It is over two decades since Zambia hosted the African Union summit after its constitutive Act in Sirte, Libya.
Lusaka is hyped with foreign dignitaries from various countries attending the African Unity summit as well as the Mid AU Summit on food and nutrition meeting both hosted in Zambia.
This is viewed as an open show of confidence on Hakainde Hichilema and his government following Zambia’s decades of absent from international political leadership due to serious governance and leadership challenges.
You may not like the UPND government, but its agenda is clear on the foreign policy especially after the recent appearance of President Hakainde Hichilema as the first African President to address the European Union Parliament.
It is hoped that President HH could use his newly acquired international confidence to influence the current meeting of African Heads of States to revisit the seemingly not so active New Partnership for Africa Development fondly referred to as NEPAD in short.
NEPAD is a development paradigm shift premised on among other things good governance now recognized as a precondition for development by the African political leadership.
AU through NEPAD incorporated a peer review mechanism, popularly referred to as the Africa Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) by which African Heads of states exercise some form of surveillance over their colleagues in a bid to ensure good governance agenda was realized.
In the speech to the 26th session of the African Union, President Robert Mugabe, congratulated member states for advancing democracy through elections. However, the goal of African Union to silence the guns has not been achieved to date.
Africa still see pockets of governments been taken over by guns especially the West African regions where this is slowly taking root.
Further, lack of constitutionalism among African leadership is growing. Sitting presidents change constitutions to accommodate their desire to run for offices for more than two terms has become common.
Despite all this, NEPAD despite being nonfunctional it has set the agenda of reference as regards good governance and democracy.
Further, despite that good governance becoming an evocative term its premise meaning remains fluid and nebulous yet very necessary for democratic growth.
Against this backdrop, the Zambian AU meeting hosted in Lusaka should revisit the NEPAD agenda to ensure democratic growth on the continent.
The Peer Review Mechanism must be encouraged to ensure that democratic values espoused by AU are promoted by all member states going into the second quarter of the 21st century.
The Assembly should also table the growing influence of both the US and China on the continent whilst making a common position on African common values such as on marriages and corruption influenced by powerful corporate organizations.
The meeting should as a matter of urgency also address the unequal global representations of the permanent members in the United Nations Security Council against Africa despite that Africa has over 50 members to the United Nations.
Francisco Mumba
Governance Specialist
