Uganda urges African Union to toughen on African leaders

The African child and woman will continue to languish in poverty, suffer inhuman treatment including rape, unless the African Union (AU) begins to confront 'greedy leaders' whose excessive love for power has held back sustainable growth and security across the continent, the Pan African Parliament (PAP) has heard on Thursday.

"Leaders who cling to power should be a source of worry to PAP, we must begin to realize that there is life after the presidency. Madam President, freedom is better than peace, uprisings like we have seen in Cote D'voire and across the Arab countries don't just occur, there are always signs but our leaders only want to see examples for themselves without learning from others," Kibanda county legislator Sam Otada Amooti said.

In a sustained debate opened by Uganda's representatives to PAP, the MPs observed that AU's inaction and failure to reign in on long serving leaders, who disregard to the wishes of their citizenry, has exposed Africa to recurrent civil wars and political instability.

Amoti Otada’s observation, which was re-echoed by most speakers during a plenary debate, follows a report on the fact-finding mission of the committee on cooperation, international relations and conflict, after a visit facilitated by PAP to the Saharawi Democratic Republic (SADR) in July.

While presenting the report, Ms Juliana Kantengwa, the Rwandan representative who headed the fact-finding mission asked AU to be more proactive in its response to conflict situation on the continent. Citing the example of Moroco, which withdrew its membership to the AU more that two decades ago, in disregard to the international condemnation of its continued occupation of SADR, Ms Kantengwa regretted that AU leadership and some individual member states continue to engage in diplomatic relations with Morocco.

Leader of the Ugandan delegation Ms Cecilia Ogwal asked both PAP and AU to act urgently to salvage the plight of children and women. "Mr President, my concern is the humanitarian condition of about 50 per cent of the population of SADR, who have lived in the camps in the neighboring Algeria for almost 30 years. While solutions are being sought, what is AU and Pap doing about the emergency needs of mothers and children caught up in several other conflicts across Africa," Ms Ogwal, who is already being referred to as PAP’s iron lady said.

Other reports on Libya, Cote d'Voire were also presented with members expressing mixed reactions on what was described as foreign intervention. Hon. Beatrice Barumba Rusaniya urged AU to be frank to their leaders and prevail over them to step down from power when they lose elections, to avoid the recurrence of the Cote D'voire experience.

Her Buikwe North counterpart Kakoba Onyango urged PAP to adopt stringent measures for consideration by the AU summit to enable Africa gets rid of bad leadership. Some of the measures include diplomatic isolation, sanctions and a sustained campaign against bad governance. The Pan-African Parliament is the legislative arm of the African Union (AU), constituted by elected members of Parliament from across Africa. PAP is seeking to redefine its role at a time when AU's credibility and image has suffered severely over its perceived indecisiveness in the handling of the recent political standoff in Ivory Coast and following the Arab spring.

Scale of problem
Armed conflict or political strife, as in Côte d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan and Zimbabwe, and the difficulties confronting countries only recently emerging from conflict, including Angola, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Sierra Leone
Inadequate economic policies, especially in agriculture, which in many affected countries have brought too little investment in farming inputs, rural infrastructure or essential social services — problems compounded by the poor prices African farm exports fetch on the world market.
It is some of these issues that Pap believes a more cohesive AU can address to make life better for the common man.