cause for deep concern". But the Abuja summit has not been an entirely dispiriting affair for Obasanjo. South Africa, one of the continent's most successfully- run democracies, held strong reservations about the "African Peer Review Mechanism" -- a key, albeit controversial, plank of NEPAD. Indeed, South African president, Thabo Mbeki, publicly hesitated before signing the peer review process in Abuja. Initially reluctant to sign the agreement, Mbeki eventually rescinded after being persuaded to do so by Obasanjo. Obasanjo's sigh of relief was all too apparent at the end of the one-day summit, for both Mbeki and Obasanjo are among the staunchest supporters of NEPAD.
